By Jocelyn Bogen
December 20, 2006

Sugar Land (TX) Mayor David Wallace, Co-chair of The U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Homeland Security, gave a plenary presentation to over 800 local, state, and federal law enforcement and community partners for the 2006 Project Safe Childhood National Conference held in Washington (DC) December 4-6.

The Department of Justice Project Safe Childhood Initiative was designed to help law enforcement and community leaders develop a coordinated strategy to prevent, investigate, and prosecute sexual predators, abusers, and pornographers who target children, as well as to educate parents and children on the importance of Internet safety. During a session entitled Keeping our Children Safe Online: Operation Safe Surf and Other Internet Safety Programs, Wallace gave a brief presentation on how he has used education, enforcement and prevention against online predators.

Wallace described one of the prevention presentations he used for a local high school youth group known as the Sugar Land Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council (MYAC). One eye-opening demonstration featured a 34-year-old male law enforcement agent posing online as a 13-year-old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. In less than 15 minutes after entering a chat room, the fictitious young girl was propositioned. The purpose of the demonstration was to illustrate for the youths exactly how quickly predators can gather personal information. Using the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website, netsmartzkidz.org “Teresa01,” the students were surprised to learn that it took a mere 20 minutes to target a chat room visitor named “Teresa” and obtain a full bio that included her home address, phone number, parent’s names, school, pictures and more. Wallace added, “The demonstrations had a rare effect on the middle school students – they were literally speechless.”

Working with partners, including: the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; the U.S. Department of Justice; Fort Bend Independent School District; The Sugar Land Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council; the Sugar Land Police Department; and the Texas Attorney General’s Office, Wallace created a Keep Kids e s@fe Toolkit that contains information on how to establish an Internet safety awareness campaign. These kits have been mailed to Conference of Mayors membership, so other cities can also help parents, youths and communities protect children from sexual exploitation and abduction. To request a Keep Kids e s@fe Toolkit or if you have any questions, contact Mayor Wallace at 281-275-2710 or send e-mail to dwallace@sugarlandtx.gov.