Last year my son Jacob was in sixth grade at Montecito Union Elementary School. One day I get an email from Ms. B, the school’s principal asking me to come into her office. I was a little wary as Jacob has never been in any trouble. I was surprised to learn that the reason she asked me to come see her was to help the school with a problem with sexting, Facebook/Myspace and cyber-bullying. Of course she asked me, I’m the CEO of a leading computer services company. After hearing some scary stories about kids getting themselves in trouble by posting inappropriate photos and other content on Facebook and sending threatening messages from instant messaging and SMS, I realized I need to get involved.
In a couple of weeks we held our first seminar educating parents on how to keep their kids safe online. We are huge proponents of the Internet, so the last thing we wanted to do was scare them and stop their kids from benefiting from using the Web. Instead, we did a seminar to bring awareness to the parents and provide a few tips (and software) to monitor or block inappropriate content and behavior. We are not therapists, but we know technology so we did the best we could.
The next day, I was in the Montecito Starbucks and I was approached by one of the parents that heard about our seminar, but didn’t attend. I guess just knowing we were doing the seminar was enough as she went home and checked her son’s Google search history. At first, she thought she was safe because she had found that he had Googled the word “poo.” This seems harmless right? I guess he got some interesting results from Googling poo, because later on his searches got a little racier (we’ll let you imagine what came next). Anyhow, long story short, I responded with, “lol, he Googled poo…he was poogling?” I then sent an email to my CTO Jeremy Anticouni asking him if www.poogling.com was available. He replied laughing, “Not anymore!” Poogling Internet Safety Seminars was officially born!
Since that day, we have done over 30 seminars all over Southern California and we have partnered with the California PTA and Verizon to expand our presence further. The seminars are free, so needless to say, principals and staff welcome us with open arms. The problem is rampant and they have a responsibility to act. We’ve yet been turned down 
.
We are currently scheduling a District-wide event in Santa Barbara for all parents of students in elementary and middle schools. The best part is we will soon complete a online version of the seminar which has been wholly funded by our friends at Verizon. Verizon is working with the schools with their Velocity program and believe Poogling is a great fit with their current programs. With Verizon Velocity, you can buy Verizon FiOS through your school and the school gets paid. Verizon rocks!
Anyhow, there are some great bits of information available on the Poogle website, but here’s a few of my favorites:
P911 on chat or instant messaging means “parent alert!” Kids use this to warn their friends to be careful what they say as their parents may be watching;- In middle schools, kids are capable of texting on a cell phone without ever taking it out of their pocket;
- Cyber-bullying is anonymous and much easier than actually bullying in person. There are many means in which CB is performed: text/sms, mms with photos (sexting), instant messaging, chat on Facebook, email and others;
- Sexual predators often lure children with self-esteem issues by offering to replace the affection missing in the home. They use phrases like, “I think you are beautiful.” “I love you.” “What is your address?”
- Products like Net Nanny and SpectorPro can block or monitor your children’s access to the Internet. While this is not a total solution, they can help in serious situations.
Anyhow, Poogling has really become a major part of Make It Work’s focus. We believe we have a responsibility to our customers and our community. We hope to offer these services as we expand nationwide to all parents and all schools, nationwide. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for our online version.
For more information about this event or Poogling in general, visit our website: poogle.com
To the moon!
-Eric Greenspan
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