FOSI 2024 European Forum

Charlotte has a broad range of experience in the field of digital safeguarding - for 10 years she led Becta’s advice and support to Government, local authorities and schools on keeping children safe online.  She also worked with Dr Tanya Byron on her review of Safer Children in a Digital World - leading the implementation and co-ordination of the education recommendations in the Review as part of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS).

In April 2010, Charlotte became Director of Practice at the children’s charity – Beatbullying, where she was responsible for the innovative Cybermentors programme, a peer to peer online support service for children and young people.  In 2011, Charlotte was seconded to NCA CEOP where she conducted a review of CEOP’s educational programmes and made recommendations to CEOP’s board on the future direction of the Thinkuknow programme which has been delivered to thousands of professionals across the country.

In 2013 Charlotte started her own consultancy – Charlotte Aynsley Consultants – Rethinking Safeguarding and she has worked on several high profile programmes and initiatives including the NSPCC’s Share Aware campaign, The It Starts With you online safety campaign from Walt Disney/Club Penguin, Parent Zone’s Parenting in the Digital Age programme, the Keeping Children Safe online safety guide and the Sexting in schools – what to do and how to handle it document. 

She has spoken about digital safeguarding at several key national and international events including the UN and supported local authorities, the police, children’s organisations and international NGO’s in educating professionals, parents, children and young people on all things online safety related.

In 2016 Charlotte worked with UKCCIS and NCA CEOP authoring national advice on responding to incidents of sexting – Sexting in schools and colleges: Responding to incidents and safeguarding young people.  Since the advice has been published she has delivered training to over 500 professionals supporting them in planning their response to incidents of sexting.

More recently Charlotte has been working with several high profile organisations including the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), NCA – CEOP, the Princes Trust, Girlguiding, The Mayor of London and the NSPCC to develop leading edge safer platforms and advice and resources for professionals working with children to keep them safer online.

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For the past 30 years, Stephen Balkam has had a wide range of leadership roles in the nonprofit sector in both the US and UK. He is currently the Founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), an international, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC. FOSI’s mission is to make the online world safer for kids and their families. FOSI convenes the top thinkers and practitioners in government, industry and the nonprofit sectors to collaborate and innovate and to create a “culture of responsibility” in the online world.

Prior to FOSI, Stephen was the Founder and CEO of the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) and led a team which developed the world’s leading content labeling system on the web. While with ICRA, Stephen served on the US Child Online Protection Commission (COPA) in 2000 and was named one of the Top 50 UK Movers and Shakers, Internet Magazine, 2001.

In 1994, Stephen was named the first Executive Director of the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) which created a unique self-labeling system for computer games and then, in 1996, Stephen launched RSACi – a forerunner to the ICRA website labeling system. For his efforts in online safety, Stephen was given the 1998 Carl Bertelsmann Prize in Gutersloh, Germany, for innovation and responsibility in the Information Society and was invited to the first and subsequent White House Internet Summits during the Clinton Administration.

Stephen’s other positions include the Executive Director of the National Stepfamily Association (UK); General Secretary of the Islington Voluntary Action Council; Executive Director of Camden Community Transport as well as management positions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London) and Inter-Action. Stephen’s first job was with Burroughs Machines (now Unisys) and he had a spell working for West Nally Ltd – a sports sponsorship PR company.

Stephen received a BA, magna cum laude, in Psychology from University College, Cardiff, Wales in 1977. A native of Washington, DC, Stephen spent many years in the UK and is now has dual citizenship. He writes regularly for the Huffington Post, appears often on TV and has appeared on nationally syndicated TV and radio programs such as MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC and has been interviewed by leading newspapers such as the Washington Post, New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, radio and in the mainstream press. He has given presentations and spoken in 15 countries on 4 continents.

Dad of two great kids. Arturo Bejar was the engineering and product leader at Facebook responsible for its efforts to keep users safe from 2009 to 2015. This included starting the "Protect and Care" team which did groundbreaking work on helping teens deal with online bullying, suicidal ideation, child safety, and other challenges inherent to life online. From 2019 to 2021, Bejar returned to the company as a consultant to assist with well-being at Instagram, and found that leadership team did not prioritize the well-being or reduction of harms to teens, which led to his whistleblowing in 2023.

* Denotes member of FOSI Board

Tami Bhaumik is the Vice President of Civility and Partnerships at Roblox where she spearheads the platform's digital civility initiative and works to foster a global community of internet safety leaders to ensure good digital citizenship on Roblox. To establish a healthy and safe community, Tami is focused on providing kids, teens, parents, and caregivers with skills needed to create positive online experiences, in partnership with the world’s leading safety and industry organizations. At Roblox, she empowers platform users to self-govern and create a confident, resilient online community with the knowledge and tools to create positive experiences for themselves and others in the metaverse.

Julia Cooke (she/her) is an International Policy Manager at the UK’s regulator for online safety, Ofcom. Julia’s work focuses on international regulatory dialogue, promoting coherence and capability across international approaches. Ofcom aims to learn from, and share regulatory experiences with the global community that is developing online safety policy. As part of this work, Julia’s areas of expertise include the protection of children, the Video Sharing Platform (VSP) regime, age assurance technologies and media literacy.

Prior to joining Ofcom, Julia held a number of roles at the ICO (the UK’s data protection authority), most recently as a Principal Policy Adviser. At the ICO, Julia worked on policy issues at the intersections of data, children's rights and emerging technologies which included the UK Children’s code, the Commissioner’s Opinion on age assurance, the best interests of the child guidance, educating children about their data protection rights and cowriting the position paper on digital identity. Julia previously worked in UK central government on digitising services and change management

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Alex Davies-Jones is Labour's Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding. But before this she was Shadow Minister for Tech and Digital Economy. She is chair of Labour digital and has taken the online safety aspect of her former brief, to her current. Alex is passionate about making the online space a safer place, which naturally links to her brief given women are disproportionately impacted by online hatred and misogyny. She is proud to the lead the fight for the Labour party, in tackling her mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.

