This past Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending a Family Online Safety Institute roundtable discussion on the issues families are facing with online safety. Hosted at the Googleplex, our morning started with a screening of "Growing Up Online", the PBS documentary that takes a look at some of the real issues kids are facing on the Internet from cyberbullying to online predators. Kids these days seem overly willing to post their personal information and pictures on the Internet and don't realize that it may haunt them down the road.

 

This was the third time I have seen the documentary and every time I learn something new.  It truly is an incredible video that every family should sit down and watch together. The producer, Rachel Dretzin, was there to answer questions about the documentary and explain to the crowd why she was inspired to make this film. She shared some of the incredible feedback she has received over the past couple of months from families across the country.

 

Following the screening, Stephen Balkam, the CEO of FOSI, along with Anne Collier, (author of "MySpace Unraveled") led a roundtable discussion about what the current problems and challenges we are facing with our kids who have grown up online - and how do we go about educating parents on how to respond to this problem.

 

Our very busy day was a fascinating experience and turned out to be one of the most candid, open discussions I've heard on how to keep kids safe online. We need to educate parents about what their kids are doing online. I think many parents do not know what their kids are up to on their computers and even if parents do have an idea - they might not know how to respond to it. Our discussion was a great way to hear the ideas from leaders in the field and to start working together to give parents the education they need.  I plan to keep this discussion going to help address online safety and privacy concerns!

I recently attended and participated in the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Summit in Aspen, Colorado.

 

The Summit panel discussion topics included new debates about intermediary liability on the Internet, online behavioral advertising, marketing and privacy, and next generation network policy.   In addition, there was a fascinating panel discussion about communications and information policy with government officials from Mexico, Germany, Japan and Spain.  Ambassador David Gross (US Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy with the U.S. Department of State) served as moderator for the session.

 

I spoke at one of the program's working dinners, addressing "Kids, Media and Marketing:  Child Safety and Privacy in a Web 2.0 World."  This working dinner discussion, moderated by PFF's Adam Thierer, focused on legislative and regulatory proposals that would regulate various types of media content, platforms, or forms of online communications and commerce in response to child safety and privacy concerns.  The lively off-the-record discussion also included remarks from several congressional staff, as well as representatives from Microsoft, MySpace.com, and the Family Online Safety Institute.

 

I spoke about the results of my online safety survey conducted a few months ago,, highlighting the generational differences regarding safety and the respondents overwhelming concern about protecting personal privacy.

 

Overall, the Summit provided me with some thoughtful new views on communications policy issues both in the U.S. and abroad, current policy debates, as well as the issues we need to consider in the future.

 

This is a timely news article as students begin to head back to start a new school year. Illinois lawmakers have written a bill that will require students to take classes on Internet safety for the 2009-2010 school year. This is similar to the measures VA legislators took to make it mandatory for public schools to teach their students about the potential risks and consequences they can encounter online. I think we'll begin to see more and more states adopting this important idea. Because students are often bullied by their classmates, kids need to receive information from their teachers and school administrators on what to do when they are cyberbullied or are encountering other problems on the Internet. The more we can educate our children on this issue the smarter -- and safer -- they will become while surfing the net.