Enough is Enough – Online Safety for Kids

Today was a good day. For a little over a year now, I’ve been partnering with an organization called Enough is Enough (EIE). EIE is dedicated to educating parents, teachers and community leaders on how to keep children safe online. That cause is very close to my heart, since I’m a) a proud father, and b) a paranoid security guy with 14 years in the computer industry. Some of you know that I hold a great deal of respect for child safety advocates like John Walsh and Julie Clark, and that my wife and I have led numerous fundraising results for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and Stop the Silence.

EIE’s flagship offering is a program called Internet Safety 101. The program is a collection of videos with workbooks and follow-up exercises that help educate, equip and empower adult leaders to protect children from the very real dangers out there on the world wide web. The videos are broken up by topic, and can be used to teach particular topics, including sexual predators, social media, mobile device usage (and statistics), online gaming, risky youth behavior and cyberbullying.

Today, EIE’s executive director, Donna Rice Hughes, and her staff came to my workplace for a train-the-trainer session. Several volunteers gave their time to learn about this program and how we can go out to our communities and educate parents and children. Ever had that “I’m in the right place at the right time” vibration resonate through you? That was me in this session today.

Part of the EIE program includes safety tips titled Rules and Tools. This section goes in to having rules and policies in place with your children, and then backing those rules up with technical controls. It just so happens that my employer has most of those technical controls available in one product…and it’s free.

Norton Online Family is a free tool from Symantec. What does it do? This product lets you know what your kids are doing online with both their PCs and smartphones, so you can better protect them. (Let’s face it. What good is a great PC antivirus and firewall solution if your kids are just gonna walk away and hit the dangerous places on their phone, right?) Norton Online Family facilitates parents’ ability to have a meaningful discussion on appropriate online behavior, and to enforce controls when necessary. It works on PC’s, Macs, iOS devices and android phones.

In addition to teaching individuals, EIE also offers a facilitator program. Completion of this training allows interested individuals to train on the materials and learn how to present them to schools, churches and communities. I consider completing the training course and becoming a facilitator a badge of honor.

I’m now scheduled for three follow up events, going in to the schools to present the Internet Safety 101 program to parents and teachers. I couldn’t be more excited. This is an area of absolute need, and I look forward to helping educate these communities. If these efforts keep one child safe, my time is totally worth it.

So, what do you think? Interested in hearing more about EIE or trying out Norton Online Family? Want me to come present to your school or church? Let’s talk!

One Love,

nK

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Parent Alert! – 63% of teens surveyed admit they know how to hide what they do online from their parents.