Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

FBI Offers 'Be Smart' Classes To Help Parents Protect Their Kids

FBI

Parents on the First Coast will have the opportunity in coming months to learn more about how predators use social media apps to target their children.

The first class is Tuesday evening. The FBI is teaming up with the Duval County Schools Parent Academy to teach parents how to Be Smart with their Kids’ Smartphone.

“This is not a look at specific apps but rather how those apps and that technology is being used by offenders in order to target children, how it’s being used to contact them. And then sometimes how technology is used to hide those conversations. So as parents, you may be searching your child’s smartphone and searching your child’s tablet and not see certain content,” said Amanda Warford Videll, a spokeswoman with the FBI’s Jacksonville office.

The first session is from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. Tuesday at Westview PreK-8 at  5270 Connie Jean Road on Jacksonville’s Westside.

Additional sessions are planned for October, November and December:

  • October 30 - New Berlin Elementary School, 3613 New Berlin Road, 5:30 PM - 7 PM
  • November 13 - Mandarin Middle School, 5100 Hood Road, 5:30 PM - 7 PM
  • December 11 - Bartram Springs Elementary, 14799 Bartram Springs Pkwy., 5:30 PM - 7 PM

They are free and open to all parents and concerned adults in the metro-Jacksonville area.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews.

Cyd Hoskinson began working at WJCT on Valentine’s Day 2011.