Posted by Caroline Curtin Policy Counsel, U.S. Government Affairs
Yesterday the U.S. Senate proclaimed June as National Internet Safety month, part of a nationwide effort to raise public awareness of potential online threats.
At Microsoft, we’re continually looking for new ways to share online safety tips and tools with parents and children. Recently we worked with the nation’s largest school system – the New York City Department of Education – to develop a four-part Internet safety video called Clicking with Caution. The video series will be distributed to all NYC middle-school students this week.
We‘re especially excited about this safety video because it was produced by teens for teens. ReelWorks, a New York City-based company that mentors teens in the art of filmmaking, produced the documentary-style videos, which focus on online awareness, online predators, cyber-bullying and smart gaming. As the students in the video explain during a classroom discussion about online safety, kids know more about the Internet than adults do, in some ways, though they may not understand the risks.
A broad-based group representing the technology industry, public interest groups, and the federal government has released a report—“Youth Safety on a Living Internet”—that exploresindustry efforts to make the Internet a safer place for children.
The Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG) was established by the Broadband Data Improvement Act. Passed by Congress in 2008, the legislation directed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to create the OSTWG in order to examine industry efforts to promote online safety and evaluate the development of parental control technologies.
I participated on Microsoft’s behalf—along with more than 30 child safety experts from the public and private sectors—in the OSTWG meetings over the last year.
I learned many things during my year with the OSTWG, but one meeting particularly stands out. We invited middle and high school students from Washington, D.C. schools to talk about their experiences on the Internet. Students expressed genuine concern for their “digital reputations” and how unintended consequences of the pictures they post and messages they leave on social networks could potentially affect their ability to get into college or attain a job.
Posted by Pamela Passman Corporate Vice President, Global Corporate Affairsand Ravi Singh CEO of ElectionMall.com
The 2008 presidential election showed how powerful the Internet has become in modern politics. From raising money to communicating with constituents to organizing staff, cloud computing is enabling incredible opportunities and efficiencies. Candidates are increasingly using social media tools like Twitter to communicate directly with voters, and Facebook recently launched a new U.S. Politics on Facebook Page where people can track campaign and political activity occurring on the social networking site. To help campaigns of all sizes leverage the power of the Web, ElectionMall.com and Microsoft have partnered to create Campaign Cloud, a customizable platform of technologies that simplifies the process of building and maintaining an online political presence.