WEBVTT

00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:04.094
[This talk contains graphic content.
Viewer discretion is advised.]

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:04.278 --> 00:00:07.222
This is Nina Rodríguez's Facebook profile.

00:00:09.072 --> 00:00:11.261
This person had three different profiles

00:00:11.286 --> 00:00:15.732
and 890 kids between 8 and 13 years old
among her friends list.

00:00:18.827 --> 00:00:22.530
These are excerpts of a chat
with one of those kids.

00:00:25.385 --> 00:00:27.501
This is an exact copy of the chat.

00:00:28.650 --> 00:00:30.332
It's part of the case file.

00:00:32.886 --> 00:00:36.342
This kid started sending private photos

00:00:36.366 --> 00:00:38.639
until his family realized
what was going on.

00:00:39.871 --> 00:00:44.301
The police report and subsequent
investigation lead them to a house.

00:00:45.409 --> 00:00:47.622
This was the girl's bedroom.

00:00:50.451 --> 00:00:55.458
Nina Rodríguez was actually
a 24-year-old man

00:00:55.482 --> 00:00:58.222
that used to do this with lots of kids.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:01.471 --> 00:01:03.691
Micaela Ortega was 12 years old

00:01:04.697 --> 00:01:07.472
when she went to meet
her new Facebook friend,

00:01:07.496 --> 00:01:08.876
also 12.

00:01:09.667 --> 00:01:12.084
"Rochi de River," was her name.

00:01:14.142 --> 00:01:17.652
She actually met Jonathan Luna,
who was 26 years old.

00:01:18.611 --> 00:01:20.261
When they finally caught him,

00:01:20.285 --> 00:01:24.599
he confessed that he killed the girl
because she refused to have sex with him.

00:01:26.696 --> 00:01:29.682
He had four Facebook profiles

00:01:29.706 --> 00:01:33.076
and 1,700 women on his contact list;

00:01:35.003 --> 00:01:37.496
90 percent of them
were under 13 years old.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:40.529 --> 00:01:42.798
These are two different
cases of "grooming":

00:01:44.195 --> 00:01:47.495
an adult contacts a kid
through the internet,

00:01:48.263 --> 00:01:52.607
and through manipulation or lying,
leads that kid into sexual territory --

00:01:52.631 --> 00:01:54.502
from talking about sex

00:01:54.526 --> 00:01:56.710
to sharing private photos,

00:01:56.734 --> 00:01:58.951
recording the kid using a webcam

00:01:58.975 --> 00:02:00.753
or arranging an in-person meeting.

00:02:02.527 --> 00:02:03.867
This is grooming.

00:02:04.589 --> 00:02:07.159
This is happening, and it's on the rise.

00:02:09.727 --> 00:02:12.183
The question is: What are we going to do?

00:02:12.207 --> 00:02:15.037
Because, in the meantime, kids are alone.

00:02:16.724 --> 00:02:18.740
They finish dinner, go to their rooms,

00:02:18.764 --> 00:02:20.054
close the door,

00:02:20.964 --> 00:02:23.387
get on their computer, their cell phones,

00:02:23.411 --> 00:02:25.621
and get into a bar,

00:02:26.704 --> 00:02:27.864
into a club.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:30.284 --> 00:02:32.974
Think for one second
about what I've just said:

00:02:34.752 --> 00:02:37.600
they're in a place full of strangers

00:02:37.624 --> 00:02:39.673
in an uninhibited environment.

00:02:41.853 --> 00:02:43.943
The internet broke physical boundaries.

00:02:44.744 --> 00:02:48.775
When we're alone in our bedroom
and we go online,

00:02:48.799 --> 00:02:50.376
we're not really alone.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:53.460 --> 00:02:58.140
There are at least two reasons
why we're not taking care of this,

00:02:58.164 --> 00:02:59.866
or at least not in the right way.

00:03:01.779 --> 00:03:06.186
First, we're sure that everything
that happens online is "virtual."

00:03:06.210 --> 00:03:09.233
In fact, we call it "the virtual world."

00:03:11.019 --> 00:03:12.829
If you look it up in the dictionary,

00:03:13.816 --> 00:03:16.291
something virtual is something
that seems to exist

00:03:16.315 --> 00:03:17.594
but is not real.

00:03:19.028 --> 00:03:23.200
And we use that word
to talk about the internet:

00:03:23.224 --> 00:03:24.624
something not real.

00:03:26.867 --> 00:03:29.250
And that's the problem with grooming.

00:03:29.274 --> 00:03:30.674
It is real.

