Insights into Youth Behavior to Help Law Enforcement
Information Summary Sheet
The MJV Internet Safety Study is a two-year study whose goal and purpose is to contribute to the understanding of Internet and technology-facilitated crimes against juveniles and assist law enforcement in their efforts to emulate youth behavior online, gather evidence, and prosecute violators. The purpose of this project is to gather baseline data on prevalence and awareness of solicitous texting (“sexting”) using cell phone text messaging, frequency of solicitation and distribution of explicit images using online social networks, and types of technologies used for cyberbullying. Data will be gathered via questionnaires distributed to a stratified random sample of each school district’s student population, parents, and teachers.
About the Study
- 2-year Study
- Participating States
- _ _ Hawaii (Entire Distict)
- _ _ California (TBD)
- _ _ Wyoming (Natrona County #1)
- _ _ Virginia (22 County Districts)
- 36,000 Grade 5-12 Students and Parents
- 4,000 School Faculty
- Goal: To help law enforcement better protect youth online
- SubGoal: To help schools, parents, and community members better understand how youth are using various media technologies
Timeline
- October 2009 Revise Instrumentation
- December 2009 Participating School District Working Groups
- Mar-Apr 2010 Survey Dissemination 1
- Summer 2010 Data Entry and Analysis
- Aug-Sep 2010 Survey Dissemination 2
- Fall 2010 Reports Back to School Districts
- Fall 2010 Participating School District Working Groups
- Spring 2010 Policy Papers
- Spring 2010 Workshop Suggestions for Teachers
- Summer 2011 Full Analyses and Reports to DOJ; Data to School Districts
Project Team
Thanh Truc T. Nguyen, Ed.D. Principal Investigator
Phone: 808-956-6507 – Email: nguyen@hawaii.edu
Peter Ayala and Heather DeWoody Research Assistants
Email: ayalap@hawaii.edu
Email: dewoody@hawaii.edu
Phone: 1-808-956-9175
Fawn Liebengood Data Analyst
Lawton Takaesu Office Assistant
Advisory Board
Kristin Izumi-Nitao | Hawaii Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force | Hawaii Attorney General’s Office
Special Agent Arnold Laanui | Federal Bureau of Investigation | State of Hawaii
Ret. Detective Chris Duque | President, Infragard Hawaii
This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs FY 09 Recovery Act Internet Crimes Against Children Research Grant 2009-SN-B9-0003.