More than 1,700 teens from across the country have been invited to speak their minds during a national Boys & Girls Club conference in Washington this week.

Teen organizers chose discussion topics for the 39th annual National Keystone Conference, which includes forums on education, online safety and the influence of hip-hop culture on at-risk youth.

Keystone is a leadership development program for Boys & Girls Club members ages 14 to 18. This year’s Keystone Club members nationwide surveyed 46,000 other teens on the issues they consider most important. Today, a youth panel will present the compiled results.

Students in the Keystone Club at the Eastern Branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington said teen violence is among their top concerns. Michellay Cole, 15, said the newly imposed 10 p.m. juvenile curfew may help, but it won’t eliminate violence completely.

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“Some violence does happen at night, but it also happens during the day,” said Cole, a sophomore at Marriott Hospitality Public Charter School.

Amber Tolliver, a ninth-grader at Jefferson Junior High, also is worried about safety on social networking Web sites like MySpace.com.

“Every time I look at the news, it’s always talking about MySpace predators,” said Tolliver, 14. “That’s not good for children to be talking to older people on MySpace.”

In addition to an awards ceremony and community service projects, conference organizers have built in time for participants to explore the city, said Monica Clark, gang prevention coordinator for BGC of Greater Washington.

“The most important thing is to have fun,” she said, “to have some of the issues that they are concerned with addressed in their sessions, and to feel like they really accomplished something throughout this year.”