Hello Everyone,
Evelyn here,
with an excerpt from Attirney Genral Bill McCollum's Generally Speaking.
Weekly Message from Attorney General Bill McCollumHere in Florida, we have expanded our efforts to keep our children safe online, but investigation and prosecution is only half of that battle. Education is the key to winning the fight against internet child predators. With only a couple of months left in the school year, my office is still working to get our CyberSafety presentations into as many schools as possible to educate our children about internet safety.
Last week, my CyberSafety Program exceeded the 50,000 student mark, reaching more than 53,000 students to date throughout the state. But we need to reach them all. Every parent, grandparent, teacher and child need to know the facts and must be ready to help us stop these predators before they can hurt other children.
Earlier this year, I was joined by Education Commissioner Eric Smith to announce a statewide CyberSafety challenge to school principals to sign their schools up for CyberSafety Education presentations. Volunteers from my office have been traveling throughout the state since the beginning of the school year, bringing this very important message to our children. I have personally presented this program to numerous students in various cities, including two schools earlier this week in Port St. Lucie and Stuart.
Yesterday, I spoke with all of Florida's District School Superintendents and urged them to support this initiative by appointing someone within every single school district to facilitate this process. This cooperative approach is essential as we work to reach as many children as possible.
Principals can visit http://www.safeflorida.net/safeschools to log into a site developed specifically to register schools to receive the Attorney General's CyberSafety presentation, and then sign up for presentations at a time that works with their schedules. Please encourage your child's principal to do so.
The presentations are available to schools as well as parent groups and have been hailed as among the best in the nation by John Walsh, co-founder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and host of America's Most Wanted. This cybersafety message will save lives, and I applaud the principals who have made it apriority to get this information to their students. Together, we will continue making Florida a safer place for our children.
Evelyn out
