Statewide program is underway to educate children and keep them safe

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum visited Sarasota Middle School today and spoke to students, teachers and administrators about the importance of cybersafety. Members of the Attorney General’s Child Predator CyberCrime Unit are bringing the 50-minute cybersafety program to middle and high school students statewide, an initiative that started at the beginning of this school year. Designed to empower children to use the internet safely, the program combines real-life stories and examples to help students identify the ways they could be victimized online.

“We are committed to bringing cybersafety education to all middle and high school students in Florida and, by doing so, giving them the skills needed to protect themselves online,” said Attorney General Bill McCollum. “Technology plays a significant role in our children’s lives. However, as technology evolves and becomes more advanced, so do the individuals who prey on our children. We must take every precaution to keep kids safe and that process begins with education and outreach.”

The Attorney General’s Victim Advocates teach the cybersafety program which specifically targets middle and high school students. During the presentations, the students will receive information about internet dangers as well as the tactics used by online child predators. They will also learn what constitutes a cybercrime and how to report it. An open line of communication between the students and the victim advocates will be strongly encouraged to give the opportunity for private disclosure of any offenses. Students will be taught how to recognize when a friend is in “cyber danger” and what they can do to help. The victim advocates will offer counseling to any child who discloses victimization and can refer any reported offenses to law enforcement for investigation.

The Florida Association of School Resource Officers (SRO) has also committed its support to the Attorney General’s efforts. The SRO Program is a collaborative effort by certified law enforcement officers, educators, students, parents and the community to offer law-related educational programs in the schools. The purpose of the program is to reduce crime, drug abuse and violence and provide a safe school environment. The administrators of the school cybersafety program will share appropriate information with the school resource officers in the local schools so they can keep their eyes and ears open to potential "hot spots." They can then focus on those students and their specific concerns.

"We hope that this educational program will raise more awareness among parents and children of the dangers in developing relationships with strangers met on the internet. I urge parents and guardians to help us reduce the risk that a child will become a target of an online predator,” said Sarasota County Sheriff William Balkwill.

To complement the school cybersafety program, the Cyber Crime Unit has also developed the Internet Student Advisory Council, designed to match technology-savvy teenagers with the unit’s cybercrime law enforcement team. The unit’s investigators will work closely with the students to identify new and popular internet trends, including those that could be potentially harmful to young people. Using information provided by the student advisors, cybersafety presenters will speak to kids in their own language and empower them to protect themselves and one another.

In May, Attorney General McCollum’s office launched a new cybersafety website, located at http://www.safeflorida.net/safesurf, to provide valuable information to adults, teens and kids about staying safe while surfing the internet. The SafeSurf children’s page includes several entertaining and educational games that teach internet safety. The teen SafeSurf page offers tips on safeguarding personal information and avoiding dangerous situations. It also provides a forum for stories from teenagers who were victimized on the internet. The web page for adults offers a guide to popular internet language used in chat rooms and gives safety advice on how to monitor what your children are doing on the internet.

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