Overview
On September 16th 2015 FOSI and Telecom Italia co-hosted a conference entitled ‘Global Trends in Online Safety: Creating a National Framework.’ It was an incredibly important event providing an opportunity to learn and share international experiences.
Marcella Logli, Telecom Italia, welcomed attendees to Rome and Stephen Balkam, FOSI, thanked Telecom Italia for their hospitality and their dedication to the issues of online safety. He set out what is needed to create a national framework for online safety, specifically who is involved; what is involved; and how to execute on the plan. The roles of government, law enforcement, industry, non-profits, parents, teachers, researchers, media and young people were defined and their importance in creating the framework was highlighted. Ultimately Balkam concluded that the way to ensure that an effective plan is developed and implemented is to bring together all stakeholders in an open, ongoing dialogue.
The first panel featured government responses to online challenges and was moderated by Stephen Balkam. Joanna Shields, UK Minister for Internet Safety and Security, outlined the approach of the UK Government around the United Kingdom Council on Child Internet Safety and WeProtect. Marlene Holzner, Cabinet Member of EU Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society, provided the history of online safety in Europe and the European Commission’s approach to creating a digital single market and society, as well as promoting the creation of content for children. Antonello Giacomelli, Under Secretary of State, Italian Ministry of Economic Development, talked about the Italian Government’s commitment to online safety and their approach of promoting a multi-stakeholder approach to achieve their goals.
Amanda Lenhart and Giovanna Mascheroni presented research findings from both the US and EU. Lenhart provided data on American teenagers’ use of online platforms as well as how they are making friends online, while keeping themselves safe. Mascheroni talked about the new challenges of smartphones and the mobile Internet for parents and children. For example research showed that in Italy the risks increased when children used the Internet more, especially on smartphones, however, in the UK there was no such correlation. Methods to confront this phenomenon were discussed later in the conference.
Following a brief presentation from Marcella Logli on the work of EducaTI, David Miles moderated the panel on highlighting best practice. Roberto Di Legami, Italian Postal and Communications Police, talked about their education campaigns to inform teachers and children about online safety and the rules of being online, travelling 9,000 km around Italy last year alone. Simon Milner, Facebook, outlined the importance of global rules on their platform, which then works alongside local experts to provide a necessary cultural context. Andrea Parola provided background on the ICT Coalition for Children Online, operating throughout Europe to bring companies together to ensure online safety. Becky Foreman from Microsoft talked about their commitment to safety, including the importance of safety and privacy by design. Microsoft’s work on PhotoDNA was also highlighted. Marcella Logli, Telecom Italia, covered the need to promote brand trust and consumer confidence and the ways that Telecom Italia goes about that work.
To close the event Stephen Balkam conducted a discussion with Giuseppe Recchi, the Chairman of Telecom Italia. They covered a wide range of issues, including broadband deployment, ways to promote e-commerce, smartphones, education and the many advantages of being online.
In his concluding remarks Balkam highlighted the importance of working together globally to face the risks online, mitigate the harms and reap the many rewards of living our lives on the Internet.
Some of FOSI's best resources are now available in Italian! You can access the documents below.
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Speakers

Baroness Joanna Shields OBE
UK Minister for Internet Safety and Security
,
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
BARONESS SHIELDS OBE (Joanna Shields) is a leading technology industry executive, entrepreneur and public servant, currently serving as UK Minister for Internet Safety and Security in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Baroness Shields spent over 25 years building some of the world's best-known technology companies, including Electronics for Imaging, RealNetworks, Google, Aol and Facebook, as well as leading several start-ups to successful acquisitions, including Bebo, Decru and Veon. She was most recently Digital Adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron, Chairman of Tech City UK and non-executive director of the London Stock Exchange Group. Prior to that, she was Vice President and Managing Director of Facebook in Europe, Middle East and Africa and oversaw the growth of the platform to over 1 billion users. She has also served as President of People Networks at Aol, a position she assumed after leading acquisition of Bebo by Time Warner's Aol unit for $850 million; and as a Managing Director for Google Europe, Russia, Middle East & Africa.
In July 2013 Computer Weekly named Baroness Shields The Most Influential Woman in the UK IT industry. She was No. 1 in Wired Magazine's 2011 most important people in the digital world. In 2014 she was recognized in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours with the Order of the British Empire for services to the digital industries and for her voluntary service to young people.

