February 25th, 2009 – Washington D.C.
As you know, if you visit my blog regularly, I had the great opportunity of attending the Wired Kids Summit held in Washington D.C. this last month. It was an amazing event. A social networkers dream actually. Parry Aftab, founder of Wired Safety, organized an amazing event.
The day started out with a short registration / greeting time and the event started promptly at 9am. ( On a side note – I love starting things right on time ). The day moved along quickly. There were five panel discussions throughout the day along with several awards and presentations. Each panel discussion included research that had been conducted by the teen angels followed by an open round table format discussion period that included people from all across the Internet Industry and governmental agencies.
Panel 1: Games, Gaming and More!
Families are getting more involved in gaming as a family activity and it is paying off. Studies show the families that game together have safer, more confident kids ( both online and off ).
This panel discussion included research on Handheld games, privacy and a discussion about what works and what doesn’t. Kids will often tune out “boring grown-ups” who may not even fully understand the technology the kids are working with – so this segment of the discussion included the importance and benefits of peer-education. A peer counseling group from California discussed the “FRIENDS” program (not the tv show but a group of teens helping teens).
Panel 2: Kids Online
Kids are getting online earlier and earlier. This panel discussion included research about what pre-school to 5th graders do online ( that’s right pre-schoolers ) and how we can make their experience safer.
Panel 3: Teens and Social Networking
In this panel discussion the TeenAngels presented their research about what kids were doing on social networks like MySpace, Facebook, MyYearbook and other sites. They showed the difference between how boys and girls use these networks and where things are going.
The new cybersafety initiative for the Girls Scouts – LMK ( “let me know” ) was announced. This program was developed in coordination with the Girl Scouts of America and Wired Safety’s Teenangel program.
Teens presented some amazing research on driving and texting which was a real eye-opener to me and perhaps to the entire audience. The number of teens texting while driving is more prevalent than we thought. Texting while driving has been shown to slow down reaction time even more than drinking and driving.
Panel 4: Stop Cyberbullying Now!
Wired Safety has been working on the problem of cyberbullying for over 14 years. It is now the most frequent problem that kids age 8 to 14 will face online. WiredSafety presented a sneak peak at the new StopCyberbullying Toolkit that will be made available to schools.
Panel 5: Ask the TeenAngels and TweenAngels
One of the great aspects of the day was the open question and answer format that streamed throughout the day. During Panel 5 Parry made sure that everyone on the room was clear on their assignments going forward ( see earlier post Meet Parry ). Kids had a chance to ask questions of any of the Internet Industry representatives and and vice versa everyone in the audience was encouraged to ask the kids any questions they might have about the research presented. It was great hearing the first hand experience of a darling little 8 year old about sharing her password with a friend to maintain a virtual pet on the Webkinz website. It turns out sharing passwords is NEVER a good idea even if you are 8 and it is just between you and your best friend.
This segment of the day was great because for many of the grown-ups working on web development it really helped put a face to the application.
It was a great event and an honor to be there.