International children’s rights scholar and advocate, Warren Binford, will be the featured keynote at Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment’s Ray of Hope event. The breakfast event will be held on April 2 at the Holiday Inn City Centre in Sioux Falls.

Warren Binford will present How to Protect Children from Abuse Online, which documents the shocking proliferation and diversification of harms children have experienced online in the early 21st Century. It explains the immense challenges children, parents, law enforcement, prosecutors, and policymakers have encountered trying to ensure that children and youth are safe in the digital world. The presentation ends by highlighting what we are learning from both research and lived experience about what works and what doesn’t and outlines a path forward to ensure that children’s access to the online world does not end in tragedy.

Binford’s work focuses on tackling some of the toughest challenges children face in the 21st century including child exploitation online and tech-facilitated child abuse. She frequently works in collaboration with children’s organizations, governments, nonprofits, and academics to build transnational, cross-disciplinary and solution-focused approaches to 21st century problems. She has published almost 100 works, given approximately 300 lectures worldwide, and received approximately 50 awards and distinctions for her work. Professor Binford is the inaugural W.H. Lea Endowed Chair for Justice in Pediatric Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Colorado where she is a tenured Professor of Pediatrics and a Professor of Law (by courtesy).

Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment will host the event at the start of child abuse prevention month, typically recognized in April. “This event will be the launch of a public awareness push CPCM will be coordinating, to encourage awareness of tech-facilitated child abuse, and resources and tools for prevention and conversation starters for families and communities,” said Chrissie Young, Director of CPCM.

Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment was formed in 2017 as a result of Jolene’s Law Taskforce to develop sustainable solutions to reduce all forms of child maltreatment in South Dakota, beginning with child sexual abuse.

Tickets for the event are available at SDCPCM.com/RayofHope.