Cox, Miss America Promote Internet Safety
Lauren Nelson to Join Take Charge Campaign
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 4/30/2007 8:36:00 AM MT
Miss America Lauren Nelson will take her pageant message of Internet safety on-air through a partnership with Cox Communications.
The beauty queen will join Cox's ongoing safety campaign, Take Charge, filming public-service announcements advising parents and their children to make safe choices when going online.
Nelson said she personally became aware of Internet predators after she and her friends made the mistake of giving their names, ages and locations online to someone who turned out to be a sexual predator.
"After we received inappropriate photographs from this person, we immediately told our parents and the situation was defused without incident. Unfortunately, not all kids are as lucky as my friends and I were," Nelson said in a prepared statement.
This is an extension of Nelson's involvement with Cox. When she was Miss Oklahoma in 2006, she starred in Internet-safety spots on Cox systems in the state. She will return to her home state, as well as traveling to Louisiana and Washington, D.C., this year, to participate in Cox-sponsored events targeting teens for Internet-safety education.
Nelson joins children's advocate John Walsh in the spots. Walsh has been the Take Charge spokesman since 2004.
