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Digital Citizenship and Responsible Online Use Key Components to Kids Online Safety

FOSI Paris Conference Convenes Leading International Experts

Washington DC – August 16, 2009 - The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) today hosted a conference in Paris sponsored by AT&T and France Telecom with online safety experts from across the globe to discuss Global Digital Citizenship: Encouraging Safe and Responsible Online Use. The conference’s timing was critical: As universal broadband access expands, industry and Internet users alike must adapt to meet new needs, especially those of developing countries.

The conference was well attended by prominent voices from Egypt, Lebanon, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, the U.K. and the U.S. Sessions focused on the most critical aspects of keeping kids safe online: digital citizenship, media literacy, privacy, technology solutions, location-based services and wireless safety efforts.

“The average age of a European child with a cell phone is eight and a half years old, and this trend is becoming more common around the world,” said Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute. “We need to emphasize a ‘Culture of Responsibility Online’ where government, industry, law enforcement, teachers, parents and kids themselves all share the responsibility to make the Web safer.”

“FOSI has done a wonderful job of bringing together Internet leaders to discuss a pressing topic that affects many families,” said Dorothy Attwood, AT&T’s senior vice president of public policy and chief privacy officer. “At AT&T we work to ensure that our users, regardless of age, have the necessary tools to be good cybercitizens. We’re pleased that FOSI continues to push the conversation and encourage responsible use.”

“Orange is very concerned about safe and responsible online use, and we have already launched several initiatives to deploy content filtering solutions, but also to raise awareness among parents and children,” said Marc Fossier, Orange Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer. “We are very honored to host the FOSI conference in Paris, and we look forward to learning from new experiences.”

Giuseppe de Martino, senior vice president, general counsel & head of public affairs for DailyMotion, gave the keynote speech.

“As broadband is deployed into new homes, we see increased user content worldwide, from developed counties to developing nations,” said de Martino. “The people of France and around the globe must realize the importance of digital and media literacy, and they must learn to navigate the Internet safely.”
 
The European Conference was held in conjunction with the upcoming FOSI Annual Conference, held November 4-5, 2009 in Washington, D.C. For more information on the conference, visit www.fosi.org.

About FOSI
The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) works to make the online world safe for kids and their families by identifying and promoting best practices, tools and methods that also respect free speech. FOSI’s members include: AOL, AT&T, Blue Coat, BT Retail, Cisco, Comcast, Computing Technology Industry Association, Crisp Thinking, France Telecom/Orange, Google, GSMA, Loopt, Microsoft, Mpower Media, MySpace, Ning, Nominum, Optenet, Privo, Rulespace, Sentinel, Sprint, StreamShield, Symantec, Telefónica, Telmex, The Wireless Foundation, Verizon and Yahoo!. FOSI hosts an annual international conference to bring together Internet safety advocates from a variety of sectors, including global corporations, government, non-profits, academia and the media, to discuss the current pulse of online safety and emerging solutions that will enhance it.

Family Online Safety Institute Supports PointSmart.ClickSafe.Task Force Recommendations

Washington DC – July 8, 2009 - Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), today made the following statement in support of the new PointSmart.ClickSafe. report, Task Force Recommendations for Best Practices for Online Safety and Literacy:

“The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) strongly supports the recommendations from the PointSmart.ClickSafe. Task Force and its emphasis on research, education and evaluation of existing online safety methods. Kids today are increasingly tech savvy.  It is vital that we help them develop digital media literacy skills and guide them how to use technology in a safe and responsible way.  At FOSI, we are working with various stakeholders to build a culture of responsibility online and this report will add impetus for a cohesive and collaborative approach to not only keep kids safe, but also to encourage personal resiliency and responsibility for their online actions.” Read the report & learn more

About FOSI
The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) works to make the online world safe for kids and their families by identifying and promoting best practices, tools and methods that also respect free speech. FOSI’s members include: AOL, AT&T, Blue Coat, BT Retail, Comcast, Computing Technology Industry Association, France Telecom/Orange, Google, GSMA, Loopt, Microsoft, MySpace, Ning, Nominum, Optenet, Privo, Rulespace, Sprint, StreamShield, Symantec, Telefónica, Telmex, The Wireless Foundation, Verizon and Yahoo!. FOSI hosts an annual international conference to bring together Internet safety advocates from a variety of sectors, including global corporations, government, non-profits, academia and the media, to discuss the current pulse of online safety and emerging solutions that will enhance it.

For more information on FOSI, please www.fosi.org or www.youtube.com/fosi.

Optenet Joins the Family Online Safety Institute

Multi-National Organization Pledges its Commitment to Making the Internet a safer Place for Children

Washington DC – June 8, 2009 - The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) today announced that global IT security company and provider of high-performance content security solutions, Optenet, is joining FOSI as its newest member. Optenet provides content filtering and online protection technology for organizations and consumers in Europe, Australia, and North and South America. In addition, Ana Luisa Rotta Soares, special projects director at Optenet, will join FOSI’s Board of Directors.

“Optenet’s international presence will increase the global reach of FOSI as we look to protect kids online across the world,” said Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute. “FOSI welcomes Ana as the newest board member who will bring a wealth of experience to the issues FOSI is currently addressing.”

In her position with Optenet, Rotta leads projects related to preventing children from viewing harmful and inappropriate online content such as pornography, racism, terrorism, drugs, bomb making, anorexia and bulimia, as well as other categories that parents or educators might find important to block. Rotta is also the secretary to the board of directors at Protégeles, an organization sponsored in part by Optenet and dedicated to running a hotline against illegal content, especially child pornography, on the Internet.

“FOSI and Optenet share a common mission that’s becoming more important by the day: to make the Internet a safer place for children,” Rotta said. “The sheer magnitude of inappropriate and harmful Web content makes it impossible for parents to single-handedly safeguard their children. Optenet is devoted to developing effective online tools which empower parents to safeguard their children from the growing number of illegal and harmful Web sites. Parents are, of course, ultimately responsible for what their children view, but they need the help of our industry to give them technologies that can make this a manageable task.”

Originally launched more than 12 years ago as an Internet service provider dedicated to creating a safer Web experience for minors, Optenet is now a Web content security vendor that brings the same filtering and security capabilities to service providers and enterprises across the globe.

About Optenet
Optenet is a global IT security company that provides high-performance content filtering solutions to service providers and large enterprises worldwide. Optenet’s technology protects more than 75 million end users around the globe, including the customers of many of the world’s leading ISPs and mobile operators, as well as employees of global enterprise organizations. The Company is a socially conscious organization, committed to eliminating illegal content on the Internet, protecting children and supporting government agencies and non-profit organizations that share the same goal. For more information, visit www.optenet.com.

About FOSI
The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) works to make the online world safe for kids and their families by identifying and promoting best practices, tools and methods that also respect free speech. FOSI’s members include: AOL, AT&T, Blue Coat, BT Retail, Comcast, Computing Technology Industry Association, France Telecom/Orange, Google, GSMA, Loopt, Microsoft, MySpace, Ning, Nominum, Optenet, Privo, Rulespace, Sprint, StreamShield, Symantec, Telefónica, Telmex, The Wireless Foundation, Verizon and Yahoo!. FOSI hosts an annual international conference to bring together Internet safety advocates from a variety of sectors, including global corporations, government, non-profits, academia and the media, to discuss the current pulse of online safety and emerging solutions that will enhance it.

For more information on FOSI, please www.fosi.org or www.youtube.com/fosi.

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Media Contact:
Maura O’Connor                                                         
June 1, 2009
(202) 572-6252