By Staff
WASHINGTON, DC – The House of Representatives Tuesday unanimously approved by voice vote legislation sponsored by Congressman Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph) and Illinois Democrat Melissa Bean establishing June as National Internet Safety Month.
National Internet Safety Month is designed to help raise awareness among families to keep their children safe online and to promote safer, more responsible online behavior by children and teens.
As the top Republican on the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, Upton has worked extensively to protect the over 35 million students in grades K-12 who are regularly online.
"The unfortunate reality is that while the Internet has opened up a whole new world of learning for our kids, it has also opened up a new world for sexual predators," said Upton. "The sad fact is that of the estimated 24 million child Internet users, one in five kids has received unwanted sexual solicitations. Although June is Internet Safety Month, keeping our kids safe online should always be foremost in our thoughts, not just one month out of the year, but each and every day."
Federal law enforcement officials have described the sexual abuse and exploitation of the nation's youth as an "epidemic" propagated by the unlimited access of the Internet. The statistics are alarming – the FBI has seen a 2,026% increase in its caseload of online sex predators in the last 10 years. It is estimated that at any given moment, 50,000 predators are prowling for children online.
– many of whom are lurking within social networks.
"As a father of two, I know first-hand that a little knowledge of our kids' activities while surfing the net goes a long way in protecting them from online predators," said Upton. "This is a battle that we must fight each and every day to keep our kids safe. I particularly commend Ernie Allen and all of his colleagues at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for all of their efforts to keep our kids safe online."
Upton is a strong supporter of the FBI's Innocent Images Task Force, which is on the front lines in our efforts to protect our kids from abominable online sex predators. The task force is the nucleus that integrates the many components of federal efforts to combat online sex predators and curtail the distribution of child pornography. This FBI program has 2,400 cases open at any given time. Upton has worked in Congress to ensure that the program has the resources necessary to allow law enforcement officials to be able to further pursue and prosecute online sex predators by expanding the scope of these investigations, identifying even more offenders, and supporting additional field agents in carrying out sting operations.
Special tools and resources are available for parents to keep their kids safe online on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website at www.ncmec.org.