Conference educates about cyber threats, online victimization

The University at Buffalo has teamed with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's New York Branch to take action by hosting an Internet safety conference for future educators on cyber bullying and online victimization.

Topics of the conference will include instant messaging, file sharing services and blogging Web sites that are frequently used by child predators.

Patty McLain, community educator for NCMEC/NY, will be speaking on new information about keeping children safe online, the dangers children and teens may encounter online, the characteristics of Internet predators and victims, and Internet safety resources that can help prevent online victimization.

McLain will also introduce NetSmartz, an interactive, educational safety resource that uses age-appropriate, 3-D activities to teach children and teens how to be safer when using the Internet.

The conference will be held from 7:15 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 17 Capen Hall on UB's North Campus. The National Center for Missing

& Exploited Children, based in Alexandria, Va., was established in 1984 as a public-private partnership to help find missing children. The organization works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC has assisted local

law-enforcement agencies on more than 122,600 missing child cases, helping to reunite more than 104,900 children with their families. Today, the organization reports a 96 percent recovery rate.

For more information about NCMEC/N.Y., call 585-242-0900, or visit www.missingkids.com.