Link of the Week: Feb. 17 - Feb. 23
The CyberTipline
This week’s link uses the Internet to combat a problem that the World Wide Web may have made worse.

According to The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), which handles leads from individuals reporting the sexual exploitation of children, reports of child sexual exploitation are at an all time high.

Over the past five years, reports to its congressionally mandated CyberTipline have increased 750 percent. These reports include cases of child molestation (outside of the family), child pornography, child prostitution, online enticement of children, child sex tourism, unsolicited obscene material sent to a child, and the federally mandated reports of child pornography from Internet Service Providers.

The CyberTipline provides useful information about what to do if you suspect a child is being exploited, and offers an online means of reporting crime. It is also a clearinghouse of information about missing and exploited children, and it provides information about state legislation to help ensure the protection of children.

Nonprofits Online
View our latest links page for nonprofits here.

Media Forum Links
The handouts that were distributed by journalists at our media forum are online. Journalist contact information is posted also, if you want to follow up with any of the people you met at the forum (or if you live in the Asheville area and want to see what you missed!).

Link/Article of the Week Archives
For your convenience, we've begun archiving past weeks' featured links and articles.

The Missing Link
Have any suggestions for us regarding next week’s link? Or is there information you seek, but you can’t find a helpful link? Let us know! If others would benefit from the information, we just may track down a link for you, or use your suggestion as Link of the Week.

Contribute Online!
It is now possible to contribute to FIRE online using your credit card. Please help us out, we can't be effective without your financial support! In the future, we will also be using similar technology, provided by PayPal, to enable you to pay for our upcoming events from our website with ease.

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Are you enjoying our "link of the week" and "article spotlight" features? Please let us know.

Welcome to FIRE, a non-profit organization which provides community media resources to the Appalachian region. You can use the search box on this page to search our online archive of media outlets throughout the area. If you are a local journalist (or want to be), visit the "Resources for Journalists" section. You'll find resources that will improve your community reporting skills and will enable area residents to easily locate your published articles online.

FIRE's purpose is to promote citizen participation and community-based media. Please contact us if you would like to participate in our programs or if you have any feedback that will improve this Web site.