The use of technology in K–12 schools provides important resources and learning opportunities for students but also brings new safety considerations for parents, teachers, law enforcement, and community stakeholders. Hardware and software that was originally used during the pandemic has now been integrated into multimedia learning such as online homework exercises. And students engage with friends and post regularly to social media with minimal guardrails. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of reports submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about crimes against children such as online enticement and sextortion doubled. In 2022, the NCMEC CyberTipLine received more than 32 million reports of suspected child exploitation.

Young people go online to find acceptance, friendship, and community with peers, but offenders exploit those motivations to commit crimes. Experts most often see violent crimes against children begin when someone either forges a relationship with a young victim online for nefarious purposes (online enticement) or coerces a child into producing sexually explicit images or videos (the crime of sextortion).

It is important to establish school protocols for online safety; review and update the standard operating procedures annually; and provide regular training about online safety to students, teachers, and families. All hardware and software provided by the school should include installed safety systems to monitor for illegal or harmful images, videos, and contacts. The system should be regularly updated and maintained by the emergency response management team in school district. Other recommendations include the following:

• Educate yourself and school personnel about the websites, games, and applications that students use.
• Have conversations about what is appropriate to say or share, even in “safe” spaces like the online school classrooms.
• Make sure students use privacy settings to restrict access to their online profiles and personal information.
• Encourage kids to choose appropriate screen names and to create strong passwords.
• Stress to students that making any kind of threat online—even if they think it's a joke—is a crime.
• Provide age-appropriate information about the risks of sharing and chatting with people online.

It is critical to remind children that a momentary lapse in judgement online will not define their lives. Crimes such as sextortion can be devastating to young people, and they need to understand that they are the victim. Encourage them to talk with a trusted adult who can help them respond, report the crime, and get support services.

In addition to these recommendations, there are many no-cost federal resources that schools and law enforcement partners can use to learn about online safety, as well as training curriculum and resources for teaching young people about online safety:

• NCMEC is a national child protection agency funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) that works in partnership with federal partners to support state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement investigations and training:
  • KidSmartz is a safety program for students in kindergarten through 5th grade that teaches about online safety through NetSmartz videos and teaching materials for educators, law enforcement, and caregivers.
  • Take It Down is a service to help youth remove illicit images from online platforms and provides victim services as well as counseling and support.

NCMEC offers in-person and online training to law enforcement and child-serving professionals as well as technical assistance and resources.

• The National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) partnered with the COPS Office in a FY 2018 award to expand Cyber S.W.A.T. (Safety While Accessing Technology), a peer-to-peer program for youth that is facilitated by law enforcement or school officials. The training covers online safety and bullying. NW3C also has online and in-person training for law enforcement on the topics of high-tech crime, criminal intelligence, and legal considerations for investigation of online crimes.
• Safe Online Surfing is a resource for students in grades 3–8 to learn about online safety via age-appropriate games and videos.
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) operates the Cyber Tip Line and a traditional hotline at 800-843-5678 and has 56 field offices and 350 resident agencies across the United States to provide assistance and support to state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies investigating online crimes against children.

Please also see the companion article about Blue Campaign operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a national public awareness campaign designed to help law enforcement and other professionals recognize the indicators of human trafficking and how to appropriately respond to keep children and vulnerable people safe.

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