The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s sister company Cox Communications along with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children ( NCMEC) hosted its 5th Annual Cox Teen Summit examining online trends with a panel of teens. The event was hosted by John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted” who is a child advocate as well. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a national clearing house that examines cybercrimes and Internet child pornography for the Government.
The Cox Teen Summit discussion focused on what do your online posts and pictures really say about you? Cox also conducts surveys about teen online use including key changes and trends over the past five years. The results revealed that 85 percent of teens now have mobile phones, 85 percent now have a social network profile and about 30 percent are not concerned and do not think there will be consequences for what they post online and about 50 percent don’t really screen who looks at their profile – meaning they have never met the people who are looking at their posts.
As a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility , Cox has donated more than $30 million for advertising to encourage safer online behaviour among kids and teenagers .This initiative of The National Teen Summit on online safety issues is a natural extension of Cox Communication’s ‘ Take Charge !’ initiative which helps not only the kids and teens but also their parents and guardians to make smarter media decisions. Cox provides guidelines to parents and guardians on how to manage what their children see and don’t see on the television and the internet. These guidelines include instructions and information on setting parental controls as well as tips for more constructive conversations between parents and their children.
Keeping in mind the importance of online safety issues , Cox Communication streamed the Teen Summit live over the internet for the first time and invited online participants such as child advocates and mother bloggers so that they can listen to the Summit at ustream.tv/channel/coxteensummit or join the dialogue on Twitter using the hash tag #cox4teensafety.
The author writes about computers and technology related topics online safety issues and 5th annual cox teen summit.
