Local Martial Arts School Takes Leadership Role To Prevent Children

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) December 2, 2008 -- Denny Strecker, owner of Denny Strecker’s Karate, recently announced that the school has expanded its personal safety/self-defense instruction to include the protection of children and families from Internet predators. The school has distributed an Internet Predators Guide, developed by the FBI, to all its child-age students. It also includes the Guide as part of new student introductory kits and provides a copy to every child during academic school presentations. Visitors to the school will also receive a free copy upon request.

“Child pornographers, predators and abusers are not just lurking in dark alleys and cruising playgrounds,” said Strecker. “They are using computer technology to find and arrange to meet children. Education is always the first line of self-defense, so it’s important that our students understand how predators operate, recognize their enticements and avoid their advances.”

Strecker added that the following statistics motivated the school to teach its students and their parents about this issue. According to Family Safety Media, the largest group of viewers of Internet porn is children between ages 12 and 17. A National Children's Homes report stated that the number of Internet child pornography images has increased 1,500% since 1988; and more than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, October 2003).

According to Strecker, most martial arts instructors have dedicated their lives to teach their students, who are mostly children, self-defense techniques that help to protect them from physical attack. Since the ancient beginnings of martial arts training, however, instructors have taught their students the one self-defense technique that requires no physical skills and will stop most bullies, abductors and Internet predators in their tracks, and that is awareness.

“When a child has the mental skills to be more aware of his surroundings, whatever environment in which he finds himself, then he already has an advantage,” stated Strecker. These awareness skills easily translate to the protection of children from Internet predators, even though the Internet is a virtual or digital environment.

Denny Strecker s Karate     internet safety     self-defense for children