CLE Workshop Offers Look into Cybersafety in the States

Rep. Johnny Bell was in a Kentucky middle school talking to children about the dangers of the Internet and cybersafety. He asked a simple question.

When he asked about MySpace and who had a MySpace page, he said, “Every hand in the building went up.”

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, who accompanied Bell, advised the children that they were breaking the law, because they were under age 14, Bell said jokingly.

“A lot of hands went down very rapidly after that,” he said.

“Cybersafety is something that touches all of our lives—but our children particularly because many of them will continue to grow up on the Internet,” Bell, a Glasgow attorney and author of Kentucky House Bill 367 on cybersafety, said.

In fact, education is becoming a key component in how states protect children from becoming victims of crimes on the Internet. “We have a lot of individuals right now who are getting on the computer and trying to contact our children in a sexual predatorial way,” Bell said.

And the states are responding to that.

In Kentucky, HB 367—which passed the House in February—strives to offer  law enforcement a tool they can use to get a solid conviction for those charged with Internet crimes against children. Other states have similar bills addressing cybersafety:

• Illinois House Bill 2858 (2007)
• Illinois Senate Bill 14 (2007)
• Illinois Senate Bill 1472 (2007)
• Virginia Senate Bill 1393 (2007)
• Texas House Bill 3171 (2007)
• Texas Senate Bill 136  (2007)

“Most of these states are trying to protect these children by mirroring somewhat the language within the federal statutes,” Bell said. Most of the state statutes closely resemble the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. 

—Mikel Chavers