(Manchester, NH) —Former Governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen visited Londonderry today to discuss Internet safety with concerned mothers at a roundtable discussion.    
 
"Children today are incredibly vulnerable to threats online," Shaheen said.  "Just five years ago, there were no profiles on MySpace or Facebook.  Today, there are over 150 million users of these sites worldwide.  The anonymity of an online screen name or handle means that it is very easy for anyone online to pretend they are someone they're not.
 
"As schools let out for the summer and kids have more time on their hands to spend online, it is critical for us to have serious conversations about these issues and talk about the ways we can work together to keep our kids safe from online threats.
 
"Our children deserve every protection we can give them.  We need leadership in Washington that will take real action to make sure we are keeping our kids safe online."
 
At the roundtable, Shaheen outlined steps Washington can take to keep our children safe from Internet predators:
 
*Require that sex offenders register their online names in the National Sex Offender Registry. The federal government keeps a national database of sex offenders' names and addresses in order to help protect our kids from predators.  Shaheen believes it should be no different online, where kids are often unaccompanied and even more vulnerable. Shaheen believes that sex offenders should register their online identifiers, such as email addresses or user names, and that we should make the information publicly available so that concerned parents can take the necessary precautions to keep their kids safe.
 
*Make it a federal crime for an adult to impersonate a minor child online for the purposes of solicitation or harassment. Tougher laws would make it easy for prosecutors to go after adults who prey on children online.  Shaheen believes we need to make sure that we can catch and punish any predator who solicits or harasses a minor online. 
 
For more information, please visit www.JeanneShaheen.org.