Jim English during his interview with Dan Wooding, photo via assistnews.net

A Christian reveals the �?Mother’ of a plan to fight online predators

Jim English is a successful Christian businessman who is launching a new plan called “Mother” to help children and parents fight online sexual predators, reports Dan Wooding, founder of ASSIST Ministries.

English, who is based in Rochester, Michigan, revealed his plan during an interview with me at the recent National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

I began by asking English to set the scene about why the Internet is so dangerous for today’s kids.

“Well what happens is that we think we all know the Internet, but we really don’t,” he said. “Most of us live in the twenty percent of the Internet that is the commercial side, but the other eighty percent is really done by the porn industry. What has happened is the porn industry has increased its contact with our children over the last few years and that’s what our program really is; to protect children against this.

“Back in 1989, there were fourteen-million websites in the whole world. By 1998, there were fourteen-million porn sites. Today there are three-hundred-fifty-million porn sites. So what happens is that a child can misspell the word Disney or Netflix or whatever it is in the search engine they can end up going to a porn site.

“So the first part of our �?Mother’ software protects children from that area so they can’t go to porn sites and also porn sites can’t really come to them. In the second part of our program we’re just finishing developing an email system which protects children from predators.

“What happens is that predators are out there on the Internet right now trying to get your child’s email address and once they get it, they can start soliciting your child. Our email program is designed so that when somebody new shows up in your child’s life, the parents are informed. In our software, parents can have different controls to stop the child from contacting other people, or the parent can just say, �?You can only talk to these twelve or fourteen people.’ So it’s a unique program and it’s a little different than everybody else’s.”

“Also we’ve been working with the FBI and what happens is when a child is taken by a predator, the first twenty-four hours are critical and what the FBI does it to run to your house and get your child’s computer and they try to figure out what happened.

English went on to say, “We have put all the data that takes place between the child and other people in a format that the FBI wants so they can call us and ask us for the information on a child, and we can give it to them in a format they want so they can distribute it to all of the other police departments in the world.”

He said that the “Mother” e-mail software is in Beta form at the moment.

“What we’re doing is in association with other companies,” said English. “For example we’re working with a company called Axiom TV which is going to carry our program. We are trying to put the program in places where there’ll be a natural advertising and communication system going where people will find it and then be able to use it. We’re directing it initially to some of the mega-churches right now that we have talked to and we are trying to get it to them so that they’ll take it to other churches.

“It’s a little bit of a different advertising and marketing campaign, but we’re going through the Christian community because we feel this is the place to go and that’s where it’s leading us.”

English then explained why he started his “Mother” project.

“What happened was that my phone ran some seven years ago and I discovered that my daughter got hit by a predator,” he said. “She had a bunch of little friends over and they got hit by a predator named Bob. They were in the family room in full view of everybody, but Bob showed up on our Internet. So what happened was after that I started looking into it and I began to explore ways to protect children.

“We found that what was out there were very simple programs that just kept children away from certain types of porn sites and that was it; there was nothing complete to really protect a child. So we created a company called Sunday’s Child and then we created a program putting everything together called �?Mother.’”

English said he has been able to assemble a team of programmers to develop the program.

“We also had people invest money and time,” he said. “People just came to us and we know that God sent them to help us build this program.”

English said the need is urgent in America at this time.

“In my investigations, I have discovered that seven out of ten children will be approached in one way or another by a sexual predator,” he stated. “If you are a parent, you can check through your local state or city government and find out who the predators are in your neighborhood. They constantly move they constantly do things to try to find children.

“Previously they would try to become crossing guards or Boy Scout leaders to get close to children, but now they can just sit on their computers and can find children by going to chat rooms or blogs. The key to the whole thing is that they want to get your child’s email address. Once they get your child’s email address then they will start the process of seducing your child.”

He added, “my message to today’s children is that it’s much more dangerous than you think and you’re being seduced by your friends who think things are safe but really it isn’t. Be very, very careful that you know anybody you bring into your group. You think it is a twelve year old or thirteen year old friend, but actually they’re probably not.”

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[04/08/2008]

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