Assembly Approves Lieu Bill to Protect Children from Online Predators

AB 88 provides schools with the resources to teach children about cyber safety

(Sacramento, CA) – The State Assembly today approved AB 88, a bill by Assemblymember Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) to enhance online safety for children.  This bill would provide schools with the resources to teach students proper internet safety techniques, helping to keep children safe from online predators.

“Today our children are exposed to dangers that would have been inconceivable even five years ago,” Lieu said.  “We need to equip them to handle the new world that we’re entering.”

According to the California Attorney General, more than 90 percent of children in grades 5-12 now use computers and 26 percent spend more than 5 hours online each week.  One third (1/3) of children will encounter sexual material online and one out of seven children in the nation will receive unsolicited sexually explicit material while on the internet, according to the Youth Internet Safety Survey, a national survey of 1,500 youth from ages 10 to 17.

Earlier this year, the Governor convened a summit of educators, law enforcement agencies, legal professionals, parents and child safety advocates to help combat online crimes and educate the public on ways to reduce the victimization of California’s youth.  The summit intended to raise awareness of this growing issue.

AB 88 would direct the Department of Education to provide school districts with guidelines to teach students how to be safe while using the internet.  These guidelines would establish curriculum that would be available to all school districts to integrate into their classrooms. 

“The internet can be a helpful tool, placing endless amounts of information at our children’s fingertips.  However, it can also be a dangerous place for our children, unless they are properly warned,” says Lieu.   “We used to teach our children to be weary of strangers they meet on the streets.  Teaching proper cyber safety is the ‘Stranger Danger’ of the 21st century.”