TDA_Boulder helps open the dialogue about keeping kids safe from online sexual predators

The video is a simple, yet chilling reminder that our kids are not always safe online, and that there are ways to help keep them safe.

The pro-bono campaign by TDA_Boulder, a small, award-winning Colorado agency, is focused on creating awareness about protecting kids on social media, especially as the summer kicks in and children and teens are on social media more.

“The key issue is that one-in-ten children will be sexually abused before they turn 18. That's not anything anybody really ever wants to talk about or think about,” said Gina Earles, executive director at Blue Sky Bridge.

“But it's a reality in every demographic, in every community, in every neighborhood. We're working really hard to fight that number and make that number go down. The worst part of the whole thing is only about 10 per cent of children who are abused ever tell an adult.”

Earles said that the one-in-ten number is a national statistic that extends beyond US borders, but that the research is difficult because many kids don’t report their abuse, or if they do it’s years after the incident.

“We've seen cases where children are lured into a relationship with somebody online and either through gaming sites, through social media kind of places like Facebook, through YouTube where somebody will create a YouTube page that seems like it's some kid that's created a YouTube page and they'll get kids to connect to that page and, sure enough, it's actually a perpetrator that's created that page,” she said.

From a marketing angle, trying to address touchy subjects such as sexual predators can be difficult. They can either miss the mark because they dance around the issues, or they can be heavy-handed, which can turn off the viewer because of the heaviness of the spot.

The campaign by TDA_Boulder hits the mark because it uses the right amount of gravity and empathy. It’s something that is close to Jonathan Schoenberg, executive creative director and partner at TDA_Boulder.

“I've been with the organization for probably about four years as a board member. Early on I read a piece that sort of described the role of social media in allowing kids to be vulnerable that I never got out of my head. I remember it was specifically focused on the fact that kids were less likely to report because they were afraid of losing their devices,” said Schoenberg.

He went on to say that kids make comfortable and sometimes deep connections through social media, which opens them up to a predator who can create a rapport and draw them in. That’s why he is open with his own children and talks with them about social media. He is also realistic about the fact that parents cannot monitor everything kids do on social media, and that the threat of taking away their devices can sometimes lead kids to hide their activity.

“We recently had a conversation at a meeting where one child told his siblings all the ways to hide things from their parents while the parents are just sitting there. They're like, ‘We're sitting right here.’ It's an area where we know there's vulnerability and it's for people creating relationships. It was a nice place to allow parents to see that and to make sure they're as involved as they can be. There are limitations in how involved they can be there and we know that, too,” admitted Schoenberg.

Using the Facebook-style platform made sense for the campaign, because the parents they deal with spend more time on Facebook than Snapchat or other more youth-popular sites.

For upcoming elements of the awareness campaign, TDA_Boulder and Blue Sky Bridge are looking to address the issue of a sexual predator being someone the child already knows.

“It's a cousin, a coach, a teacher, somebody who's trusted,” said Schoenberg.

“There are things that we can do to keep kids safe from the online world, but the fundamental fact is that 90-95 per cent of kids that are abused are abused by somebody in their world. Somebody they and their family knows very well and trusts and they're in their world, in their home, sitting next to them on their couch. This is somebody they like, they love, or they live with,” said Earles.

Blue Sky Bridge has been around for 21 years and they are the child advocacy center for Boulder County, working with abused kids by partnering with law enforcement, human services, the DA's office, therapists, the medical community and others who care about kids in the community.

“The main service we provide is a forensic interview of kids. So, basically it's part of the investigative process where law enforcement or human services, when they get a report of child abuse, they bring a family to Blue Sky Bridge and we have highly trained, highly clinical, forensic interviewers who talk to kids and help them to tell what they need to tell in a very safe place. It's a very child friendly facility and we talk to kids from about three until 18 and then we'll also talk to vulnerable adults like developmentally-delayed adults and others, but most of what we see is kids between three and seventeen,” said Earles.

“We are helping them to talk about what may or may not have happened to them. At the same time we provide support services to their caregivers, so the adults that come with them to the center. All of that is just a really critical part of the investigation yes, but also is really important to help these families move forward from what's happened to them and really move into that healing phase.”

In addition, Earles said that Blue Sky Bridge also has extensive prevention education programs that go into schools in and around Boulder to talk with third grade students about issues of body safety and a “No, go tell” plan that helps them get out of unsafe situations.

The campaign with TDA_Boulder is one in a series of needed steps to educate the public about this sensitive issue.

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Credits:

Client: Blue Sky Bridge

Art Director: Michael Nesmith

Copywriters: Jonathan Schoenberg, Dan Colburn

Producer: Kate Osborne

Production Co: Buck Ross Productions

Director: Ryan Ross

Editor: Lam T. Nguyen

Media Director: Samantha Johnson