VIRGINIA BEACH – In a new Internet safety campaign, the local prosecutor’s office used 30 seconds of video to depict a chilling scenario of digital communicaiton gone wrong.
The Virginia Beach Commonwealth Attorney’s Office launched a campaign Monday to help parents with online safety for their kids and teens. The video shows texting between a young girl and someone she believes is a boy her age but really is an older, tech-savvy man. The ad, which warns parents to keep a watchful eye out for online predators, will air on local television and in Virginia Beach movie theaters.
“With today’s ever-changing technology, it is most important that children are protected from Internet predators,” the release said.
View the video:
Besides the ad, the campaign includes an e-brochure on popular apps used by children and adults alike. Virginia Beach families can also pick up a copy of the computer monitoring system Computer COP for free at any city public library.
Stolle’s office began the social media safety campaign after dealing with many cases that resulted in teens being charged for their Internet behavior or becoming a victim of an online predator.
Macie Allen, public information officer for the office, said one case that stood out as an example of an interaction that went awry involved an 18-year-old Virginia Beach man who began talking online with a 15-year-old girl and coaxed her into sending nude photos of herself. When she refused to send more, he posted the ones she had sent him on Facebook, and the girl attempted suicide as a result, Allen said.
The defendant, Mark Morgan, is serving a three-year sentence for the crime, according to Allen.
Allen said the biggest challenge with online safety is the temporal nature of the applications. Once parents become familiar with one social media platform, a new one is already on the horizon. The educational campaign aims to keep parents updated on popular apps and help them protect their kids from the dangerous aspects.
Allen said she will update the e-brochure with new information every few months. Those updates will be announced on the commonwealth’s attorney’s office Facebook page, she said.
“The goal is to get ahead of it in Virginia Beach, to see if we can’t do some work on the front end to prevent people becoming victims of internet predators,” Allen said.
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