Posted by Jacqueline Beauchere
Chief Online Safety Officer, Microsoft

The digital world offers students an abundance of resources and unlimited learning potential. Our largely one-size-fits-all approach to education and technology in the U.S., however, doesn’t seem to be working for today’s digital youth. Moreover, resources are not applied equitably across schools and classrooms. To help address these challenges, The Aspen Institute established a Task Force on Learning and the Internet, to understand the ways in which young people learn today, and to identify methods to expand educational opportunities online and off, inside and outside the classroom.

After a year of collaboration, the group released its findings via a comprehensive report entitled “Learner at the Center of a Networked World.” The Task Force’s conclusions suggest a radical rethinking of the very approach to education is needed—starting with the core belief that students must be at the center of their learning. 

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Posted by Jacqueline Beauchere
Chief Online Safety Officer, Microsoft

To mark Safer Internet Day (SID) 2014, Microsoft asks people to “Do 1 Thing” to stay safer online and to make that one thing part of their daily digital routines.

As part of this campaign, on Monday we’re launching a new interactive website Safer Online, where individuals can share their “Do1Thing” promise; learn what others are doing to help protect themselves online, and get instant tips to enhance and better protect their digital lifestyles.

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Posted by Jacqueline Beauchere
Chief Online Safety Officer, Microsoft

We’re all very aware of people’s desires to be “safe” and “secure,” and to exist and engage in environments – both online and off – that are built on trust. To define these points as absolute states of being, however, is impractical and unrealistic. Rather, when it comes to life online, we should focus first on the almost-innumerable advantages of the Internet; realize the online world is not without risk, and then seek to minimize and manage identified risks accordingly.

Perhaps somewhat of an exercise in semantics, but the need for this distinction became abundantly clear at the 2013 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Bali, Indonesia, which took place from Oct. 22 to Oct. 25. I was observing a panel discussion entitled “Protection of the Most Vulnerable Children Online,” organized and moderated by Yuliya Morenets, Executive Director of the NGO Together Against Cybercrime and an associate professor at Strasbourg University.

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Posted by Jacqueline Beauchere
Chief Online Safety Officer, Trustworthy Computing, Microsoft

At the kickoff event for his year-long presidential initiative, “America’s Promise – Keeping Our Kids Safe,” the new leader of the U.S. National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) promised to help protect American youth in all aspects of their lives, including life online.

“We need to focus on prevention,” NAAG president and Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen told an audience of about 120, including AGs, members of their staffs and others in Milwaukee last week. “We need to educate our kids; we need them to build positive relationships with law enforcement, and we need to take people off the streets (who would do children harm).”

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Posted by Jacqueline Beauchere
Chief Online Safety Officer, Trustworthy Computing, Microsoft

From antimalware solutions and automatic updates, to firewalls and strong passwords, Microsoft and the technology industry routinely stress that consumers should exercise basic “digital hygiene.” To some, these pieces of advice come as second nature. Most U.S. consumers, however, appear to ignore key technology tools that could help them stave off issues.

New Microsoft research shows the majority of U.S. consumers are not leveraging some basic technology tools that could help them better manage their online transactions and protect their personal data. The third annual Microsoft Computing Safety Index (MCSI), a gauge to help assess consumer online habits and behaviors, shows that only 40 percent of U.S. respondents, on average, say they’ve turned on their computer’s firewall and left it on. This is down seven and 10 percentage points, respectively, from the 2012 and 2011 Indices. Data tell a similar story when consumers self-report about installing antimalware software, and turning on and running automatic updates.

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