Cybersafety message reaches more than 100,000 students

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that his CyberSafety Program has exceeded the 100,000 student mark, an important milestone as the end of the school year rapidly approaches. The program combines real-life stories and examples to help middle and high school students identify ways they could be victimized by predators online and to encourage safe Internet use. Members of the Attorney General's Office have been bringing the 50-minute CyberSafety program students statewide since the beginning of the school year.
"Internet child predators are aggressive and very tech-savvy.
Education will be the key to winning this fight to keep our children safe online," said Attorney General McCollum. "Every child we have reached with this message now has the tools to protect him or herself on the Internet." Principals throughout the state have recognized the program as innovative and captivating and have provided positive feedback about the program's impact on students and faculty alike. Excerpts from principals' feedback is available online at: http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/MRAY-7EERCB/$file/PrincipalsResponse.pdf
Earlier this year, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith announced a statewide CyberSafety challenge to school principals to sign their schools up for CyberSafety Education presentations. The challenge is part of Attorney General McCollum's goal to reach every middle and high school in the state with this critical safety message. Taylor County School District has already been recognized as the first district in Florida to sign up all of its middle and high school students to receive the Attorney General's CyberSafety Education presentation. A second winner, the district that signs up the largest total number of schools for presentations, will be announced at the end of the school year. The winning districts will receive special CyberSafety presentations hosted in person by Attorney General McCollum and Commissioner Smith this fall.
Principals can visit http://www.safeflorida.net/safeschools to log onto a site developed specifically to register schools for the Attorney General's CyberSafety presentation. The presentations 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.