Unprecedented Diverse Group of Stakeholders Concerned with Child Online Safety and Digital Literacy Announces Best Practice Recommendations
Source: National Cable & Telecommunications Association

A diverse coalition of technology companies, child advocacy and parents’ groups, educators, and health researchers – joined by U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and John Shimkus (R-IL) – today announced a comprehensive set of recommendations that companies in the Internet industry can adopt as best practices to help keep children safe and smart when online. The effort marks the first time such an inclusive task force, representing companies and organizations such Verizon, Comcast, Cox, Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Symantec, Common Sense Media, the Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe), PTA, Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), and the Children’s Partnership, has come together to develop recommendations for industry best practices along with suggestions for policymakers to bring better coordination to online safety efforts and education efforts.

Contained in the report PointSmart.ClickSafe: Task Force Recommendations for Best Practices for Online Safety and Literacy, found online at www.pointsmartreport.org, the group’s recommendations span all sectors of the Internet industry and are intended to be applied selectively based on a company’s role and the types of services it offers. Embracing a child-centered perspective, the PointSmart.ClickSafe. recommendations address three categories of children’s online experience – before they go online, during online activities, and when problems arise – and suggest best practices for each stage. The recommendations recognize that a singular focus on safety is insufficient and that children also need to learn digital and media literacy skills to help them think more critically about their online activities and content they consume and create.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 4:00 am and is filed under Children and families, Internet, Privacy, Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.