Workshop educating about children’s safety online coming to Rexburg
Published at
REXBURG — A free workshop about digital safety, online protections for kids, device vulnerabilities, and the risks of predators on various platforms will be held this Saturday afternoon in Rexburg.
“At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is close the gap between what kids are facing and what adults think is happening,” said Dean Coleman, an organizer and co-founder of the Upper Valley SAFE Initiative. “Most parents aren’t unengaged, they’re just uninformed.”
Organizers encourage parents, grandparents, coaches, youth leaders, educators, caregivers and church leaders to attend. They are welcome to bring their children ages eight and up.
The event will include a keynote speech by Scott Pope entitled “The Anxious Generation: Finding Joy & Connection in a Screen-Saturated World.” There will then be four concurrent mini-workshops.
The first of these, presented by Rexburg Police Department Lt. Dustin Hirschi, will cover issues school resource officers are currently facing.
Another workshop, presented by Steffanie Jensen, who is a mental health professional, will go over how to approach a situation where a child has seen pornography.
A third workshop will be presented by Ryan Washington, who has worked extensively in computer forensics. He’ll be teaching how to safeguard devices and networks and set up parental controls. The audience is invited to bring their own devices.
The fourth workshop will be led by a committee that has developed a curriculum for elementary school-aged children titled “Safety Heroes.” This will cover how to maintain digital safety, develop emotional regulation and recognize safe adults and red flags for “tricky” adults.
“The biggest risks that face our kids today are not out on the street; they’re coming through the devices in their hands in their own homes,” Coleman said.
The event will be held in the auditorium of Madison Junior High School at 134 Madison Avenue, Rexburg, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The event is organized by the Upper Valley SAFE Initiative, which stands for Safety, Awareness, Freedom and Education. The volunteer-led organization was created to educate about children’s safety online. For more information, follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
“The workshop isn’t about fear, it’s about giving parents clarity and confidence and a plan for how to better safeguard their children.”