00:03:31.714 --> 00:03:37.528
Degenerate, perverted adults
use the internet to abuse boys and girls

00:03:37.552 --> 00:03:39.637
and take advantage of, among other things,

00:03:39.661 --> 00:03:43.071
the fact that the kids and their parents
think that what happens online

00:03:43.095 --> 00:03:44.657
doesn't actually happen.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:47.631 --> 00:03:51.340
Several years ago,
some colleagues and I founded an NGO

00:03:51.364 --> 00:03:53.308
called "Argentina Cibersegura,"

00:03:53.332 --> 00:03:56.543
dedicated to raising awareness
about online safety.

00:03:58.678 --> 00:04:02.879
In 2013, we attended meetings
at the House of Legislature

00:04:02.903 --> 00:04:05.303
to discuss a law about grooming.

00:04:07.688 --> 00:04:09.963
I remember that a lot of people thought

00:04:09.987 --> 00:04:12.159
that grooming was strictly a precursor

00:04:12.183 --> 00:04:15.888
to arranging an in-person meeting
with a kid to have sex with them.

00:04:18.247 --> 00:04:21.851
But they didn't think about what happened
to the kids who were exposed

00:04:21.875 --> 00:04:24.933
by talking about sex
with an adult without knowing it,

00:04:25.904 --> 00:04:29.650
or who shared intimate photos thinking
only another kid would see them,

00:04:29.674 --> 00:04:30.824
or even worse,

00:04:31.887 --> 00:04:34.180
who had exposed themselves
using their web cam.

00:04:34.875 --> 00:04:36.924
Nobody considered that rape.

00:04:39.227 --> 00:04:43.544
I'm sure lots of you find it odd to think
one person can abuse another

00:04:43.568 --> 00:04:44.913
without physical contact.

00:04:45.742 --> 00:04:47.922
We're programmed to think that way.

00:04:49.183 --> 00:04:51.250
I know, because I used to think that way.

00:04:51.274 --> 00:04:53.574
I was just an IT security guy

00:04:55.348 --> 00:04:56.737
until this happened to me.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:59.423 --> 00:05:01.063
At the end of 2011,

00:05:02.179 --> 00:05:04.718
in a little town in Buenos Aires Province,

00:05:04.742 --> 00:05:07.254
I heard about a case for the first time.

00:05:08.780 --> 00:05:10.210
After giving a talk,

00:05:11.288 --> 00:05:15.684
I met the parents of an 11-year-old girl
who had been a victim of grooming.

00:05:18.114 --> 00:05:22.137
A man had manipulated her
into masturbating in front of her web cam,

00:05:22.161 --> 00:05:23.601
and recorded it.

00:05:24.207 --> 00:05:27.166
And the video was on several websites.

00:05:28.981 --> 00:05:31.662
That day, her parents asked us, in tears,

00:05:31.686 --> 00:05:33.228
to tell them the magic formula

00:05:33.252 --> 00:05:35.817
for how to delete those videos
from the internet.

00:05:38.036 --> 00:05:41.693
It broke my heart and changed me forever

00:05:41.717 --> 00:05:45.047
to be their last disappointment,
telling them it was too late:

00:05:45.671 --> 00:05:48.217
once content is online,

00:05:48.241 --> 00:05:49.749
we've already lost control.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:52.714 --> 00:05:54.801
Since that day, I think about that girl

00:05:57.110 --> 00:06:00.652
waking up in the morning,
having breakfast with her family,

00:06:00.676 --> 00:06:02.093
who had seen the video,

00:06:03.211 --> 00:06:08.640
and then walking to school, meeting
people that had seen her naked,

00:06:08.664 --> 00:06:12.954
arriving to school, playing with
her friends, who had also seen her.

00:06:14.830 --> 00:06:16.197
That was her life.

00:06:17.502 --> 00:06:18.912
Exposed.

00:06:21.761 --> 00:06:23.981
Of course, nobody raped her body.

00:06:25.355 --> 00:06:27.607
But hadn't her sexuality been abused?

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:30.723 --> 00:06:34.546
We clearly use different standards
to measure physical and digital things.

00:06:37.363 --> 00:06:39.299
And we get angry at social networks

00:06:39.323 --> 00:06:43.313
because being angry with ourselves
is more painful and more true.

00:06:44.775 --> 00:06:46.813
And this brings us
to the second reason why

00:06:46.837 --> 00:06:49.370
we aren't paying proper
attention to this issue.

