Local law enforcement/Upper Valley SAFE Initiative to Youth Digital Safety Workshop Saturday

REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) — As digital threats evolve, local law enforcement and community volunteers are joining forces to ensure parents aren’t left behind.

On Saturday, April 25, the Upper Valley SAFE Initiative will host a specialized workshop at Madison Junior High from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. to teach parents how to keep kids safe with modern technology. Founded by Dean and Kristin Coleman, SAFE (Safety, Awareness, Freedom, and Education) is a volunteer-led organization dedicated to helping families understand what’s really happening online—and what to watch for.

The workshop will feature representatives from the Rexburg Police Department and the Madison County Sheriff’s Office. Officers will share insights from local cases to illustrate the tactics used by online predators—tactics that officials say would surprise even tech-savvy parents.

Through a Facebook post with the Upper Valley SAFE initiative, Chief Josh Rhodes warned that the true risk is often hidden in plain sight: Direct Messaging (DM).

"Every social media platform has direct messaging, and that is where youth are being targeted," Chief Rhodes explained. "(They're) people who are posing as teenagers and fun and outgoing. And those those people are able to connect and they start communicating and direct messaging with the teenagers... As parents, we may overlook and think that they're just communicating with other teenagers, when in reality there's a lot of cases where they're not."