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Heroes
4thekids |
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When it came time to spotlight another Hero "4thekids", the
choice of English born Colin Gabriel Hatcher
was an easy one. For the last 19 years Gabriel has worked with the youth of the world. He
has been an instructor at London University Extra Mural Department in England. He has also
tutored High School students and worked with younger kids with learning disabilities.
Presently, Gabriel is President and CEO of SafetyEd International. Along the way he has won many
awards for his work with many public safety training and awareness courses for youth and
community groups worldwide. For the last nine years he has been a full time volunteer
working in the field of Privacy Protection, Cyberspace Law, Online Stalking and Internet
Etiquette, specializing in Kids Safety.
It's amazing that he can find the time to do what he does to make the world a better
place for children. Here is just a slice of the work he has done for the children of the
world. Gabriel has taught more than 10,000 hours of Internet Safety classes. One of his
Internet projects includes Wired With Wisdom™ (he is a founding member), which is an
educational program for schools, teachers and parents. He finds time to work with The Web Wise Kids™ program,
which is for hands on Internet Safety Education for school children.
Gabriel has appeared in many publications and television shows both national and
international to promote safety on the Internet. He was featured on ABC's 20/20 TV special
on Kids Safety Online. He also did a stint on the Safety Panel for the Internet Summit
"Kids Online" which was held in Washington DC in 1997and was attended by Vice
President, Al Gore. Along with this he was a major contributor to that Summit's White
Paper on Child Safety online.
He has also spent time teaching Law Enforcement Agents about the intricacies of
electronically tracing child predators and pedophiles online.
Dean has been a member of SafetyEd since it started in Aug of 1998 and had come to
know Gabriel through another organization. Gabriel's leadership skills are impressive and
his insistence on intensive training and his commitment to others makes SafetyEd one of
the leading groups for child safety on the Internet.
Over the years Dean has turned to Gabriel and more recently to SafetyEd for help and
has referred others to them and their excellent web site. SafetyEd's was the first place
that Dean and his wife looked for help when their daughter was being harassed through
e-mail by youths sending obscene messages, amongst other things. With guidance from
SafetyEd's staff the offending parties were quickly tracked down and reported to their
ISP's. The harassment stopped and squelched the activities of some potential hackers.
Whether from Gabriel or his staff, help has always been fast and very complete.
SafetyEd International's (http://www.safetyed.org)
is the first site recommended by 4thekids to families accessing the Internet for the first
time. The advice and information provided for families help to make the Internet a safer
place for them and their children.
When either members of 4thekids or outside parties have asked questions concerning
cyber stalking, spamming or child porn, we refer them to SafetyEd's International web
site. Invariably their questions are answered but if not, they are directed to where they
can find the answers.
When 4thekids sends out a Missing Kid Alert, SafetyEd and its worldwide membership
are there to pass it on. 4thekids has made use of SafetyEd's Internet skills countless
times. In the old west it was said that good trackers: could track a snake over a rock.
SafetyEd has tracked many snakes of the rocks of the Internet.
From their safe site programs to IRC chat room help, and all in between, SafetyEd
and it's leader Gabriel are true heroes 4thekids!
As Dean and Patty strive to make 4thekids into what they've envisioned, they have
turned to Gabriel and his organization for their gracious advice, guidance and support.
4thekids is very thankful for its relationship with SafetyEd. Dean and Patty are
very proud to be members of Gabriel's fine organization.
Ed Williams
Iowa’s Missing and Exploited Children
A couple of years ago over the Christmas holidays, a friend's special
needs foster child ran away, while visiting her natural mother in a town in Iowa. By the
time the foster mother found out, the child had been gone for 3 days. She called me
because many years ago I had worked as a investigator with a company that found runaways..
We took off at once to this town in Iowa. We did all the things you should: contacted the
police, TV and Radio stations, put up fliers and checked the places that we thought kids
would hang out at. We were’t getting anywhere. Then my friend saw the phone number of
"Iowa’s Missing and Exploited Children "( 712-252-5000 ) in the front of a
phone book. We gave them a them a call. Ten minutes after giving them a call, we were
meeting with a Ed Williams, who after taking a report, he made just one phone call and
within 20 minutes a group of 10 to 20 people were in the office, older people, teenagers,
housewives, even a couple of grandparents. After going over the details, he made copies of
our flier and the group "HIT THE STREETS". Over the next 5 days, they were there
checking out every lead. (Even the ones that were a little dangerous. ) It turned out that
this missing teenager had gotten hooked up with some REAL BAD guys. Once it started
getting real dangerous, Mr. Williams, pulled his people off the streets, but he continued
to go with us, with more than just a little risk. To make a long story short, we ended up
finding the girl in another state, thanks to a tip the we received from a TV spot that Mr.
Williams got for us. Something that I’ll never forget about this is event… That
first meeting with Mr. Williams, my friend wanted to know if they charged a fee? When she
was told no, she wanted to know if they took donations? All Mr. Williams said was,
"Never when we’re helping someone.." I have always wanted to pay him back
for the service he gave, and the risks he took. Then I found this here link. It’s for
the National Missing and Exploited Children" I’m not sure if the group in Iowa
is connected to this one (I am checking) but I know he wouldn’t care. All he cares
about is finding missing kids. So I want to ask all of you with a web page to PLEASE go to
the site and click on the "How can I help" button, copy the html code, and paste
it to a page on your site.
THANK YOU, Dean
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Copyright © 1999 "4thekids". All rights reserved.
Revised: April 22, 2000.