ICE reaches out to more than 5,000 students in Puerto Rico during third annual iGuardian summit

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Approximately 5,000 students from the public and private schools in Puerto Rico received tips on how to avoid falling victim to online sexual predators Wednesday and Thursday at the Complejo Ferial de Puerto Rico in Ponce. The presentation is the third child abuse prevention and education summit organized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Juan, and one of largest Project iGuardian outreach since the inception of the initiative in March 2014.

As part of Project iGuardian, HSI special agents in San Juan organized the Internet safety outreach for children 12 to 16 years old to provide them with the necessary tools to make smart decisions when navigating in the Internet. HSI San Juan made the massive event possible by soliciting support from both the public and private sector. Ponce Mayor Maria Melendez Altieri and her team took care of all the logistics. The Puerto Rico Department of Education arranged for the transportation of students from schools in the Ponce Education Region to the Complejo Ferial de Puerto Rico Juan H. Cintron. Seventy-eight schools from 12 different municipalities participated in the event.

The mayor, as well as representatives from local, state and federal government attended the event and described it as unique and necessary and expressed their commitment to continue supporting HSI's initiative. All heads of federal agencies represented in Puerto Rico participated of the event and provided their personnel and equipment for the exhibits that followed the Internet safety presentations. According to the participating agencies, cyber safety education not only aids in prevention, but it also frequently generates valuable case leads.

HSI will continue working closely with its partner law enforcement agencies in Puerto Rico to coordinate and conduct Project iGuardian presentations. The initiative builds on the outreach already being conducted by the Puerto Rico Crimes Against Children Task Force (PRCACTF) in which local, state and federal law enforcement agencies work together with local and state government agencies to effectively pool their resources to jointly investigate all crimes against children in Puerto Rico. Through the task force, law enforcement officers are encouraged to share evidence, ideas, and investigative and forensic tools to ensure the most successful prosecutions possible. As such, PRCACTF allows law enforcement to speak with one unified voice in defense of the children of Puerto Rico.

At the end of the event, Melendez passed the baton to the representative of the municipality of Caguas, host of the next massive event in April 2017.

In 2014, HSI San Juan held the first iGuardian summit in the municipality of Trujillo Alto and reached out to more than 5,000 students. In 2015, the event moved to the municipality of Toa Baja reaching out approximately 8,000 students.

HSI recognizes the importance of education and community awareness regarding the dangers of online activity. Project iGuardian aims to counter a disturbing fact: many online child predators are able to find victims online because children are not aware of how dangerous online environments can be. HSI believes that providing children, teens, parents and teachers with information regarding the dangers of online environments and how to stay safe online can help prevent many instances of this crime.

HSI San Juan special agents reached out to more than 20,000 students in 2015 through 80 individual outreach presentations across the island.