Internet
Safety Seminar
Thursday, April 20
6:30 p.m.
Plano West Senior High School Auditorium
5601 W. Parker Road
Plano 75093
TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL GREG ABBOTT
TO HOST INTERACTIVE CYBER SAFETY TOWN HALL MEETING
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and his top Cyber Crimes
Unit investigators, responding to the proliferation of predators
seeking children online, will visit Plano on April 20 for an interactive “cyber
safety” town hall meeting that will arm parents with the
tools they need to keep their children safer on the Internet. National
statistics show that one in five children received unwanted sexual
solicitations online each year.
“Web sites that kids frequent
very often are also cruised by child predators,” said Attorney
General Abbott. “My Cyber
Crimes Unit investigators have seen firsthand the dangerous criminals
that prey on children and teenagers in Internet chatrooms, personal
web pages, and social networking sites. Parents attending the
event can benefit from the experiences of our investigators by
learning how to protect their children from those who seek to take
advantage of them online.”
The Texas Attorney General’s
office is a national leader in arresting online child predators.
The Cyber Crimes Unit, launched
by Attorney General Abbott in May 2003, targets online predators
by assuming the identities of young teenagers in Internet chat
rooms.
Investigators have arrested 76 men who used teen chat rooms
to arrange meetings with underage victims, with some predators
driving hundreds of miles to meet children they met online. The
office has also obtained convictions against 39 men on child pornography
charges.
At the townhall meeting, Attorney General Abbott and his
Cyber Crimes Unit investigators will outline the risks children
face
online, the environment teens face online, and the way child predators
are using this emerging technology to find victims. The investigators
will also offer information and safety tips about online predators
and help parents decipher chatroom lingo.
“I especially encourage high school students to participate
in our discussion about safely using social networking Web sites
like
MySpace, Friendster and Xanga without compromising personal information
that could unintentionally lead predators to them and their families,” Attorney
General Abbott added.
The interactive presentation will provide
the audience with an opportunity to ask questions, and attendees
will also receive Attorney
General Abbott’s new “Internet Safety for Parents” video,
which offers advice and tangible safeguards to parents on how to
spot the warning signs that their children may be giving out too
much information to a potential child predator.
The presentation
will include straight talk about the issue of online solicitation
and some discussions will include mature content.
Parents of children of all ages and high school students are strongly
encouraged to attend. Students in middle school should attend at
their parents’ discretion.
Cracking down on sexual predators is a top priority of Attorney
General Abbott’s administration. The Cyber Crimes Unit’s
hunt for online child sex predators has resulted in arrests of
men from 17 Texas counties and Indonesia. In addition to the Cyber
Crimes Unit, Attorney General Abbott also formed the Fugitive Unit
to locate convicted child sex offenders who have violated the terms
of their parole and could be stalking children.
The Fugitive Unit
has arrested 275 of these parolees, as well as 48 unregistered
sex offenders and another 23 men and women in other operations.
For
more information, contact the Texas Attorney General’s
office at 1 (800) 252-8011 or visit the Attorney
General’s
Web site.
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