TimesLeader.com

Sem to hold Cyber Safety program

Helping parents learn how to keep their children safe while using the Internet is the purpose of a free presentation on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

"A Cyber World of Trouble," presented by cyber safety expert Katie Koestner, will begin at 7 p.m. in the Amato Auditorium of Wyoming Seminary Lower School, 1560 Wyoming Avenue, Forty Fort.

The presentation is free and open to parents, teachers, and the public.

During her program, Koestner will lead the audience through a tour of live Web sites popular with adolescents. She will help parents understand secret Instant Messaging chat codes, the strategies of online pornographers, online gaming and the online behavior of teenagers. The presentation will describe today’s online, video game and social networking technologies, and will give parents strategies to help them protect their children from risky behavior while using social networking sites and the Internet or while taking part in online gaming.

Koestner is a nationally-known expert on cyberspace issues and sexual assault and is a trained sexual assault counselor. She has been speaking out on the issue of sexual assault since her freshman year at The College of William and Mary, when she was raped on a date with a fellow student. She has appeared in numerous newspaper and magazine articles and television programs about the issue of date rape and is much in demand as a speaker at national conferences and at schools and universities across the nation. She is the founder of Campus Outreach Services, Inc., which provides speakers, training, workshops and interactive programs on topics such as cyber dangers, sexual assault, bullying, alcohol and addiction, body image and other topics of interest to students and their families.

This presentation is supported by the Wyoming Seminary Lower School Parents Association and The Times Leader. For more information contact Mary Kolessar, Sem Dean of Middle School, at 718-6600.