Indiana State Police Announce Education Program to Reduce Online Victimization of Youth

The Indiana State Police are announcing the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) statewide youth education initiative designed to reduce cyber victimization of youth between the ages of eight and eighteen.

Three specially trained ICAC Youth Educators will be available to present the program in each of Indiana’s 92 counties.  While it is anticipated program requests could exceed availability of the Youth Educators, an aggressive plan is being developed to provide at least 300 training programs to the target age group by the conclusion of 2016.  Past high profile instances of youth being victimized by sexual predators demanded a proactive program be developed and implemented in an effort to inoculate youth against such criminal acts.

There are 61 ICAC task forces in the United States.  And, the Indiana ICAC Task Force is the first to have full-time Youth Educators.  Each Youth Educator will work within the structure of the Indiana ICAC Task Force with presentations specifically designed to prevent victimization in the areas of:

• Online child sexual solicitation
• Online child extortion, also known as sextortion
• Online production of child pornography
• Online bullying, also known as cyberbullying
• Online radicalization mitigation to reduce the recruitment of youth by terrorists and criminal extremists.

The Youth Educators are trained to present a consistent, timely, up to date program that is age appropriate within the target audience group of eight to eighteen year old adolescents.  Programs can be customized to accommodate both large and small groups, and can last from less than an hour to a full day.

The Youth Educators and training curriculum were the result of a grant awarded to the Indiana State Police by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.  Since the program is covered by a grant, there is no cost to a school, youth organization or other youth group.  For more information or to schedule a presentation, please email the request to:  ICACYouthEd@isp.in.gov.