Sunday, October 28, 2007

Cyber Tipline

I recently found Cyber Tipline. The site offers a service you hope you never have to use. You can report instances of child sexual exploitation from this site.

Sexual Exploitation includes child pornography, online enticement of children for sex acts, molestation of children outside the family, sex tourism of children, child victims of prostitution, and unsolicited obscene material sent to a child. Reports may be made 24-hours per day, 7 days per week online at www.cybertipline.com or by calling 1-800-843-5678.

The Child Victim Identification Program, CVIP, is represented on this website. This is an agency that seeks to establish the identity of the exploited children in child pornography. The agency analyzes the content to determine location, then works with local law enforcement to rescue the children.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Internet Safety and Facebook

A news report today says Facebook has agreed to implement new user protections. This is good news for those of us interested in Internet Safety.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Press release

The CyberSafety conference had a very nice write-up by Jeanette Pinkston. I hope all the attendees are being successful bringing attention to these issues back at their workplaces.

I came across another good resource for Internet Safety, www.SafeKids.com. I especially like their Kids Pledge and Parent's Pledge for Internet Safety.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Using the public wiki

Yippe! We have our first post to the public wiki. JP points to an Oct. 4 article in USA Today about the reaction some teens have when their parents are on Facebook. It also contained this article about child porn arrests in NJ. Kudos to all the law enforcement personnel involved!

Here are links to some resources I was asked about at the conference.

Microsoft Password Tester

Virtual Magnifier

Copying video from YouTube.

CyberSafety in Ministry - Day 3

This post is a little late, because, just as I suspected, there was three days worth of work piled up on my desk when I got back in the office Thursday. I'm sure those of you who attended the conference experienced the same thing.

Day three was a great day with Joy Thornburg Melton, author of Safe Sanctuaries, Karen Douse, Teen Angel sponsor, and Stephen Streett, Youth Minister at Dunwoody UMC.

Joy talked with us about making cybersafety issues a part of our Safe Sanctuaries program. She brought a wealth of experience and knowledge to the discussion.

Karen expanded on the Teen Angel program we learned about on day one. She said she was very proud of the girls that did our presentation.

Stephen encouraged us to get involved in youth culture so we can more effectively communicate with and relate to teens regarding cybersafety issues.

All in all I think it was a great conference. I learned a lot and am very grateful to all the members of the design team for putting it together.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

CyberSafety in Ministry - Day 2

Tom Evans with the Knoxville Police Department brought an informative and disturbing message. He is a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforce. He mentioned the FBI also has an program against child pornography called the Innocent Images Initiative.
Tom said catching internet predators is tougher than it is depicted on NBC's To Catch a Predator.
He explained some of the procedures his task force uses to track down people who possess and distribute child pornography.
His message was tough to hear but it is good to know there are law enforcement officers like Tom working to keep children safe.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Day 1 - CyberSafety in Ministry

Day one is over but we are just getting started. The Design Team did a great job organizing the event. I was particularly impressed with everyone's participation and comments during the networking session. It was clear to me that the participants are very serious about making a difference when the conference is over.

Three members of the Teen Angels came and talked with us in the afternoon. Teen Angels are sponsored by Wired Safety. They talked about social networking, electronic communication methods and You Tube.

All three touted the positive aspects of the Internet. All had profiles on Facebook and a couple used MySpace. They seemed very confident that they knew and were observing proper safety precautions online. The main precaution they talked about was the importance of allowing only friends to view their profiles.

A few of their comments caught my attention:
"The Internet is tailored to our interest and convenience."
"You Tube is our cinema."
"Contrary to popular opinion, social networking is not the root of all evil."
"Facebook is good for personal relationships, not professional ones."
"MySpace is where we find new music."
"Sure there is stuff on You Tube I don't want to see, but there is stuff on regular TV I don't want to see either."
"Facebook helps you maintain long distance relationships."

When asked what churches need to do to reach youth the response was to provide a space (webpage) where they can find out information about the church and provide a way for the youth to ask questions and get answers online.