Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

AG and Comcast hold media availability in Seattle

Seattle - Attorney General Rob McKenna and Comcast Senior Vice President Mitch Bowling will hold a media availability on Thursday, Oct. 4 focusing on increasing parental awareness of the tools available to keep their children safe on the Internet. Attorney General McKenna will also unveil PSA spots that will be aired on Comcast beginning this month, which is Internet Safety Month and National Crime Prevention Month.

When:
10:15 to 11 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007

Where:
Attorney General’s Office, 800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000, Seattle, WA

Conference Call: (800) 423-1988   Passcode: 1148998#

Who:
• Attorney General Rob McKenna
• Mitch Bowling, SVP/GM, Online Services, Comcast

Background:
In 2006, the AGO teamed up with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to provide free train-the-trainer seminars to prepare up to 400 educators and law-enforcement officers to teach Internet safety using NetSmartz resources. NetSmartz creates age-appropriate educational materials to teach children and teens rules for online safety.

As part of the SafetyNet campaign, the Attorney General’s Office visited communities across Washington to share lessons learned from the experts about the dangers of the Internet and to talk about ways kids can avoid those dangers.

Attorney General McKenna convened the Youth Internet Safety Task Force during 2007 to focus on protecting Washington’s children online. The Attorney General’s Office has created a Kids and the Net site with must-read tips for parents and children.

Comcast has launched an all-new McAfee Security Suite.  The suite helps protect computers from viruses, spyware, online scams, hackers and online predators.  The new security features also helps keep identities protected online.

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Media Contact: J. Ryan Shannon, Media Relations Manager, (360) 753-2727

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