Wynona’s House, Essex County’s Child Advocacy Center, Holds 2022 Training and Workshops on Child Maltreatment: Free Multidisciplinary Team Response Training Event, With Focus on Metaverses
Featuring Internationally Recognized Child Abuse Expert Michael Johnson,
Specialist in Abuse Investigation, Detection, and Prevention Efforts

NEWARK – October 11, 2022 – The Wynona’s House Child Advocacy Center proudly presented its 2022 Training and Workshops on Child Maltreatment, titled “Child Safety in the Dawn of the Metaverse – Are We Ready for This New Frontier?” which consists of two training events. The first event was held at Montclair State University on October 11, 2022, and was aimed at improving collaborative responses to the emerging threat of victimization for children in virtual environments, such as metaverses. Even though metaverses may be virtual, the impact is real. The workshops focused on enhancing Children Advocacy Center (CAC) and multidisciplinary team (MDT) competencies to improve collaborative response and provision of an array of services, including medical and mental health, to children victimized in virtual environments as well as current and evolving laws, strategies, and practices to help protect children online and keep them safe. This training offered 4.5 continuing education credits. Honored guests and speakers included:

• Internationally Recognized Child Abuse Expert Michael Johnson
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Victim Services Division, Child Victim Services Unit Forensic Child Interview Specialist Maggie Sweeney, MSW, LSW
• Metro Regional Diagnostic & Treatment Center, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center Dr. Karyn C. Smarz
• William Paterson University, PsyD Program Director of Clinical Training & New Jersey Psychological Association Executive Board Member Dr. Aileen Torres

Training topics provided valuable information for medical and mental health professionals, law enforcement professionals, social workers, educators, advocates, and child protection workers. In-person attendees also had the opportunity to try a virtual reality headset to gain a better understanding of metaverses. Details about the event are available at www.wynonashouse.org/events/2022-trainings-and-workshops-on-child-maltreatment. The next event in this training series will be offered on November 14, 2022. Wynona’s House will be the first to stream the documentary “Sextortion: The Hidden Pandemic” in the tri-state area. The film is “an investigation into the world of online grooming and sextortion–a present-day reality for one in seven children online.” Watch the trailer and learn more at www.sextortionfilm.com.

“Every year we have the opportunity to educate our communities on emerging threats to child wellbeing and the latest developments in child advocacy,” stated Dominic Prophete, CEO, Wynona’s House, Essex County’s Child Advocacy Center. “Threats to children on the internet have evolved to include threats in metaverses now, and child welfare advocates must evolve as well. Attendees, and even our own team members, have remarked how essential it is to be able to come together and share information through our annual trainings and workshops regarding child maltreatment.”

Wynona’s House’s vision for these trainings is to create a platform to raise awareness of the child abuse and neglect epidemic in our country. The mission is to educate the community on the MDT approach and the innovative and effective best practices of CACs. The shared goal is that children are supported and no victim is overlooked. Wynona’s House welcomes fellow advocates in the ongoing fight against child maltreatment.

The United States continues to be the largest producer and consumer of child abuse materials. The COVID-19 pandemic-imposed lockdowns, and social distancing regulations have accelerated the advancement of online engagement technology, our society’s move to online engagement platforms has further increased the normalization of unsupervised, prolonged child social interaction on virtual platforms. It has provided easier and prolonged access to children for child predators and has placed exponentially more children at risk of being abused, trafficked, and sexually exploited. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children statistical report, 2020 was a record-breaking year, with more than 21.7 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation made to NCMEC’s CyberTipline, the highest number of reports ever received in one year. In addition, there have been 82 million reports of child sexual abuse material. According to the same report, they have noticed a clear and disturbing uptick in their CyberTipline reports of online enticement—in 2020 alone, these types of incidents increased 97.5% compared to the year prior. This grooming of children for sexual solicitation and online prostitution is considered a technology-facilitated form of human trafficking of children.

While many federal and state laws protect children from explicit content and sexual and labor exploitation online, the specific features of these user-generated virtual worlds allow for violations of these protections as safety features are left to users to police themselves. This leaves users, particularly children, vulnerable in “real life” and in virtual reality. This offers predators an opportunity to exploit this not sufficiently regulated world.

For questions regarding this event, please contact Wynona’s House Development and Communication Associate Minela Kajmak at mkajmak@wynonashouse.org or 973-735-2237.

About Wynona’s House Child Advocacy Center

Wynona’s House is an incorporated 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization named in honor of its legislative champion, the late Senator Wynona Lipman, who helped develop the Center to promote justice, hope, and healing for child victims of abuse and neglect throughout Essex County by coordinating investigation, prosecution, treatment, prevention, and supportive services utilizing the “child-centered” multidisciplinary team approach. Located in Newark, Wynona’s House is the only co-located Child Advocacy Center in New Jersey, serving over 800,000 Essex County residents and providing direct services to more than 950 abused/neglected children each year. For more information about Wynona’s House visit wynonashouse.org.

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