Mount Gilead Baptist Church is hosting the community awareness program Protecting Our Kids Saturday at 2 p.m. at the church, which is at 14550 U.S. Highway 19 South in Griffin.

The free event is designed as a one-day seminar and geared toward educating parents, grandparents and other family members as well as community leaders and clergy about the dangers of Internet predators and child molesters as well as other dangers that can pose harm to children.

Information at the seminar will be provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Among the topics of the awareness program are facts about crimes committed against children, precautionary measures, what to do when a child is missing, where to get educational tools and how to protect children when they are using online gaming and social networking sites.

The seminar will be led by Lemuel Mercado, coordinator of the criminal justice department at Southern Crescent Technical College (SCTC) and former juvenile investigator for the Griffin Police Department (GPD), and Robert Taylor, police officer at SCTC and former juvenile investigator for the GPD.