Baroness Joanna Shields OBE

Giuseppe Recchi
Chairman
,
Telecom Italia and of Fondazione Telecom Italia
He was Chairman of the Board of Eni SpA from 2011 to May 2014.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of Exor Spa and UnipolSai Assicurazioni SpA. He is also a member of the executive committee of Confindustria (where he chaired the Foreign Investment Committee), the Italian Corporate Governance Committee, the Italian Institute of Technology; member of the Board of Assonime (Italian Joint Stock Companies). He is also Co-Chair of the B20 Task Force on Improving Transparency and Anti-Corruption and Director of the World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative.
In 1989 he started his career as an entrepreneur at Recchi SpA, a general contractor active in 25 Countries in the construction of high-tech public infrastructure. From 1994 to 1999 he served as Executive Chairman of Recchi America Inc., the U.S. branch of the Group, and then as Managing Director for overseas of Gruppo Ferrocemento-Recchi.
In 1999 he joined General Electric, where he held several managerial positions in Europe and in the USA. He served as Director of GE Capital Structure Finance Group; CEO of GE Capital SFG Italia;
Managing Director for Industrial M&A and Business Development of GE EMEA.. Until May 2011 he was President & CEO of GE South Europe.
He served in several boards among which the European Advisory Board of Blackstone; the Advisory Board of Invest Industrial (private equity); the Massachusetts Institute of Technology E.I. Advisory Board; the Honorary Committee for the Rome Candidacy to the 2020 Olympic Games; FEEM- Eni Enrico Mattei Foundation.
Born in 1964, he graduated in Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin. He has been visiting Professor in Corporate Finance at Turin University (2004-2006).

Giuseppe Recchi

Andrea Parola
Project Manager
,
ICT Coalition for Children Online

Andrea Parola

Simon Milner
Policy Director, UK, Middle East, Africa, and Turkey
,

Simon Milner

David Miles
Director, Europe
,
Family Online Safety Institute
David is an Executive Board of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), the British Government's principal advisory body for online safety for children and young people. He chairs the UKCCIS Filtering Working Group that brings together the family-friendly network filtering initiatives of the UK’s leading ISPs, mobile operators and public Wi-Fi providers. David is former chair of the UKCCIS Over Blocking Working Group (2013-14), which worked with the UK’s four leading ISPs to minimise the inadvertent blocking of legal content to minors. He is an active member of the UKCCIS Evidence Group and Social Media Working Group. In addition, he is a member of the Internet Matters Expert Advisory Panel, an internet safety portal established by the UKs four leading ISPs.
David is a member of the United Nations ITU Child Online Protection (COP) Working Council based in Geneva, as well as actively involved in a number of initiatives within the European Commission.
David is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, one of the City of London’s livery companies and granted its Royal Charter in 2010. His specific charitable interests include the implementation of assistive technology and social media for young people with special needs.

David Miles

Giovanna Mascheroni
Lecturer in Sociology of Communication and Culture
,
Università Cattolica, Milano
Giovanna holds a PhD in Sociology and Methodology for Social Research, and is a Lecturer in Sociology of Communication and Culture in the Department of Sociology, Università Cattolica, Milano.
From 2012 to 2014 she has coordinated the Net Children Go Mobile project (www.netchildrengomobile.eu), funded by the Safer Internet Programme. Since 2007 she has been the national contact of the EU Kids Online project (www.eukidsonline.net), and since 2015 she is part of its Management Committee. She is also member of the Management Committee of the COST Action IS1410 “The digital literacy and multimodal practices of young children (DigiLitEY)” She is the local coordinator of the FIRB project "Building inclusive societies and a global Europe online: Political information and participation on social media in comparative perspective" (www.webpoleu.net) coordinated by Cristian Vaccari. She is Visting Fellow at the Department of Media and Communications of the LSE from 01/09/2013 to 30/06/2015.
She is a senior researcher at OssCom, a research centre on media and communication based at Università Cattolica, and cooperates with ModaCult, a research centre on cultural production and fashion.
Her work focuses on the social shaping of the internet and mobile media among children and young people, online risks and opportunities for children, online participation and digital citizenship.

