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County Pushes Cyber Safety

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By GEORGE WILKENS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 4, 2008

Updated: 02/03/2008 11:44 pm

TAMPA - The ongoing effort to caution young computer users about the threat of online predators shifts into high gear with this week's premiere of Cyber Safe, a NetSmartz training partnership designed to reach all of Hillsborough County's nearly 200,000 school-age children.

Since June, such training has been required of children seeking Internet access through a computer at any Hillsborough County public library.

Employing NetSmartz, a software program that uses age-appropriate interactive lessons to teach children about the dangers lurking online, Hillsborough County's Internet Safety Initiative is now targeting a wider audience among those 17 and younger.

Locally, the NetSmartz program is now branded Cyber Safe, complete with a padlock logo developed by the Tampa Bay Advertising Federation to illustrate locking out harmful images and content often found online.

Tuesday evening, the federation's "high-impact public awareness campaign" will premiere on the Museum of Science & Industry's Imax screen to launch Cyber Safe Month in Hillsborough County.

County Commission chairman Ken Hagan, who introduced the local ordinance prohibiting sexual predators from loitering in areas where children congregate, championed the local initiative, a partnership between the county and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"During that process, I came into information that showed the Internet had become the latest vehicle predators use to prey upon children," Hagan said. "I saw various statistics, one that showed over 6,000 children a year in Hillsborough County are solicited for either explicit photos or to try to meet in person."

The father of two young children saw scores of children using computers at public libraries and approached the Hillsborough Public Library Cooperative about requiring NetSmartz training for young patrons.

Hagan said he hopes at least 25,000 more students complete the program by the end of this school year.

As of Wednesday, 6,571 had completed the 20-minute NetSmartz course through one of the county's 27 libraries, said Renelda Sells, principal librarian at John F. Germany Public Library downtown.

The program also is available through the media centers at the county's public schools.

"I think it's just a great thing for kids and they sure need it," said Mary Meckley, whose son, Connor, 10, now a fifth-grader, took the course in July at the New Tampa Regional Library.

"I believe it has absolutely helped, just with his being aware there are dangers out there. And I feel more confident with him having taken NetSmartz."

Inspired partly by the gifts Connor received for completing NetSmartz - tickets to The Florida Aquarium and Lowry Park Zoo - Meckley's son Lance, a first-grader, asked to take the class, too.

She was happy to acquiesce: "It's nice to have this dialogue before they might be exposed to something, rather than afterward."

Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at (813) 865-4847 or gwilkens@tampatrib.com.

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