Utah Gets Serious About Protecting its Children & Future

Nationwide “Half Hour 2 Empower” campaign launched in Utah will rally up the business community to help elementary schools and parents teach their children how to be safe and good citizens.

Salt Lake City, Utah, (to be released Sept 15, 2006) – A generation of children left unattended at the computer, as well as our country, are being taken hostage by excessive chat, gaming, gambling, predators and pornography. Just last month, the prime suspect in the murder of little 5-year-old Destiny Norton, later admitted that it all started with his addiction to Internet pornography.

“Let’s stop this rapidly growing trend of young people becoming addicted to the dangerous and pernicious aspects of the Internet!” says Scott Dow, Director of Children’s Way, “It’s our responsibility to teach our children how to use this great learning tool responsibly--we must take aggressive and decisive action to teach our young children not only what not to do, but also what to do while using the Internet.

Community, businesses, schools and government are uniting to bring the “Half-Hour 2 Empower” program to families. This program encourages and assists parents in their role as a child’s first teacher, to spend more time with that child at the computer, learning together how to be a safe and responsible citizen. “Getting the parents to sit down with their children at the computer is a critical step to solving this problem”, states Alan Osmond, Chairman of One Heart Foundation, “Our young children need to be taught the correct way to use the Internet for good.”

“The Internet is a powerful tool. As with any tool, we must instruct our children on how to use it safely. Our elementary school systems are a critical part of this program to support the parents of this young generation”, states Carmen Snow, President of the Utah PTA.

There is a plethora of great teaching materials available to parents so they can teach their children about this frightening issue, but the problem is motivating parents to learn the material themselves and take the time to teach it to their children. The “Half-Hour 2 Empower” program fixes this disconnect, and at the same time provides the business community opportunity to officially sponsor it by attaching their brand to this great cause.

“Government, schools and the business community are here to support parents in their role as teacher of their children of these critical life skills”, states (Governor Jon Huntsman, or Gary Herbert, or Mary Kaye Huntsman, or Attorney General Mark Shurtleff), “These principles must be taught at a very early age now in our society.”

Scott Baker, President of the Murray Chamber of Commerce, commented, “Every business and corporation that participates as an Official Sponsor of the well-being of these children and the future of this country, will not only be helping to build up a great community, but they will also receive some great marketing value. The ROI on this type of investment is tremendous!”

“The Internet is a powerful tool. As with any tool, we must instruct our children on how to use it safely. Our elementary school systems are a critical part of this program to support the parents of this young generation”, states Carmen Snow, President of the Utah PTA.

Children’s Way is a non-profit organization headquartered in Provo, Utah with satellite offices in Washington, DC, and Colorado Springs, CO.