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Novell and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Teach Internet Safety To Utah Teens Mouse Pad Donation Provides Web-wise Guidelines to All Utah Junior High Schools PROVO, Utah — February 4, 1999 — Today Novell, Inc. and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children announced the state-wide distribution of Internet safety mouse pads to all Utah junior high schools. Through the donation, more than 115,000 Utah teens will become more aware of the important, risk-reducing rules of surfing the Web. Gov. Mike Leavitt and First Lady Jacalyn Leavitt, John Slitz, Jr., senior vice president of marketing for Novell, and Ernie Allen, president of The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, unveiled the new mouse pads to Evergreen Junior High in Salt Lake, the first school to receive the gift. The mouse pads will be placed next to every computer in junior high school computer labs across the state. "We commend Novell and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for providing this great public service to the state's young people," said Gov. Leavitt. "These mouse pads provide important guidelines for Internet safety." "As an Internet leader, Novell wants children to succeed with this technology," said Slitz. "We are poised for a learning explosion akin to what happened when the printing press was born. By applying the basic rules outlined on these mouse pads, students can continue to grow with technology without the fear of being victimized." The rapidly growing population of the Internet increases the urgency of teaching children the rules for being safe online. According to the NCMEC, 140 cases have been reported in the past two years in which a child has left home or been targeted to leave home by an adult on the Internet and arrests in Internet child pornography cases have increased more than 410 percent in the last three years. The U.S. Department of Justice projects between 250,000 and 500,000 pedophiles reside in the U.S., and a recent USA Today poll estimated 16 million U.S. children surf the Web. That number is expected to increase to 45 million by the year 2002, according to a RIND/SVP and Grandwall Associates survey. "Most kids have been taught what and who to avoid while playing in their neighborhoods. Now, with more and more children playing online, it's crucial for them to understand that dangers also exist on the Web and they must know how to avoid them." said Allen from the NCMEC.
The safety tips outlined on the mouse pads are:
About Novell Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) is the leading provider of network software enabled by directory services. Novell Internet solutions make networks more manageable and secure and reduce the total cost of ownership for organizations of every kind and size. Novell's worldwide channel, developer, education and technical support programs are the most extensive in the network computing industry. For information on Novell's complete range of products and services, contact Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit Novell's Web site at http://www.novell.com. Press may access Novell announcements and company information on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/pressroom.
About the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children In 1984 the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a nonprofit organization, was created as a public/private partnership to help in the search for missing children. Fourteen years after its doors first opened, NCMEC truly is an example of the best of government and private-sector joint efforts to address one of the most complex social problems: the victimization of our children. Thanks to widespread support by many of the computer industry's biggest names, NCMEC has witnessed a remarkable increase in its recovery rate of missing children in the 14 years since it was established. In 1989 NCMEC reported a recovery rate of 66 percent. Today 90 percent of NCMEC's cases are resolved, due in large part to industry-wide support.
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