Protecting Children from Online Predators and Crimes:
MBPD Educates Parents in the Manhattan Beach Unified School District on December 4

Manhattan Beach, CA (November 5, 2012) — Every parent worries about what dangers their child or teenager may encounter when browsing the Internet unsupervised. How do we protect our children from predators, sex offenders and pornography online?

On December 4, 2012, from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM, the Manhattan Beach Police Department, representing the Los Angeles division of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program (ICAC), will speak to local parents about this important subject at Manhattan Beach Middle School.

In 1998, with an increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, coupled with a proliferation of child pornography and increasing numbers of predators using the Internet to find their victims, specifically unsupervised contact with potential underage victims, the ICAC Task Force was formed by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The ICAC program is a national network of 61 coordinated task forces representing more than 2,000 federal, state, and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies working to catch child pornographers and sexual predators who solicit victims through chat rooms, forums and other online methods. Last year, ICAC investigations led to more than 5,700 arrests and over 45,000 forensic examinations.

“The December 4 presentation at Manhattan Beach Middle School will give an overview of the ICAC program and provide an educational discussion for parents,” said Manhattan Beach Detective Sergeant Paul Ford. “Parents need to be more aware of how easy the Internet makes it for a stranger to contact their children, and they need to know how to talk to their children about this important topic and what to look for to keep their children safe online. I encourage all local parents to join us.”

For more information on the December 4 presentation, please contact Paul Ford. For additional information on the ICAC Task Force, please visit www.icactaskforce.org.