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Animated character helps kids fight online predators


'Clicky' teaches children about dangers on the Web

In this story:

Boys & Girls Club a co-sponsor

Startling stats on online perils for children

RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Richard Stenger
CNN.com Writer

(CNN) -- Worried about sexual predators using the Internet to ensnare your children? A potato-like cartoon with a Western drawl could help youngsters protect themselves from villains on the Web.

"Clicky," the highly animated host of a Web site dedicated to online youth safety, guides children through a maze of activities to teach them about dangers on the Internet. Two national youth groups on Wednesday unveiled the site, NetSmartz.org, which also includes more mature but similarly focused sections for teens and adults.

Sporting a sheriff's badge and a Texas twang, Clicky shows young varmints the ropes in avoiding scuffles with the outlaws of Webville, namely Potty-Mouth Pete, Meet-Me Mack and Look-At-Dis Louie.

MESSAGE BOARD

Security on the net

"Them are some mighty mean looking hombres," the mini-spud muses. "You are smart. You know never to go out with a stranger. If you are online and a Meet Me Mack wants you to go somewhere, don't do it."

Clicky's advice is well founded. Twenty-four million U.S. children between the ages of 10 and 17 regularly use the Internet, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), co-sponsor of the site. One in five received an online sexual solicitation or approach while online.

Boys & Girls Club a co-sponsor

Much of the Netsmartz site remains under construction. The teen section promises to add an advice column, weekly poll and place to post postcards, jokes and poetry.

Yet already the site has an e-mail link to the Cybertipline, which handles leads from individuals reporting the sexual exploitation of children; and a diary entre from virtual teen Stacy Ellis, the junior captain of the Vikings marching band flag corps at Bluff High School.

The NCMEC announced the initiative with its co-sponsor the Boys & Girls Club of America (B&GCA). Boys & Girls Club members helped professional animators from Hollywood design Clicky and his posse of computerized characters.

"The Internet provides education, entertainment and the potential for increased success," said B&GCA chairman Arnold Burns in a statement. The Netsmartz initiative is "able to protect our youth by teaching them how to protect themselves."

With a $1.5 million donation from computer maker Compag, the B&GCA will run a pilot version of the Netsmartz Workshop in 50 clubs this spring. Later the organization will distribute the program to almost 3,000 sites nationwide.

Startling stats on online perils for children

1 in 5 received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet in the last year
1 in 33 received an aggressive sexual solicitation -- a solicitor who asked to meet them somewhere: called them on the telephone; sent them regular mail, money, or gifts
1 in 4 had an unwanted exposure to pictures of naked people or people having sex in the last year
1 in 17 was threatened or harassed.
less than 10 percent of sexual solicitations and only 3 percent of unwanted exposure episodes were reported to authorities such as a law-enforcement agency, an Internet service provider or a hotline.
1 in 4 of the youths that encountered a sexual solicitation or approach told a parent.
40 percent of those reporting an unwanted exposure to sexual material told a parent

Source: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (Statistics based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,501 youth ages 10 to 17 who regularly use the Internet.)