00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:54.669
We're convinced that kids
don't need our help,

00:06:54.693 --> 00:06:56.951
that they "know everything"
about technology.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:00.092 --> 00:07:01.382
When I was a kid,

00:07:02.590 --> 00:07:05.746
at one point, my parents started
letting me walk to school alone.

00:07:07.329 --> 00:07:11.209
After years of taking me by the hand
and walking me to school,

00:07:12.476 --> 00:07:14.062
one day they sat me down,

00:07:14.086 --> 00:07:15.929
gave me the house keys

00:07:15.953 --> 00:07:19.940
and said, "Be very careful with these;
don't give them to anyone,

00:07:19.964 --> 00:07:24.119
take the route we showed you,
be at home at the time we said,

00:07:24.143 --> 00:07:26.882
cross at the corner,
and look both ways before you cross,

00:07:26.906 --> 00:07:30.694
and no matter what,
don't talk to strangers."

00:07:32.967 --> 00:07:34.997
I knew everything about walking,

00:07:35.888 --> 00:07:39.621
and yet, there was a responsible adult
there taking care of me.

00:07:40.886 --> 00:07:42.862
Knowing how to do something is one thing,

00:07:42.886 --> 00:07:45.218
knowing how to take care
of yourself is another.

00:07:46.649 --> 00:07:48.537
Imagine this situation:

00:07:48.561 --> 00:07:51.125
I'm 10 or 11 years old,
I wake up in the morning,

00:07:51.149 --> 00:07:53.265
my parents toss me the keys and say,

00:07:53.289 --> 00:07:55.422
"Seba, now you can walk to school alone."

00:07:56.487 --> 00:07:58.687
And when I come back late,

00:07:59.535 --> 00:08:02.952
they say, "No, you need to be home
at the time we said."

00:08:04.826 --> 00:08:06.690
And two weeks later,

00:08:06.714 --> 00:08:09.823
when it comes up,
they say, "You know what?

00:08:09.847 --> 00:08:13.193
You have to cross at the corner,
and look both ways before crossing."

00:08:14.815 --> 00:08:16.488
And two years later, they say,

00:08:17.481 --> 00:08:20.741
"And also, don't talk to strangers."

00:08:22.866 --> 00:08:24.604
It sounds absurd, right?

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:26.312 --> 00:08:29.202
We have the same absurd behavior
in relation to technology.

00:08:30.129 --> 00:08:32.272
We give kids total access

00:08:32.296 --> 00:08:35.136
and we see if one day, sooner or later,

00:08:35.160 --> 00:08:37.327
they learn how to take care of themselves.

00:08:38.942 --> 00:08:40.946
Knowing how to do something is one thing,

00:08:40.970 --> 00:08:43.407
knowing how to take care
of yourself is another.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:44.703 --> 00:08:47.280
Along those same lines,
when we talk to parents,

00:08:47.304 --> 00:08:52.799
they often say they don't care
about technology and social networks.

00:08:54.202 --> 00:08:57.272
I always rejoin that by asking
if they care about their kids.

00:08:57.976 --> 00:09:00.440
As adults, being interested
or not in technology

00:09:00.464 --> 00:09:03.286
is the same as being interested
or not in our kids.

00:09:03.310 --> 00:09:05.245
The internet is part of their lives.

00:09:06.700 --> 00:09:11.766
Technology forces us to rethink
the relationship between adults and kids.

00:09:12.984 --> 00:09:16.184
Education was always based
on two main concepts:

00:09:16.208 --> 00:09:18.948
experience and knowledge.

00:09:20.687 --> 00:09:26.425
How do we teach our kids to be safe online
when we don't have either?

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:28.055 --> 00:09:30.794
Nowadays, we adults
have to guide our children

00:09:30.818 --> 00:09:33.276
through what is often for us
unfamiliar territory --

00:09:33.300 --> 00:09:35.319
territory much more inviting for them.

00:09:37.501 --> 00:09:40.569
It's impossible to find an answer

00:09:40.593 --> 00:09:43.641
without doing new things --
things that make us uncomfortable,

00:09:43.665 --> 00:09:45.151
things we're not used to.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:47.581 --> 00:09:50.272
A lot of you may think it's easy for me,

00:09:50.296 --> 00:09:52.043
because I'm relatively young.

00:09:52.681 --> 00:09:54.161
And it used to be that way.

00:09:55.342 --> 00:09:56.502
Used to.

