Grant- donated software heightens kids' internet safety

Officials hail foundation’s effort to increase community wellbeing, By Jerry Goldberg HAWLEY — The Verizon Foundation has given a $20,000 grant to fund an internet safety program in eight area school districts. The program by the name of I-Safe will be used in Delaware Valley and every school in Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties. Over 50,000 school age children will participate in the program. The “I-Safe” program will teach students, parents, teachers, and law enforcement ways in which to make the internet experience a safer place for everyone. I-Safe will help teach users to be more aware of the dark side of the internet. A press conference announcing it was held at Wallenpaupack High School on Nov. 20. Daniel Reavy of Verizon presented a $20,000 grant check to the Wayne County Community Foundation, which will distribute the funding. District Attorneys: Michael Lehutsky (Wayne), Ray Tonkin (Pike) and David Christine (Monroe) were on hand as well as various school district representatives. “The internet is a wonderful tool in the world today. There are bad aspects of it as well. We have all heard stories about child predators, cyber bullies, scam artists, identity thieves and stalkers searching the internet for victims. These criminal types are in chat rooms and other places and we realize it is not good to turn this type of behavior loose on our children,” said Lehutsky. “Verizon is 230,000 employees strong with sales world wide amounting to $97 billion dollars and is in 150 countries. The Verizon Foundation is helping to attack negative social issues in our communities by partnering with local organizations. Our customers look to us to help keep them safe on the internet. We are also pro-active and help law enforcement, parents and children have a safe broadband experience,” said Reavey. One of the members of the audience asked if problems with internet safety is something that is being seen on an everyday basis. Christine said, “We deal with these issues daily in all our school districts in all three counties. Everyday in the media you read about some of the pitfalls especially with younger children. We’ve been aggressive in catching child molesters when they think they are speaking to a 14-year-old girl when they are actually speaking to a female police officer trying to make them reveal their true intent.” The I-Safe curriculum will be accessible for students from any computer, whether in school or at home. Each child will have their own access number to sign on and will be able to review the curriculum along with their parents. Each of the district attorneys discussed issues that take place in conjunction with the internet, from criminals trying to scam senior citizens with phony investment offers, to people trying to lure children into sexual activity. Lehutsky said it is hard for parents to supervise their children if the computer is in the child’s bedroom. “We have been experiencing problems on a fairly regular basis regarding the internet and the kids.” The grant will restore lost budget funding for some districts. Lehutsky said that in the tough times we’re having this program was one of the first things to be cut and the grant will help the schools get back on track. Some of the schools that had the program in the past will be able to restore their licenses and others will be able to start fresh, he said. The school districts have to pay a yearly licensing fee of $2,200 per district. The grant will carry the eight districts through the 2010 school year. Based on the number of kids who will have access to the program Lehutsky rated the cost as very cheap. For more information on the I-Safe program go to www.isafe.org, or call the Pike County District Attorney’s office at 570-296-3482.