Stop Internet Predators Awareness Week (October 26^th – November 1^st) recently wrapped up and it was a huge success! I had the opportunity to travel to several cities and meet with individuals, community organizations and members of law enforcement to discuss with them what they can do to help safeguard our children from predators.

I was given the chance to speak at a Summit in Tampa, Florida alongside Investigator Mike Baute from Attorney General Bill McCollum’s Child Predator CyberCrime Unit, and Detective Skyp McCaughey from the Family Violence/Sex Crimes Division at the Tampa Police Department. At the Summit, a Proclamation signed by Mayor Pam Iorio was presented declaring Stop Internet Predators Awareness Week and urging others to become involved in this effort to educate communities about emerging online technologies like Google’s “Street View.”

I was also interviewed with the Tampa Tribune and they published two favorable stories following the Summit (click here and here to view the stories). WUSF Florida also ran a great piece about Stop Internet Predators and the campaign’s goals.

Following my time in Tampa, I headed to Raleigh, North Carolina where I met with community organizations, including the Boy Scouts, the Boys and Girls Club and several others. I also hosted a community roundtable with dozens of parents and teachers eager to learn about Stop Internet Predators. We discussed the prevalence of Internet technologies and came up with solutions to how parents can better educate themselves to protect their children from online predators. Carolina Journal Radio interviewed me about our efforts and asked me to share safety tips with listeners. That interview will air this weekend.

Next week, I head to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to meet with more community leaders and advocates to continue to highlight the importance of educating communities about emerging technologies and the potential dangers they pose. WTEA, an ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh, ran a story last week about the campaign.

Stay tuned for additional updates!

Whew – last week was a busy week! I headed north to Manchester, New Hampshire where I met with David Mara, the Chief of Police, Tim Craig an Internet Crimes Detective with the Manchester Police Department, Tracey Diggs from Manchester Neighborhood Watch and Nicole Rodler from the Manchester Weed and Seed Program. The best part, everyone I met with in Manchester was most receptive to the campaign and is interested in helping further our cause. I also had the opportunity to make an appearance on On the Air with Charlie Sherman on WGIR AM, as well as WTPL’s “The Pulse”—Live with Bulldog, New Hampshire’s largest statewide radio station. Boston’s Fox 25 also covered the day’s events. Be sure to listen to the podcast of our WGIR interview, and you can also see the coverage from Boston television on our Stop Child Predators website.

I then headed to Pittsburgh, PA at the end of last week where I met with Alleghany County Executive Dan Oronato, District Attorney Dawn Botsford and Deputy District Attorney Tom Swan. These meetings provided us a great opportunity to discuss our campaign and also hear about their ongoing efforts to keep kids safe. The DA also connected me with several additional organizations in the Pittsburgh area that we’ll be reaching out to in the coming weeks, in hopes of spreading awareness of the potential dangers that Google Street View poses to children. The DA’s office is holding a Resource Fair later this fall in which we may have an opportunity to participate—stay tuned for details.

While in Pittsburgh, ABC news picked up on our campaign and invited me into their studio for an interview which will air sometime this week. We’ll be sure to post the coverage as soon as we can. I also sat down with Amy McConnell Schaarsmith, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Her article, Children’s Safety Group Wants City Off of Google’s Street View, ran last Saturday; be sure to check it out here or in the “News” section of our website. Read these stories, and more, like Google’s Street View Puts Children in Danger written by a fellow blogger on parentdish.com.

Over the past few months, awareness of our Stop Internet Predators campaign has really taken off. We’re finding that parent’s knowledge of the potential dangers that the misuse of new Internet technologies, like Google Street View, can pose to children continues to grow. The constant development of new technologies, however, requires child safety advocates to respond quickly with comprehensive approaches to protecting kids from online threats. It’s with this knowledge that we joined in launching a more formal coalition of national, state, and local advocacy organizations to create Stop Internet Predators. We hope this blog will serve as another tool to keep parents informed and help better protect our kids. We’ll post news and information about upcoming events. And we also invite guest bloggers, including members of our partner organizations and other online safety crusaders to write as often as they’d like. We hope you’ll continue to visit this blog to hear more about what we’re doing to educate parents about emerging technologies.