Hello Everyone,
Evelyn here,
The Attorney General Bill McCollum today hosted an overall roundtable discussion, which highlighted the accomplishments for the Attorney General’s Office over the 2007 year.
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AN OAG’S NEWS RELEASE
December 19, 2007
ATTORNEY GENERAL HOSTS
DISCUSSION ON 2007 ACCOMPLISHMENTS, Part One
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today hosted a
roundtable discussion highlighting the accomplishments for the Attorney General’s Office over the past year. Since taking office in January, Attorney General McCollum has championed legislation that has made Florida one of the states with the strongest penalties against internet child predators, has created an Executive Group of state agency heads tasked with developing a statewide gang reduction strategy, and has developed strategies for combating cyberfraud and other threats to Florida consumers. The Attorney General spoke on several areas of policy development and discussed the Office’s priorities over the past 12 months.
“When I took office in January, I immediately began working to fulfill my campaign promises to make Florida a safer place to live, work and raise a family,” said Attorney General McCollum. “Over the past several months, we have made significant progress toward protecting our children from child predators, we have taken steps to reduce the growth of gangs in the state, and we have developed meaningful initiatives to better serve the people of Florida.”
A summarized list of highlighted accomplishments follows below. More information can be obtained from the Attorney General’s Communications Office.
CyberCrime
- Attorney General Bill McCollum championed the CyberCrimes Against Children Act of 2007. The new law contains a first-in-the-nation provision that creates a separate penalty for internet predators who communicate with a child, or someone believed to be a child, online and then travel to meet that child to further sexually abuse him or her. Since the law took effect in October, three people have been arrested on traveling charges.
- The groundbreaking law also increases penalties for the possession or
distribution of child pornography online and for offenders who misrepresent
their age to seduce a child over the internet, an act known as “grooming.”
- At Attorney General McCollum’s request, lawmakers provided $4.3 million in funding to expand his Child Predator CyberCrime Unit across the state from six to 56 staff members. The first expansion happened in Jacksonville on October 4th followed by Orlando on October 8th.
CyberSafety
- Attorney General McCollum kicked-off his statewide CyberSafety educational initiative at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year with a goal of reaching every middle and high school in Florida. To date, 16,000 students have received the cybersafety presentation and approximately 900 have disclosed victimization, both online solicitation and receipt of pornography.
- Partners in Attorney General Bill McCollum’s efforts to educate students on cybersafety include the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, the Florida School Board Association, the Florida Association of School Resource Officers, the Florida Sheriffs Association and the Florida Association of School Administrators.
- The Child Predator 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 are working closely with the students to identify new and popular internet trends, including those that could be potentially harmful to young people.
- In addition, Attorney General McCollum launched an educational effort this spring to raise awareness about internet dangers. The Attorney General’s cybersafety website, http://www.safeflorida.net/safesurf, provides valuable information to adults, teens, and kids about staying safe while surfing the internet.
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Part Two continues om the entry below.
Evelyn out.
