AOL Applauds Virginia Attorney General McDonnell’s Efforts to Protect Children Online

Virginia Youth Internet Taskforce Report Recommends Increased Education, Stronger Law Enforcement Tools and Tougher Penalties for Online Child Predators

AOL Commits $100,000 to Help Implement the Report’s Findings

Richmond, Va – Dec. 20, 2006 -- AOL today joined Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell as he released the final Virginia Youth Internet Taskforce report, which calls for increased efforts to educate parents and children to the dangers present on the Web. The report also recommends stronger tools for law enforcement, such as interstate subpoena and warrant authority, mandatory sentencing for convicted sexual predators, and the increased monitoring of paroled offenders. McDonnell established the Taskforce in July to develop a set of recommendations to protect Virginia’s youth from online child predators. It was comprised of representatives from AOL and other companies, members of the General Assembly, and other leaders from across the state.

“AOL is committed to working with parents, lawmakers and educators to help protect our children from online child predators,” said Mark Hileman, AOL’s Deputy General Counsel. “We commend General McDonnell for establishing this taskforce to study online child safety. The findings in this report, if implemented, will help make Virginia a safer place to raise a family.”

To help implement the Taskforce recommendations, AOL also announced today that it will provide $100,000 towards an Internet safety awareness campaign. This multi-media campaign will encourage all Virginia parents to learn how they can protect their children from the dangers of online predators.

“This campaign is designed to use off-line and on-line channels to raise the awareness of all parents – not just those who are Internet savvy,” said Charles Curran, AOL’s Chief Counsel for Policy and a member of the Taskforce. “We need to take a good part of this training off-line so that parents who are unfamiliar with Internet technology have the same opportunity to provide a safe Internet experience for their children.”

AOL has long been a leader in helping parents protect their children online, with tools such as AOL Parental Controls, phishing protections, free anti-virus protection, spam blockers, and more.

More information about General McDonnell’s Youth Internet Safety Taskforce may be found at www.oag.state.va.us/InternetTaskForce/index.html.

Information about AOL Parental Controls may be found on AOL at Keyword: Parental Controls or at AOL.com at http://daol.aol.com/safetycenter/parentalcontrols.

MySpace.com Statement

"Attorney General McDonnell and the working groups have done an extraordinary job bringing industry, government, parents, educators, and the non-profit sector together to address Internet safety issues. The groups' recommendations reflect the serious, studied, and collaborative approach they are taking to these challenges. We are optimistic these recommendations will be implemented to help make both online and offline communities safer. This has been a landmark year in Internet safety and we look forward to working with key leaders such as Attorney General McDonnell on these critical matters in the year to come."

-- Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer, MySpace.com