ONE DAY WORKSHOP: Net Safety & Cyberbullying

INTERNET SAFETY AND CYBER BULLYING

SUBJECT OF DAY ONE WORKSHOP

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Day One will host a workshop on April 23 to help Internet users understand how social media Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook can be abused by sexual predators and how to employ Internet safety best practices.

“MySpace is YourSpace” will be held from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Day One’s headquarters at 100 Medway Street in Providence, RI. In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the workshop is free and open to the public. The program carries with it three Continuing Education Units (CEUs). There is a processing fee is $20 for those requesting CEUs.

Facebook and MySpace are immensely popular sites among adolescents and young adults. An estimated 40 million of the under-18 crowd use MySpace daily, as well as frequent chat rooms and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels. But so do online predators seeking to meet unsuspecting and naïve teens [and adults] in person or lure them into online sex.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tracks thousands of cases related to Internet exploitation of children, and one in five children has received unwanted sexual advances online, according to the Department of Justice.

This seminar will help families understand how the social media sites work and how they can put people at risk for cyber bullying and sexual abuse.

“If a member of your household [adult or child/teen] connects to these sites, you need to know the ploys that sexual predators use to procure personal information from users,” said Peg Langhammer, executive director of Day One. “The frequency with which this happens is alarming and can be prevented with education and frank discussions with family members.”

To register for the workshop, call Sandra Malone at 401-421-4100 or smalone@dayoneri.org.