The Associated Press
Tuesday, September 8, 2009

PHILADELPHIA — On the very first day of the school year, 12-year-old Mileena Rodriguez was reminded by President Barack Obama himself that hard work can take you places.Mileena listened to Obama’s plea to study hard and stay in school Tuesday, watching along with several of her classmates at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School and students across the country. For all the hubbub among adults over the back-to-school speech, many youngsters took the president’s message to heart.

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A project of Stop Internet Predators and N.C. Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the forum will bring together community leaders to identify threats to child online safety and solutions to potentially harmful Internet technologies. Lunch starts at 11:30 a.m., and the forum kicks off at noon Tuesday at The President’s Conference Room in Estey Hall at Shaw University, which is located at 118 East South Street.

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Google launched Street View in Switzerland last week, and the Swiss Privacy Commissioner isn’t satisfied that it will safeguard the privacy of Swiss citizens.

Whether you’re searching for a storefront in a strange neighborhood or drunks passed out on the curb, Google Street View can be an extremely helpful tool. Street View has drawn its share of critics, however, and we can now add the government of Switzerland to that list. Just days after launching Street View in Portugal, Switzerland, and Taiwan, the search giant has been told by the Swiss Government that it needs to yank the Street View from its Swiss maps, a development that has left the search giant “surprised.”

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

TALLAHASSEE, FL –Attorney General Bill McCollum today joined Stop Internet Predators, an initiative of the national non-profit organization Stop Child Predators, to educate parents and members of the community on the dangers cyber predators pose to children. The Orange County Council of PTA/PTSAs assisted in arranging the Orlando event, which was open to parents in Orange County and the surrounding area.

“CyberSafety and education about safe internet use should be a top priority for our students, our parents, our grandparents and any other concerned Floridian,” said Attorney General McCollum. “The more parents know about safe internet use, the better we can help protect our children from internet child predators.”

During the hour-long program, Attorney General McCollum led an in-depth presentation arming parents with crucial information on protecting their children on the internet. The presentation included real-life examples of internet threats to children, information on how to spot internet child predators and best practices for helping children stay safe while surfing online.

”It is vitally important to have frank discussions with your kids about safe internet use and to encourage our community leaders, law enforcement agencies and parents to work together to protect our children,” said Stacie Rumenap, executive director of Stop Child Predators. “Child safety, both online and off, is a passion for both my organization and Attorney General Bill McCollum, and we want to educate parents in all communities.”

CyberSafety has been Attorney General McCollum’s top priority since taking office in 2007. In the past two years, the Attorney General, members of his staff and school resource officers have delivered his interactive CyberSafety presentation in more than 960 schools to almost half a million students around the state. The program teaches students about the risks posed by online predators, what constitutes a cybercrime, how to keep themselves safe on the internet and how to report victimization.

“Orange County Public Schools sincerely appreciates the Attorney General’s Cyber Crime Unit and the attention given to protecting children on the internet,” said Orange County Schools Superintendent Ronald Blocker. “Orange County Schools value the efforts of community partners who help educate our students and parents on the dangers of cyber predators.”

Information about the Attorney General’s CyberSafety program is available online at www.safeflorida.net. For more information about Stop Internet Predators and its work in Florida, please visit www.StopInternetPredators.org.

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August 13, 2009

Parents of teenagers know how important texting and social networking sites like MySpace, Bebo, and Facebook are to the over-13 set. But if we think we know what our kids say and do on the sites, we’re kidding ourselves. My 13- and 14-year-old nephews kindly remind me more often than I’d like of my cluelessness, and a new survey confirms that I’m not the only parent who has no idea.

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By Stacie Rumenap

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By Stacie Rumenap

New Internet technologies are emerging every day. While these technologies provide new learning opportunities and new ways to explore the digital world, they can also pose a dangerous threat to our children.
As an advocate for the safety of Florida’s children both on and offline, I applaud the Florida Legislature for the passage of CS/HB115, which will provide online safety education to adults and children in our community libraries.

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Record-Courier staff writer

Sex offenders continue to pose challenges to parents, police and legislators as the digital age allows for new methods to commit sex-related offenses.

In recent years, Internet chat rooms and social networking sites have created forums for sexual predators to search for young victims.

A Record-Courier comparison of the 35 registered sex offenders currently living in Kent to account names on the networking site Facebook.com revealed 11 profiles with names matching those of the sexual offenders. The comparison also showed one active account with the name and photograph matching that of a man convicted of raping a female child in 2001.

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