ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Federal prosecutors in Virginia are launching an educational initiative to alert students about the increasing dangers of online child sexual exploitation.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Raj Parekh on Friday announced the program, titled “UnMasked.”
It will include presentations at middle schools, high schools and universities.
The program will use a curriculum from the Alexandria-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The center says online sexual exploitation exploded in 2020, fueled by social isolation caused by the pandemic; the center received more than 21 million reports of child sexual exploitation from electronic service providers last year.
