The young boy sits in what appears to be a bar, possibly a strip joint, as adults walk around him. Suddenly, with a knock on the door, the scene around him dissolves into his bedroom. He's sitting at a computer, and his dad is checking in on him.

"In the digital world, kids can be anywhere," a narrator says. "Know where they go."

The commercial is one of two television public service announcements and two radio public service announcements being released to educate the public about online luring of minors and what U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley calls "sexploitation."

Wrigley and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl appeared at news conferences in Bismarck and Fargo on Tuesday to launch the Project Safe Childhood national public awareness campaign.

Project Safe Childhood was launched in May 2006 as a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse. The project directs federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims.

One television PSA and one radio PSA target parents and responsible adults. Like the commercial with the boy on his computer, the radio commercial begins with a young girl talking about chatting online with older men and sometimes pretending she's older to get on sites.

One television PSA and one radio PSA target people seeking to exploit children over the Internet. The two ads feature similar narrations, with the message being that no matter what a person has done in the rest of his life, exploiting children is a federal crime that will result in a prison sentence.

The campaign also will feature advertisements in print and movie theaters and on the Internet.

Wrigley said Project Safe Childhood has made a difference nationwide in the number of prosecutions related to online exploitation of children and teenagers. Though he was prohibited from giving exact numbers by Department of Justice policy, Wrigley said the number of prosecutions handled in North Dakota doubled from 2007 to 2008. The crimes involved include child pornography, sexual abuse and luring of minors.

While previously law enforcement officials going online posing as teens or children were approached by adults within minutes and asked to meet in person within hours, officials now often have to investigate for weeks before getting propositioned, Wrigley said.

"That's an important spin off the efforts that have been out there," he said.

Wrigley hopes the number of prosecutions eventually will go down, meaning that fewer adults are trying to target minors online. He said pedophiles and "sexploiters" come from all walks of life, and part of the Project Safe Childhood campaign aims to prevent them from exploiting children.

"This campaign is aimed directly at them," he said.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)