Here at Yahoo!, we pride ourselves on being a longtime industry leader on child safety. We have made it a company priority to protect children online by creating tools for users to safeguard themselves and by supporting efforts to educate children, parents, and communities about safe online experiences.

Even with our efforts and those of others to create a safe environment online, there has been a recent rise in cyberbulling and sexting. Yesterday, Officer Holly Lawrence of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and the Yahoo! Trust & Safety team took action and held a training session on our very own Sunnyvale campus for over 50 School Resource Officers representing 15 cities across the state… more than 30 others expressed interest in coming as well. Today’s training marks the official launch of the School Resource Officer Digital Safety Education Program. These officers were trained on both proactive and reactive courses designed specifically for teenagers and their parents.

Teens face a lot of challenges with the fast paced, always connected digital world they live in. We try to guide them towards using these amazing tools we have to build a positive digital reputation. We hope our program helps empower parents to understand and get involved in the sites and tools used so they can maintain an ongoing conversation about staying safe online.

For more information on Yahoo!’s longstanding partnership with the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and online safety recommendations, please visit Yahoo! Safely.