Internet safety program targets teens
BOISE – When Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden went into an online chat room posing as a 14-year-old girl, he was immediately contacted by older men offering sexual solicitations.
“It was just startling,” said Wasden. “I didn’t realize the depth of the danger on the Internet.”
On Wednesday, Wasden joined with Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa and state Superintendent of Schools Marilyn Howard to launch a new Internet safety program aimed at teens and their parents, to help keep Idaho teens from being victimized by sexual predators who use the Internet.
“There’s evidence that thousands of Idaho children receive unwanted sexual solicitations over the Internet every year,” Wasden said.
His new “ProtecTeens” program includes a 21-minute video and a resource kit with instructions for activating parental software controls, a “family contract” for teens and parents to sign regarding Internet use, and a pamphlet on Internet safety. The $5,700 cost to create the program is being covered by the attorney general’s consumer protection division.
Wasden will make presentations to Kiwanis and Rotary clubs around the state during the next three months about the program, and members of an array of partnering organizations will help distribute the program and video, which are all on a single CD, in their own communities. They range from law enforcement to education groups to the Idaho Medical Association to the PTA.
The “ProtecTeens” program follows the launch in August of a push for Internet safety among pre-teens, spurred by Idaho first lady Patricia Kempthorne along with Howard and Wasden. Mrs. Kempthorne also is among the partners in the ProtecTeens program.
Howard said Wednesday that what he appreciated most about Attorney General Wasden’s approach “is his invitation to parents to learn for themselves what to watch for.”
Wasden said most teens are Internet-savvy, but most parents are not. The “ProtecTeens” video shows parents how kids on the Internet leave tracks that a predator could use to find them, and how dangerous it can be for teens to form friendships with strangers in online chat rooms.
“Sexual predators use chat rooms to meet and groom potential victims,” Wasden said. “There really are many, many sexual predators trolling the Internet for victims.”
Groups interested in arranging for a presentation about the program can contact Kriss Bivens Cloyd in the attorney general’s office at (208) 334-4119.