NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Department of Homeland Security has teamed with Scouting America, formerly Boy Scouts of America, to teach children what to look for in online predators.

The presentation is called iGuardian. Kids and staff at Boxwell Scout Reservation in Lebanon learned some life skills on Thursday. One of those skills: how to identify online child predators.

"This is another step in the direction of youth safety," the executive director of Scouting America in Middle Tennessee said. "We are working to make sure the youth have the tools that they need to identify problems online and things that may be a risk to themselves and others."

The lesson was taught by Homeland Security agents who said that online child exploitation is on the rise in the United States. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) ran Operation Protecting Tomorrow and arrested 12 people for exploiting 24 children in May.

"Besides narcotics trafficking, we spend the bulk of our man-hours investigating crimes against children on the internet," Homeland Security special agent Dennis Fetting said. "That's child exploitation, child sexual abuse material that gets distributed by adult predators."

Investigators said that these criminals are watching.

"They're on all popular social media and online gaming platforms, chat rooms, you name it" Fetting said. "Basically anywhere there are kids, there is usually some sort of an offender."

Agents said that they gave the presentation here because of Scouting America's outreach.

"So much of our time is spent online these days," Scouting America chief safe guarding officer Glen Pounder said. "It's critical for us as as an organization to work with law enforcement to share best practices so that kids can be as safe as they can possibly be online."

The Department of Homeland Security said to visit know2protect.gov, HSI.gov or missingkids.org if you have a concern.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/homeland-security-scouting-america-lessons-youth-online-safety/