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Elizabeth Gosme is mother of two girls and Director of COFACE Families Europe, a network of 50+ family organisations across 23 countries advocating for the rights of all families without discrimination through various tools: advocacy and campaigning at European Union level for strong social rights and gender-responsive family policies, building European research projects, developing practical tools to support parents, families, children.  Based on its Digitalisation principles ,  2030 Child Compass, and DigiGen research, COFACE works closely with the EU institutions, Better Internet for Kids, European Schoolnet and key ICT industries to promote child rights and safety online. This is done through a whole-family lens, advocating for regulation, self-regulation and education tools to empower children and their families in the digital environment.

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Manuela Martra is Deputy Head of Unit Accessibility, Multilingualism & Safer Internet, in the Directorate for Data at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CONNECT). She has worked for the EU institutions in Luxembourg for over 20 years, most of them devoted to support a safer and better internet for children. She is very committed to ensuring, through a multi-stakeholder approach, that citizens, in particular the most vulnerable ones, benefit in full from the digital transformation and Europe is a competitive and attractive continent.

Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov is the founder of Digital Parenting Coach.com, a resource for parents and caregivers.  

As a lawyer, law professor and child online protection expert with more than 20 years experience, she has advised government and child protection agencies, non-profits and think tanks on public awareness campaigns, research initiatives and public policy strategies related to digital safety, parenting, and wellbeing.

She has also held several key consultancies in Europe for the Council of Europe (Children's Rights and Education divisions), Microsoft EMEA (Digital Safety), European Schoolnet (Online Safety), and e-Enfance/INSAFE (French Helpline).

She is an international speaker on digital parenting and her work has been featured in BBC, France 24, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and other media outlets focused on child online safety and digital parenting.

Currently, she is Senior Corporate Counsel at the LEGO GROUP, where she provides legal support on implementing and promoting digital child rights, safety, wellbeing and citizenship in parallel with responsible digital engagement with children.

Emily Slifer is the Director of Policy at Thorn, a non-profit organization that builds technology to defend children from online child sexual abuse. Prior to joining Thorn she worked for the UK Home Office in the British Embassy Washington. During this time she covered a wide portfolio that include child sexual abuse and exploitation, extradition, immigration, and science & technology. She has also worked in the European Parliament for the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), the European Parliament Liaison Office in Washington, DC, and Centro UNESCO di Firenze. She has a MA in European Union Policy Studies. 

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* Denotes member of FOSI Board

As part of Microsoft’s Digital Safety Office, Liz Thomas leads on Public Policy and Partnerships, focused on empowering every person to have a safe and trusted digital experience across Microsoft’s products and services.

In her role, Liz coordinates global engagement on digital safety issues, including on regulatory measures, and supports work to address illegal and harmful content online. She also works with policymakers, companies, and organizations to integrate multistakeholder perspectives on digital safety and drive digital safety initiatives.

Before joining Microsoft in April 2020, Liz held policy and legal roles in the New Zealand government, including at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Liz graduated from the University of Otago with Bachelor’s degrees in Arts and Law and has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Australian National University.

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David is CEO at SWGfL and a Director UK Safer Internet Centre; the national awareness centre and part of the European Insafe network.  David has worked extensively in online safety for over 20 years with children, schools and wider agencies. He advises a number of Governments, organisations and industry partners on online safety strategy and policy and has been appointed as an expert child online protection adviser to the UN ITU and nominated by UK Government as an expert to the Council of Europe Tech Facilitated Gender Based Violence committee.

David has presented at conferences nationally and internationally.  He is a member of UK Council for Internet Safety and has recently been invited to be a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety.

David has led the creation of a number of Helplines that directly and indirectly support victims of online harm, perhaps most notably the Revenge Porn Helpline in 2015 that supports adults who are victims of non consensual intimate image (NCII) abuse.  Consequentially, David has overseen the development of StopNCII.org, the worlds first device side hashing technology that empowers adults who experience NCII to prevent their images being shared online.

David has led pioneering work, such as the development of multi award winning resources, and with Plymouth University, he has published a number of ground-breaking research reports.

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Henri Verdier, born in 1968, is the French Ambassador for Digital Affairs within the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Since 2018, he leads and coordinates the French Digital Diplomacy. 

He previously was the inter-ministerial director for digital information and communications systems (DG DINUM) of France; and he was the director of Etalab, the French agency for public open data.

Mr Verdier is also an entrepreneur: he was the co-founder and CEO of MFG Labs, an internet-based startup involved in social data mining, and chairman of the board of Cap Digital, the French-European Cluster for Digital Content and Services, located in Paris. He is member of the ARCEP strategic committee, member of the CNIL strategic committee and also served as member of the board of Paris-Sorbonne University. In addition, Mr Verdier was the founding director of Edition Odile Jacob Multimedia, a publishing company in the field of e-learning and executive adviser for innovation at Lagardère Group as well as director of foresight at Institut Telecom. 

He co-authored three books: in 2012, with Nicolas Colin, L'Age de la Multitude, Entreprendre et Gouverner Après la Révolution Numérique (The Age of Multitude, Entrepreneurship and Governance After the Digital Revolution), in 2017, with Pierre Pezziardi, Des Startup d’État à l’État plateforme ( From State Startups to the Platform State), and in 2022, with Jean-Louis Missika, Le Business de la haine : Internet, la démocratie et les réseaux sociaux ( The Business of Hate: Internet, Democracy and Social Networks ). Mr Verdier is a graduate of Ecole Normale Supérieure.

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