NetSmartz Workshop To Fight Kid Sex Soliciting

With one in five children said to have been solicited or approached sexually online in 1999 alone, NetSmartz Workshop - a software program aimed at teaching children safe surfing - is being pushed by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The program has been delivered to all 3,100 Boys & Girls Clubs around the United States, and they're making the software available as a free download at the NetSmartz Website. The program was pilot-tested at selected Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide late last year, the two groups said, and got a big boost from private corporate sponsorship, allowing NetSmartz to be presented as freeware.

The Boys & Girls Clubs and the NCMEC got together in creating the program, which includes animation and age-directed interactive teaching - including the latest 3D and other Web technologies - to entertain while teaching, said NCMEC president Ernie Allen at a rollout March 5.

"The growing number of children utilizing the Internet has increased the need for Internet safety resources like NetSmartz," said Allen, in a formal announcement at the Eastern Branch headquarters of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. "NetSmartz is an invaluable interactive resource for parents and educators who want to make a child's Internet experience a safer one."

The program's meat is online safety focusing through entertainment, including how to protect children - and help them protect themselves - from online sexual predators as well as other Internet dangers and problems.

For younger children (ages 5-6), a character named Clicky takes them through a basic course of Internet dangers and how to avoid them, not to mention learning cybermanners or "Netiquette." At ages 7-12, children can meet a pair of Web kids named Nettie and Webster, who talk about online risks and show them the Wizzy Wigs - "creepy characters who represent Internet dangers," Boys & Girls Clubs and NCMEC said.

"It is critical that children, parents, and educators across the nation have the tools they need to have a safe Internet experience," said Boys & Girls Clubs president Roxanne Spillet. "Now everyone has access to these tools whether it is at their local Boys & Girls Club or at www.NetSmartz.org."

The product isn't just for the pre-teen set. NetSmartzTeens takes aim at teenagers, teaching them how to surf the Net safely, including a real-life example of a teenager facing cyberspace danger. Parents and educators alike can visit the NetSmartz Website for on- and offline activities and ideas about how to teach and instill Net safety habits, "so they can help their children and/or students avoid the risks they face online," the two groups said. "Parents and educators are provided relevant and current information on Internet safety issues that affect children."

MCMEC chairman Robbie Callaway, also a Boys & Girls Club officer, said he hoped NetSmartz could prevent future Christina Longs from being lured online and led to sex and death in real-time. Christina Long was the troubled 13-year-old Connecticut girl who - apparently accepting online sexual adventurism as an escape from a fractured family life - was approached by or approached a 25-year-old man online, then had sex with him in his car, during which he strangled her to death. The man, Saul Dos Reis, pleaded guilty to Christina's killing two days before NetSmartz was rolled out.

Callaway said Boys & Girls Clubs leaders and member children had a big hand in refining the NetSmartz characters and content. The aim was guaranteeing the messages were on target but that the respective age groups wouldn't be bored or put off by the messages.