Washington D.C.

2017 Annual Conference

Register Now
November 16, 2017
08:00:00
 - 
19:00:00
Speakers
Agenda
Media
Knight Conference Center at the Newseum

Overview

November 16, 2017
08:00:00
 - 
19:00:00
Knight Conference Center at the Newseum

FOSI’s 2017 Annual Conference centered on the idea of restoring trust and civility in a challenging online world, with strong themes around practical and technical solutions to online problems. The event was opened by FOSI CEO Stephen Balkam and FOSI Board Chair Sarah Holland of Google.

View the full version of Balkam’s remarks in the Huffington Post.

To start the morning, FOSI publicly launched its newest piece of original research, Connected Families: How Parents Think & Feel about Toys, Wearables, and the Internet of Things. The study, supported by Amazon and conducted by Hart Research Associates, provided fresh insights into comfort levels of parents whose children use smart and connected devices in the home. A full presentation of the research was provided by Jay Campbell and Abigail Davenport. The full report, executive summary, and research slides are available on the policy and research page.

The first plenary session, The Practical and Policy Implications of our Hyper-Connected Lives explored both evidence-based and anecdotal examples of the impact of connected toys and family devices in the household. While there is a high level of convenience and practical function that connected technology provides, they can also become the basis for creative play and fun family-based activities. However, it is agreed that parents must be aware of their interactions with devices such as smart speakers. Children can’t always determine how human the qualities of these devices are, and how they interact with them can impact social-emotional development.

A short trailer of the documentary Cuba’s Digital Revolution was shown next, with remarks by the filmmaker Samuel George. The film, a product of the Bertelsmann Foundation, illustrates the overwhelming impact of the Internet on an isolated society, and how digital access in Cuba is transforming the culture and everyday lives of its citizens. The full film is available to be viewed here.

Lessons from Around the World provided an in-depth discussion between Stephen Balkam and Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant. Australia has been leading by national example with its progressive policymaking and support of all elements of online safety via its safety portal. Most recently, the eSafety Office has undertaken efforts in partnership with Facebook to combat image-based abuse, or what is commonly known as revenge porn. Conversation covered the different approaches to similar work in other countries and around the world.

A fireside chat with Kurt Beidler, Amazon’s Director of Kids and Family Services explored how Amazon has approached the issue of children’s use of technology, and how kids can be empowered to made decisions online while also remaining safe. Parental controls, such as Amazon’s FreeTime, has changed the way parents allow their kids to use connected devices.

Late morning break-out sessions included What Would the Jetsons Do? Privacy, Ethics, and the Internet of Things, Technical and Human Solutions to Problematic Behaviors, and Teaching, Parenting, and Hard Online Conversations. These topics brought together top industry representatives, policymakers and educators to ask and answer the tough questions in their respective fields. In all areas, privacy and security remained a top concern for anyone working with children and technology, as well as examining how to best teach kids how the connected world works and to recognizing how technology can both harm and benefit them depending on how responsibly it is used.

In the afternoon, panelists for Serving Families with Special Needs discussed the unique ways that technology can enhance learning and communication for differently abled children, particularly those with autism. While screentime and digital play are highly debated for children of different age groups, the context is different on a case by case basis. Why All Offensive Content Isn’t Created Equal took into account the work of experts in varying areas of dark content, from offensive online abuse and hate speech to illegal online child sexual abuse material. 2020 Vision: The Future of Online Safety utilized a workshop structure, sourcing ideas for the upcoming years from a diverse audience of online safety advocates. Moderated by two experts, the outcome of the brainstorm was shared before the conference’s closing remarks.

A screening of the viral video “In Real Life” was followed by comments from Jason Cianciotto of the Tyler Clementi Foundation. The PSA was developed in partnership with Monica Lewinsky as part of the Click with Compassion campaign, and shows actors reading abusive social media posts to a “real” victim as strangers intervene. The resonating message from the film is that online abuse should be taken as seriously as real life abuse. The PSA can be viewed here.

The last plenary session, Reestablishing Trust and Civility in Our Challenging World, examined the role of the entire Internet ecosystem in combating online challenges and making the Internet a trusted and civil place. Experts tackled the hard questions about fake news, harassment, and safety by design while discussing possible approaches to respond to today’s problems while looking ahead to the future.

The final discussion, Back to the Future of Online Safety, was led by moderators Larry Magid and Robin Raskin, who used the crowdsourced information from their afternoon breakout to inform the discussion. With many differing opinions on what online safety could look like it just a few short years, it was agreed that much of the technology being debated or regulated in 2020 might not even be in use yet. Other points of interest included the developments of AI, AR, and VR, the commercialization of the web, and whether global standards would be in use.

Further questions or inquiries about the event can be directed to fosi@fosi.org.

