News Release - McCollum Brings CyberSafety Message to Parents, Educators

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Attorney General Bill McCollum News Release

October 11, 2007

Media Contact: Sandi Copes
Phone: (850) 245-0150

McCollum Brings CyberSafety Message to Parents, Educators

~CyberSafety Education Initiative discussed at Florida’s Children First Forum ~

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today visited Miramar City Hall and spoke with parents, educators and child advocates about the importance of cybersafety for teens. Attorney General McCollum has developed a cybersafety program for middle and high school students that combines real-life stories and examples to help them identify ways they could be victimized by predators online. Members of the Attorney General’s Child Predator CyberCrime Unit have been bringing the 50-minute cybersafety program students statewide since the beginning of the school year.

“Parents and teachers need to understand the real-world dangers that exist online,” said Attorney General Bill McCollum. “While technology and the internet present wonderful educational opportunities for our young people, we must take every precaution to keep kids safe from cyberpredators and that process begins with education and outreach.”

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 younger children 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.

To complement the new cybersafety school initiative, an additional component has now been added to the SafeSurf website for Florida’s principals. The site allows middle and high school principals to log onto a calendar developed specifically for them and register their school to receive the Attorney General’s cybersafety presentation. For more information on the Attorney General’s cybersafety initiative, please visit http://www.safeflorida.net.

Today’s forum was hosted by the non-profit advocacy group Florida’s Children First and the law firm of Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinksy & Abate, and supported by Broward County Public Schools and Comcast.