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You are here: WiredSafety > Information > An Overview of WiredSafety.org - who we are and what we do
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WiredSafety.org is a 501(c) (3) charity and the largest and oldest online safety, education, and help group in the world. Originating in 1995 as a group of volunteers rating websites, it now provides one-to-one help, extensive information, and education to cyberspace users of all ages on a myriad of Internet and interactive technology safety issues. These services are offered through a worldwide organization comprised entirely of volunteers who administer specialized websites and programs. WiredSafety.org volunteers range in age from 18 to 80 and run the gamut from TV personalities, teachers, law enforcement officers, PhD's, writers and librarians to stay-at-home moms, retired persons, and students. WiredSafety.org’s founder and Executive Director, cyberlawyer Parry Aftab, is also an unpaid volunteer. With the exception of its TeenAngels, outreach, law enforcement training and speaking programs, all work and help is provided online and free of charge.
WiredSafety.org’s work falls into four major areas:
- Assistance for online victims of cybercrime and harassment
- Advice, Training and Help for law enforcement worldwide on preventing, spotting and investigating cybercrimes
- Education for children, parents, communities, law enforcement, and educators
- Information and Awareness on all aspects of online safety, privacy, responsible use and security
Those who can benefit from WiredSaftey.org’s expertise include:
- Parents, grandparents and caregivers;
- Kids, preteens, teens and college students;
- Members of the Internet and interactive technology industries;
- Law enforcement, legislators, the judicial community and regulatory agencies; and
- Schools and other educational institutions
Originally formed to provide help and protection for Internet users of all ages, in recent years, Wiredsafety.org's work has increasingly focused on children, tweens, and teens. It serves as the umbrella organization for TeenAngels.org, WiredKids.org and WiredTeens.org. WiredSafety.org is dedicated to protecting children in cyberspace from cybercrimes and abuse, including from each other. This involves protecting them from cyberbullying, hacking, sexual harassment and identity (ID) theft. It also includes protecting children everywhere from Internet-related sexual exploitation.
Marvel Entertainment, Inc. has joined forces with WiredSafety.org to provide superhero assistance in educating our children and families on safer online practices. The first Internet safety comic, Internet Super Heroes meet the Internet Villains, teaches how Internet predators can infiltrate anyone's computer and wreck havoc on their lives by stealing their identity and posing as them online. Published under its exclusive license with Marvel, and sponsored by Microsoft, this comic will help teach the 250,000 readers how to be smarter and safer online.
WiredSafety.org also provides information and resources to help educate and guide law enforcement officers on Internet safety issues, crime prevention and reporting of cybercrimes. It has created a special website just for law enforcement officers, CyberLawEnforcement.org, also known as WiredCops.org. As part of the Wiredcops.org initiative, specially trained volunteers assist law enforcement in the investigation and prevention of trafficking of children, child pornography, child molestation, and cyberstalkers. Recently, at the request of leading law enforcement agencies, WiredSafety.org has begun using its teen volunteers to provide information that will assist undercover law enforcement officers in creating real profiles of real teens to help law enforcement become more believable when posing as young teens.
WiredSafety.org offers one-to-one assistance for cases of cyberabuse. WiredSafety's cyberhelpline gives “netizens” access to free help when they need it via the Internet. Its special team of helpline volunteers is assigned to cases and works one-to-one online to help resolve individual problems and get victims help when they need it. WiredSafety.org handles more cases of cyberstalking than any other organization in the world, helping thousands each month through its site and report line. Cyberbullying cases can be reported to the report line as well.
WiredSafety.org is also the only organization that uses specially trained teens and preteens to help develop safer technologies, by advising members of the Internet industry and governmental agencies around the world. These expert Teenangels, 13 to 18 year olds, (and now their younger version, Tweenangels, from 9 - 12 years of age) deliver the message of safe, private, and responsible technology use to their peers. These youth-based programs were formed in 1999 to provide special perspectives and insight into how young people are using the new technologies and how to better prepare them to handle the risks they encounter. Teenangels have been recognized and honored by Congress, John Walsh and recently, Teen People Magazine, among others. The new focus on cyberwellness and cyberethics fits perfectly within WiredSafety's mission and expertise. As we raise a new generation of cybercitizens, they need to understand the norms and rules of operating online. They must also recognize that they must be held accountable for what they do in cyberspace and that what they post online has ramifications beyond the momentary click.
WiredSafety.org also offers a wide variety of educational and help services to the Internet community at large. Companies such as Disney, Yahoo, Oracle, Facebook, Microsoft and AOL turn to Parry Aftab and WiredSafety.org for guidance and advice in dealing with Internet safety issues. WiredSafety.org also acts as a watchdog within most of the social networking websites, to help provide their users safety information and help when things go wrong.
Select volunteers find and review family-friendly Web sites, filtering software products, and Internet services. Some of the outreach team volunteers run programs, summits and also speak at local community groups and schools around the world teaching Internet safety, privacy and responsible use.
However, its work is not limited to the Internet alone. WiredSafety focuses on all aspects of interactive technology use and abuse. Its expertise includes cell phone safety and security, interactive gaming, social networking (mobile and online) and text-messaging products, as well as any new interactive technologies as they are developed. Its long years of working with Internet users and handling cybercrimes and abuse have created a flexible and knowledgeable volunteer force. If you can view content, communicate with others, spend money, or buy things using the technology, WiredSafety.org can help.WiredSafety.org is headed by Parry Aftab, a mom, international cyberspace privacy and security lawyer and children's advocate. Parry is the author of the first book written for parents about Internet safety - The Parents Guide to the Internet (considered the bible of online safety and published in 1997) as well as The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace (McGraw-Hill, 2000), which has been adapted and translated around the world. Her most recent books have been especially written and adapted for and published in England, China, Spain and Singapore. Her new book, Internet Safety 1-2-3, was released in December 2005 in Spain and will be released this year in the United States. And her new Stop Cyberbullying! guide launched in Spain in May 2006.
WiredSafety is proud of its reputation as the one-stop-shop for all cyberspace safety, privacy, security, and help needs. It is even prouder of the fact that all this can be accomplished without large government funding or money wasted on administration costs. No one is paid within WiredSafety.org. They are all unpaid volunteers - including Parry herself. Its volunteer workforce has been estimated at providing more than $3 million in unpaid services every year. It has operated since 1995 with a total funded budget of under $150,000 a year, on average.