Education key to outwitting predators, governors told at meeting

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - Vigilant parents and well-educated children remain the first line of defense against online predators, even as social networking sites toughen standards and police crack down, experts told a panel of governors Sunday.

Law enforcement agencies are becoming more technologically proficient in the fight against cyberspace child stalkers, New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said. But they alone can't solve a problem so widespread that 1 in 5 kids who use the Internet are believed to have been approached by a predator, she said."

This is an issue that we're not going to arrest our way out of," Ayotte said during the annual meeting of the National Governors Association.It's a problem "far bigger than any of us realize," said Gov. Brad Henry of Oklahoma.

Speakers including Miss America, Lauren Nelson, as well as Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace/Fox Interactive Media, called for more programs to educate parents and children about how predators operate.

"The best way to police the Internet is to do it from our side of the keyboard," said Nelson, 20, who made online safety her platform because she and friends received inappropriate photographs at age 13 from a man they met online.Posing as a teenager, Nelson took part in an April sting operation that led to charges against 11 men. She announced last month she would tour the nation with a security software company to promote the issue...

This from the AOL, Associated Press.