Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch officially concluded his one-year term as president of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) when he passed the ceremonial gavel to Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning this week at the NAAG summer meeting in Colorado Springs, CO.

The first Rhode Island Attorney General to hold the top leadership position of NAAG, Lynch adopted The Year of the Child as his presidential initiative, with the goal of strengthening protections for children and teenagers, especially in the area of online social networking.

“I am gratified by the many ways in which my colleagues and I advanced the fight against Internet child predators and for online safety during my term as NAAG president,” he said. “So much remains to be done, however, as the sophistication and reach of technology continue to explode. With the pledge of my successor, Attorney General Bruning, to continue to make this a priority, we will persist in our work to safeguard our children and young people from the myriad dangers of social networking on the Internet and in other technologies.”

Some of the most significant agreements forged during Lynch’s year of leadership include:

· A partnership between CTIA-The Wireless Association and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to keep cell phone devices and services free of child pornography. Lynch headed the working group that led to the partnership. · An agreement between the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and NCMEC to remove child pornography sites from the Internet. · An agreement reached with Craigslist by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and 42 other states, including Rhode Island, in which the online classified ad website consented to take action to deter and crack down on inappropriate content and illegal activity in its erotic services section.

Other achievements occurring early in 2008 improved social networking safety, with MySpace and Facebook taking a series of important steps to better protect young people using the sites.

Lynch convened NAAG’s presidential summit in Philadelphia in May. The meeting focused on cyberbullying, sexting, sexual predators, social networks and e-safety.

The safety of minors using social networking sites, and protecting children from sexual predators and inappropriate content, also were prominent on the agenda of NAAG’s spring meeting, held in Washington, DC, in March 2008, as were discussions on promising age- and identity-verification technologies then under development.

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AG LYNCH CONCLUDES TERM AS NAAG PRESIDENT JUNE 19, 2009 PAGE 2

Lynch credited a software program called “Operation Fairplay,” which he learned about in his capacity with NAAG, for helping the Rhode Island State Police snare 11 people arrested on child pornography charges in May of this year. Developed by Boca Raton, FL-based TLO Holdings I, the company is distributing the software free to government agencies and non-profits worldwide trying to protect children. Rhode Island, in its sweep of the alleged peer-to-peer-child pornography traders, is one of the first states to benefit from the software.

Lynch also was the keynote speaker at the Sex Offender Registration and Management Conference, a national conference held by the Arlington, VA-based Performance Institute in February of this year. Lynch’s topic was the challenges facing states and local jurisdictions in implementing the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, also known as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.

He also continued focusing on dating violence prevention. At NAAG’s summer meeting, held in Providence and Newport last June, Lynch and Bruning sponsored a resolution in support of teen dating-violence education that the national AGs’ group unanimously adopted. The resolution endorsed the Lindsay Ann Burke Act, a bill proposed by Lynch that was passed into law in Rhode Island in 2007 that mandates that dating-violence education be incorporated into the existing health education curriculum, for middle and high school students, in each district of the state. The law further directs that each school district adopt a zero tolerance policy and establish guidelines and discipline procedures to respond to any dating-violence incidents taking place at school, or on school grounds. In accordance with the law, all school districts had their policies in place by Dec. 1, 2008.

Lynch participated in the National Foundation for Women Legislators’ (NFWL) National Policy Committee on Crime, Justice, Terrorism and Substance Abuse’s annual conference last November, when the NFWL passed a resolution on teen dating-violence education. He also has participated in several national events sponsored by Liz Claiborne Inc. through its “It’s Time to Talk Day” Love is Not Abuse program, and participated in Liz Claiborne’s December 2008 launching of Moms and Dads for Education (MADE) to Stop Teen Dating Abuse, a nationwide coalition of parents, teachers and citizens advocating for teen dating abuse education legislation throughout the nation.

Lynch established NAAG’s strategic planning committee and “best practices” task force during his presidential year; ensured Rhode Island’s participation in several multistate investigations, some of which resulted in securing settlement money for the state; fought to maintain the flow of money to all states from the Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco industry; and fostered strong ties with the Obama Administration, resulting in several meetings with high-level administration members both during the transition period and since.

Lynch, who campaigned to bring the 2008 Summer Meeting to Rhode Island, was sworn in as president last June at a dinner at Rosecliff in Newport. He will continue his leadership role with NAAG while serving as Immediate Past President this year.

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