To watch session videos from the conference, head to FOSI’s YouTube Channel!

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Speakers

Danny Sepulveda

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy
,

Kristin Cohen

Senior Attorney in the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection
,
Federal Trade Commission

Brooke Scannell

Chief of Staff
,
Congresswoman Katherine Clark

Ginelle Brown

Director of Product Management
,
Verizon

Sam George

Filmmaker
,
Bertelsmann Foundation North America

Peggy Klein

Litigation Counsel
,
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Darren Brelesky

Senior Vice President, Digital Products
,
Nickelodeon

Sarah Hudgins

Head of Digital Devices and Services Policy
,
Amazon

Rebecca Arbogast

Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy
,
Comcast NBCUniversal

Natasha Jackson

Head of Public Policy and Consumer Affairs
,
GSMA

Jason Cianciotto

Executive Director
,
The Tyler Clementi Foundation

Pablo Chavez

General Manager, US Public Policy for Microsoft and Global Public Policy for LinkedIn
,

Suzanne Singleton

Chief, Disability Rights Office
,
Federal Communications Commission

Irene Braam

Executive Director
,
Bertelsmann Foundation North America

Susan Benesch

Director
,
Dangerous Speech Project

Rachel Martin

Director of Communications and Outreach
,
Born This Way Foundation

Chris Conley

Policy Attorney with the Technology and Civil Liberties Project
,
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California

Hilary Cain

Director of Technology and Innovation Policy
,
Toyota

Jonathan Vick

Associate Director of Investigative Technology and Cyberhate Response
,
Anti-Defamation League

Sven Gerjets

Chief Technology Officer
,
Mattel, Inc.*

Robin Raskin

Founder and President
,
Living in Digital Times

Abigail Davenport

Partner
,
Hart Research Associates

Jay Campbell

Partner
,
Hart Research Associates

Cordell Carter

Executive Director, Socrates Program
,
The Aspen Institute

Princess Young

Program Lead, National Cyber Security Awareness Programs
,
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Simon Morrison

Senior Policy Manager, Digital Policy
,
Amazon*

Susan Diegelman

Director of Public Affairs
,
AT&T

Monika Bickert

Head of Product Policy and Counterterrorism
,
Facebook

Heather West

Senior Policy Manager
,
Mozilla

Tracy Bennett

Founder & CEO
,
GetKidsInternetSafe

Larry Magid

CEO and Co-Founder
,
ConnectSafely.org

Rob Pegoraro

Journalist
,

Abigail Marsh

Societal Computing Ph.D. Candidate
,
School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University

Jenny Backus

Founder and President
,
Backus Consulting LLC

Michael Burns

CEO
,
Zift

Adam Thierer

Technology Policy Analyst
,

Emily McReynolds

Researcher
,
University of Washington Tech Policy Lab

Patricia Cartes

Head of Global Safety Outreach
,
Twitter

Henry Claypool

Independent Consultant
,

Kerry Gallagher

Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning, St. John's Prep (Danvers, MA)
,
Director of Education, ConnectSafely

Sarah Holland

Public Policy Manager
,
Google

Janell Burley Hofmann

Author
,
iRules: What Every Tech Healthy Family Needs to Know

Danielle Melfi

Policy & Development Manager
,
Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children

Tami Bhaumik

VP, Civility & Partnerships
,
Roblox, FOSI Board Chair*

Chris Calabrese

Vice President for Policy
,
Center for Democracy & Technology

Tim Sparapani

Founder & Principal
,
SPQR Strategies

Kurt Beidler

Director of Kids and Family
,
Amazon

Jennifer Hanley

VP, Legal & Policy
,
Family Online Safety Institute

Stephen Balkam

Founder & CEO
,
Family Online Safety Institute

John Verdi

Vice President of Policy
,
Future of Privacy Forum

Julie Inman Grant

eSafety Commissioner
,
Australian Government

Agenda

Close
Reception
Closing remarks
Reestablishing Trust and Civility in Our Challenging World
Breakout: Teaching, Parenting, and Hard Online Conversations
Back To The Future Of Online Safety
“Cuba’s Digital Revolution”
Break
Breakout: Why All Offensive Content Isn’t Created Equal
Breakout: Serving Families with Special Needs
Breakout: 2020 Vision: The Future of Online Safety
Breakout: Technical and Human Solutions to Problematic Behaviors
Breakout: What Would The Jetsons Do? Privacy, Ethics, and the Internet of Things
Lunch, exhibits & networking
“In Real Life”
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Fireside chat
Networking break
Lessons from Around the World
The Practical and Policy Implications of our Hyper-Connected Lives
Illegal, Ill-Advised and Online: Our Challenging Digital World
Launch of FOSI Research
Registration, breakfast & exhibits

Agenda

Media

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