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.

*A new study details which parent is more likely to keep a watchful eye on their kids online behavior

*Yahoo! Fantasy Sports-women launching leagues of their own as the boys of summer heat things up

*Yahoo! Connected TV brings TV Widgets to more than 100 countries around the world

About The Yahoo! Digital Media Bureau:

The Yahoo! Digital Media Bureau is a team of Emmy-nominated, multi-platform content creators who innovate and produce original video content, from webisodes to webumentaries. The Yahoo! Digital Media bureau is responsible for the weekly feature, Yahoo! News Bytes, which peels back the layer on everything Yahoo! The Bureau also produces the weekly Yahoo! Trends segment, which focuses on what’s trending in entertainment, pop culture and tech. Yahoo! Trends is distributed on broadcast television and seen throughout the United States.

Photo courtesy of saferinternet.org

The nature of the online and mobile environments is rapidly changing and so are the challenges for parents and children – from empowering kids to be safe and responsible online, to digital reputation management to cyber-bullying.

On February 9^th, people and organizations around the world are taking a moment to recognize the importance of safety on the web. Safer Internet Day is organized by Insafe each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and teens. This year, the focus is on “Think B4 U post,” with the goal of empowering kids to manage their digital reputation (e.g. how people are viewed based on what they post and share online) in a world where photos and videos can be broadly shared within minutes, and result in serious consequences.

At Yahoo!, we have been committed to fostering a safer internet for many years, and today we are helping to amplify what people can do to create a safer online experience. As a long time leader in child safety, we have been working closely with national child safety advocates, law enforcement agencies, educational leaders, and parents to help coach youth about protecting their online personas. In addition we build child safety tools into our products, and encourage youth to take advantage of these tools.

For many teens around the world, mobile devices are the primary way teens stay in touch with friends and family and engage with the web. Given this role mobile devices play in youths’ lives, we recognize the need for mobile safety tips, and are helping to educate kids and parents with Yahoo!’s Mobile Safety Tips.

To celebrate Safer Internet Day, Yahoo! is sharing our top 5 tips:

1. Think before you send. Stop, and think before you share a thought or forward a photo. Imagine your grandmother or principal on the receiving end. The best filter is the one between your ears — use it to your advantage.
2. Protect your personal information. When you send email, texts, photos or instant messages to people who are not trusted friends or family, don’t give out personal information they could use to find your physical location or exploit you. Guard your password like a hawk.
3. Control negativity. Think carefully about who you want to communicate with and who you should ignore. Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger have features that allow you to block people. If you receive abusive or harassing messages online, report the abuse where and when you see it.
4. Use Safe Search. Yahoo! offers a default Safe Search filter to help keep inappropriate content out of your search results. While no filter can guarantee 100% removal of all inappropriate content, using a filter like Safe Search will make a big difference in keeping unwanted material out of your search results.
5. Download applications from trusted sources only! If you download software from a third party, be sure to only download applications from developers you trust. And, read their Terms of Service and privacy policies to really understand what you’re giving them permission to do when you download their app.

Catherine Teitelbaum, Yahoo!’s Director of Child Safety and Product Policy