00:09:58.249 --> 00:10:00.115
Until last year,

00:10:00.139 --> 00:10:04.261
when I felt the weight
of my age on my shoulders

00:10:05.422 --> 00:10:10.056
the first time I opened Snapchat.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:10.390 --> 00:10:13.049
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:14.510 --> 00:10:17.175
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:19.585 --> 00:10:22.425
I didn't understand a thing!

00:10:23.321 --> 00:10:25.649
I found it unnecessary,

00:10:25.673 --> 00:10:28.815
useless, hard to understand;

00:10:28.839 --> 00:10:30.727
it looked like a camera!

00:10:30.751 --> 00:10:32.427
It didn't have menu options!

00:10:34.760 --> 00:10:37.448
It was the first time I felt the gap

00:10:37.472 --> 00:10:40.064
that sometimes exists
between kids and adults.

00:10:41.742 --> 00:10:45.002
But it was also an opportunity
to do the right thing,

00:10:45.026 --> 00:10:47.376
to leave my comfort zone, to force myself.

00:10:48.948 --> 00:10:52.259
I never thought I'd ever use Snapchat,

00:10:52.283 --> 00:10:56.885
but then I asked my teenage cousin
to show me how to use it.

00:10:58.349 --> 00:11:00.179
I also asked why she used it.

00:11:00.788 --> 00:11:02.220
What was fun about it?

00:11:03.738 --> 00:11:05.298
We had a really nice talk.

00:11:05.929 --> 00:11:08.382
She showed me her Snapchat,
she told me things,

00:11:08.406 --> 00:11:10.817
we got closer, we laughed.

00:11:12.949 --> 00:11:14.329
Today, I use it.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:14.675 --> 00:11:16.175
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:16.788 --> 00:11:18.413
I don't know if I do it right,

00:11:18.437 --> 00:11:22.808
but the most important thing
is that I know it and I understand it.

00:11:24.406 --> 00:11:28.543
The key was to overcome the initial shock

00:11:28.567 --> 00:11:30.417
and do something new.

00:11:31.940 --> 00:11:33.420
Something new.

00:11:33.444 --> 00:11:36.364
Today, we have the chance
to create new conversations.

00:11:37.312 --> 00:11:39.628
What's the last app you downloaded?

00:11:39.652 --> 00:11:42.512
Which social network do you use
to contact your friends?

00:11:43.074 --> 00:11:45.264
What kind of information do you share?

00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:48.636
Have you ever been
approached by strangers?

00:11:50.862 --> 00:11:53.998
Could we have these conversations
between kids and adults?

00:11:55.536 --> 00:11:58.219
We have to force ourselves
to do it. All of us.

00:11:58.243 --> 00:12:02.813
Today, lots of kids are listening to us.

00:12:04.707 --> 00:12:07.440
Sometimes when we go
to schools to give our talks,

00:12:07.464 --> 00:12:09.114
or through social networks,

00:12:09.138 --> 00:12:11.468
kids ask or tell us things

00:12:11.492 --> 00:12:15.789
they haven't told
their parents or their teachers.

00:12:15.813 --> 00:12:17.893
They tell us -- they don't even know us.

00:12:20.966 --> 00:12:22.906
Those kids need to know

00:12:24.135 --> 00:12:26.455
what the risks of being online are,

00:12:28.174 --> 00:12:29.680
how to take care of themselves,

00:12:29.704 --> 00:12:33.271
but also that, fundamentally,
as with almost everything else,

00:12:33.295 --> 00:12:36.300
kids can learn this from any adult.

NOTE Paragraph

00:12:39.558 --> 00:12:43.444
Online safety needs to be
a conversation topic

00:12:43.468 --> 00:12:46.069
in every house and every
classroom in the country.

00:12:47.863 --> 00:12:52.128
We did a survey this year that showed
that 15 percent of schools said

00:12:52.152 --> 00:12:54.443
they knew of cases of grooming
in their school.

00:12:55.386 --> 00:12:56.797
And this number is growing.

00:12:59.830 --> 00:13:03.291
Technology changed
every aspect of our life,

00:13:03.315 --> 00:13:06.056
including the risks we face

00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:08.482
and how we take care of ourselves.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:08.506 --> 00:13:11.876
Grooming shows us this
in the most painful way:

00:13:13.088 --> 00:13:14.537
by involving our kids.

00:13:16.787 --> 00:13:18.821
Are we going to do something
to avoid this?

00:13:20.202 --> 00:13:23.641
The solution starts
with something as easy as:

00:13:24.419 --> 00:13:25.684
talking about it.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:25.708 --> 00:13:26.866
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:26.890 --> 00:13:32.629
(Applause)