Giovanna Mascheroni

Marcella Logli
Director Corporate Shared Value, Telecom Italia
,
and General Secretary Telecom Italia Foundation
She was born in Milan on October 14, 1964. She is married and has a daughter. Since January 22, 2014 she has been Director of Telecom Italia Corporate Social Responsibility. After graduating in Information Sciences from Università Statale degli Studi in Milan, she worked for Apple Computer S.p.A. from 1989 to 1995, in the following positions: consultant for the Cupertino Multimedia Team, Marketing Manager New Media, Marketing Manager Consumer.
From 1995 to 1996, she was employed as Head of Marketing and Sales of the startup Italia Online S.p.A., at Olivetti Telemedia S.p.A., which subsequently became the reference ISP of Infostrada S.p.A..
She has been working in Telecom Italia since 1996, where she has held several roles:
- Head of Marketing of Telecom Italia Net (Tin.it) – Internet Area until September 2000
- Directory Assistance Services Manager until June 2005, repositioning, together with her group of approximately 2,500 people, the historic Directory Enquiries Service 12, making it a profit centre.
- e-Health & Personal Services Manager until December 2009, with the mission of planning and implementing initiatives to develop the vertical VAS (value added services) of the Health Care market and market segments such as social care and Wellness.
- Business Communication Manager until 2010, overseeing the creation and launch of the Impresa Semplice format.
- Top Clients & Public Sector Communication Manager until December 2012, dealing with advertising, events and digital communication, where she oversaw also the launch of the new Italian community for cloud computing, “CloudPeople”.
- Director of Corporate Identity & Public Relations Department until January 2014
- Director of Telecom Italia Corporate Social Responsibility since January 2014

Marcella Logli

Amanda Lenhart
Senior Research Scientist
,
Data & Society Research Institute
Amanda Lenhart studies how technology affects human lives, with a special focus on families and children. A quantitative and qualitative researcher, Amanda is the Program Director, Health and Data at the Data & Society Research Institute. Over decades, she has examined how adolescents and their families use and think about technology, how young adults consume news, how harassment has thrived in online spaces, and how automation will impact workers. Most recently, as deputy director of the Better Life Lab at New America, Amanda focused on the ways technology affects workers’ jobs and lives, as well as the family-supportive policies that enable balance between the personal and the professional. She began her career at the Pew Research Center, studying how teens and families use social and mobile technologies.
Amanda specializes in translating rigorous research for a broad national audience. Dedicated to public communication, she has testified before congressional subcommittees and the Federal Trade Commission. Amanda’s work has been featured in numerous national publications and broadcasts, including the PBS Newshour and NPR’s All Things Considered.

Amanda Lenhart

Marlene Holzner
Cabinet Member
,
EU Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society, Gunther Oettinger

Marlene Holzner

Antonello Giacomelli
Under-Secretary of State
,
Italian Ministry of Economic Development - Telecommunications
Antonello Giacomelli (born in Prato in 1962), is Under-Secretary of State of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development - Telecommunications.
Mr Giacomelli is married with three children. He is a professional journalist, who started working for Tvr Tuscan, then passed to the Cecchi Gori Group as an editor of the regional broadcasting TV Channel 10 (Channel 10). He was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Metastasio theater, bringing it to the role of civic and resident theater company for prose.
Deputy Mayor of Prato from 1999 to June 2004, he enforced the reform of local public services, in particular in the sectors of energy and networks. In February 2004 he became secretary of Margaret political party for the Tuscany and was elected as a member of parliament, a role confirmed in the next three elections, in 2006, 2008 and 2013. In 2008 he became a member of the national executive staff of Democratic Party.

Antonello Giacomelli

Becky Foreman
Head of UK Government Affairs
,
Microsoft
Prior to this Becky worked at Ofcom, where she ran the Chairman’s Office and also established Ofcom’s relationship with the European Parliament and European Commission. Becky has a degree in History and Economics from the University of Durham and she started her career working for Conservative politicians in both Westminster and Brussels, including Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP and Malcolm Harbour MEP. She is also a trustee of the OK Club, a youth club working with young people in north west London.

Becky Foreman

Roberto Di Legami
Director
,
Italian Postal and Communications Police
Dr. Roberto Di Legami is a Senior Executive of the Italian State Police (“Primo Dirigente” is the correct wording of his rank in Italian).
As Head of Antimafia and Homicide Bureau in Palermo, for many years he carried out investigations against the mafia-type criminal organisation called “Cosa Nostra” and its connections with the secret lodgies of Freemasonry.
From June 1999 to August 2008 he was Head of Organised Crime Groups Department at Europol, The Netherlands.
In January 2010 he joined the Italian Postal and Communications Police, leading the regional offices (Compartimenti) of Sicily and Lazio before being appointed as Director of the Postal and Communications Police Service in July 2015.
He was hired as consultant to various European and non-European organizations, in the field of fight against organized crime and global security.
He was repeatedly awarded by the Chief of the Italian Police, as well as by several national and foreign judicial authorities, and other public and private entities.
In 2010, the Bulgarian government awarded him the prize "Giovanni Falcone", and honoured him with the title of "Ambassador of Legality", in recognition of the outstanding results achieved in the fight against dangerous Bulgarian mafia-type criminal organizations.

Roberto Di Legami

Stephen Balkam
Founder & CEO
,
Family Online Safety Institute
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.
