News release

The NetSmartz Workshop is Launched to Safeguard Children Online

With the help of Hollywood-style animation and the magic of the latest Web-based technologies, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (B&GCA) and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) announced today a $1.5 million donation from Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) to create an exciting new initiative to educate youth about the risks they may encounter online.

The NetSmartz Workshop, comprised of interactive, age-appropriate lessons and games, springs to life with original 3-D animated characters that Boys & Girls Club members helped develop. With the donation from Compaq, these lessons and much more are available free to children, parents and educators via the World Wide Web.

The project was first developed to reach the more than 3.3 million youth served each year by B&GCA, which has entered into a new era of enhanced computer technology in the past few years with Operation Connect, a comprehensive effort to bridge the digital divide. As children and teens in Clubs prepare to go online, B&GCA sought to arm them with the latest information available to help them stay safe. For this, they turned to the NCMEC who, for almost a decade, has taught children how to be "street smart" on the Internet.

The NetSmartz Workshop will be piloted in 50 Boys & Girls Clubs across the country this spring. This phase will include play testing of the lessons, as well as instructor training. Following pilot testing, which will help developers further assess the lessons and provide opportunities to refine the software, the program will be distributed to the 2,700 B&GCA sites nationwide, as well as to all Clubs on military bases over the course of the next five years.

Together with animators who created the amazing 3-D special effects in popular films like Antz and Godzilla, the NetSmartz Workshop has developed safety lessons for three age groups (5-7, 8-12, and 13 & up). Thanks to Compaq, the NCMEC has created the Compaq/NetSmartz Studio, staffed with 3-D animators and storywriters to bring the NetSmartz characters alive on the Internet (www.NetSmartz.org), with audio and video streaming.

Compaq's chairman and CEO, who was on hand for this morning's launch at the National Press Club in Washington, predicted that the NetSmartz Workshop's innovative characters and messages would soon become some of the most popular online personalities with a purpose —creating a new generation of Web-savvy kids less vulnerable to online victimization.

"The Internet is transforming the way children and teenagers communicate, socialize and learn," said Michael Capellas, Compaq chairman and CEO. "With nearly 24 million kids using the Internet every month, it's vital that we teach them to recognize potential dangers while online. The innovative NetSmartz Workshop features interactive lessons and activities to provide children of all ages with a fun and entertaining way to learn about using the Internet responsibly and safely."

Compaq's contribution to the project provides technology for the Compaq/NetSmartz Studio for the development of animation and activities used on the Internet, a staff of animators, writers and Web developers to bring the project to life, and the creation of the NetSmartz Workshop Web site.

The need for this kind of program is timely, according to an NCMEC report to Congress issued last summer, Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation's Youth. The survey found that almost one out of five young people who use the Internet regularly was exposed to unwanted sexual solicitations or approaches and one out of four encountered unwanted pornography in the last year.

United States Senator Joe Biden, whose efforts on Capitol Hill secured the initial funding for the program, echoed his support today by congratulating the B&GCA and NCMEC for reaching out to all children, making the Internet accessible to them while ensuring their safety there. "We know all we need to know about the adults who prey on children in cyberspace," he said. "I'm confident that this new program will teach our kids how to avoid situations that put them most at risk," he added.

B&GCA and the NCMEC are long-term partners in the national effort to reduce crimes against children.

"The Internet provides education, entertainment and the potential for increased success. Unfortunately, it also presents the potential for dangerous situations," said Arnold Burns, chairman, B&GCA. "By partnering with Compaq and NCMEC, we are able to protect our youth by teaching them how to protect themselves."

"We see huge potential for the NetSmartz Workshop," concluded Robbie Callaway, chairman-elect of the NCMEC. "Thanks to the commitment from Compaq, we can take these amazing characters and their empowering messages to every child who ventures online without a roadmap, and speak to them in terms they can relate to and understand," he said. "The 3-D technology that brings our lessons to life will entertain them, and in doing so, teach them what they need to know to potentially transform the Web, creating an atmosphere where suspicious behavior will be easily recognizable, avoidable and eventually no longer tolerated," he said. "That is our goal."