FBI Joins Internet Education Briefing

Internet Safety Outreach
FBI Joins Congressional Educational Briefing

02/10/04

Do kids love the Internet?

Yes.

Do kids spend lots of time on the Internet?

Yes.

Can the Internet be a dangerous place for kids?

Yes. You know that.

The problem is how to keep kids safe when they’re online, and that’s really hard to do. In simple terms, it’s a matter of 1) blocking and locking up the dangers and 2) teaching kids (and parents) how to be smart about avoiding them. And that takes the proverbial “village”: parents, other kids, schools, law enforcement, technology specialists, and community organizations.

The FBI is part of the effort, wearing three different hats:

• Law enforcement (investigating online predators and patrolling chat rooms).
• Community organization (going into classrooms and working one-on-one with kids; going into auditoriums and talking to kids and parents alike about dangers and solutions; papering the place with A Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety.
• Concerned parents (of course, we have kids too!)

Today, wearing our “community organization” hat, the FBI is participating in a educational briefing before the U.S. Congress as part of a panel of experts on Internet issues. Supervisory Special Agent Bobi Wallace, Chief of the FBI’s Community Relations Unit, Office of Public Affairs, is joining representatives from Verisign, i-SAFE America, Symantec, South Carolina Law Enforcement-Internet Crimes, and Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab. She is testifying on how the FBI is working in schools across the country to teach kids smart Internet habits. She is making the point that FBI experience investigating online pornographers and predators makes its advice especially persuasive to kids who might run into them.