Security

DHS Gives K–12 Educators Tools to Protect Kids from Online Sexual Exploitation

Training videos, coloring pages and word searches are among the materials being supplied as part of the Know2Protect campaign.

Rebecca Torchia

Rebecca Torchia is a web editor for EdTech: Focus on K–12. Previously, she has produced podcasts and written for several publications in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and her hometown of Pittsburgh.

The Department of Homeland Security released guidance to help K–12 educators protect children and teens from online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Tools include classroom materials and advice — in the form of training videos, coloring pages and word searches, worksheets, infographics, posters and take-home information for parents — on spotting and stopping CSEA.

DHS launched its Know2Protect CSEA awareness campaign in April, and August’s resource drop marks the first such release for educators.

“Our Know2Protect campaign is equipping teachers, school administrators, and others — the trusted and well-positioned adults in whom children often confide — to help their students identify and prevent this crime,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a joint statement.

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While laws such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act require schools to protect students from harmful or obscene content, few resources are explicitly created to shield children from online CSEA. DHS established partnerships with leading organizations across the country to drive awareness and change.

Other prominent individuals spoke to the importance of keeping students safe from online CSEA, including the COO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the senior vice president and chief safeguarding officer at Scouting America.

“Educators are often the first responders when it comes to dealing with the real-world impact of the horror of online child exploitation and abuse,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in the joint statement.

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