Today’s Tech Savvy Guest is Steven W. White, President and CEO of ImageVision, and the creator of a visual recognition and image and video filtering technology that scans images at the rate of 720,000 per hour to detect and filter lewd content in images, text, and video. Steven is here to share technology that helps parents ensure that their kids are being responsible digital citizens.
As if parents don’t have enough worries, it’s becoming more and more common for kids to receive or send inappropriate videos, images and messages through their smartphones and tablets. This growing threat is virtually impossible for parents and educators to monitor, much less prevent these types of behaviors.
According to recent studies,
· One in four teens ages 15-17 have received mean or bullying text messages
· More than half of teens ages 15-17 know someone who has received a sexual message or picture over their phone (compared to 39 percent among those aged 12-14).
· Half of parents with children ages 5-15 years old who use the Internet at home, have no idea what their kids are really doing on the Internet.
· This number increases to 70 percent for those with children between the ages of 12-15 years old.
In other words, parents may not fully understand the online and digital activity of their children, how they’re doing it, the serious dangers they could be facing and most importantly – how to protect them from it.
For parents to exercise their full responsibility, they must first educate themselves on the digital tools their kids are using, and then become actively involved in their child’s online activities. They must learn about the technologies currently available to help keep kids safe. Fair or not, many have looked to their mobile service providers to offer the tools and resources for parents to address mobile security and monitoring problems.
Offering truly “kid-safe” smartphones and tablets is an ideal solution, especially considering the growing demand from families and the education market. But, without a real-time, visual filtering option, it hasn’t been feasible for mobile manufacturers to implement this kind of complete protection that kids need from illicit content – until now.
That’s where new technologies like ImageVision’s may provide an answer. ImageVision’s technology gives computers eyes to “see” and monitor inappropriate, online or digital content to build a protective wall around a social network, a child’s mobile device or tablet. This filtering occurs automatically and in real-time, so content that is regarded as “safe” loads immediately to the network or device without any further action taken. Suspect videos, images and texts are “flagged” for review by a parent, guardian or person-in-charge. No explicit material in. No explicit material out.
Designed by parents for parents, this type of protection provides the first-ever defense against strangers, sexual predators and cyber bullies that use mobile technology and the Web to target youth.
In the world of image and video sharing, content can travel and travel fast and virally. Be safe, smart and protective about how much your children share online and on their smartphones – a single click could make a world of difference.
Parents can learn more about ImageVision and how to protect their child online by visiting http://www.imagevision.com/ or join the conversation about clean content on the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
About Steven White: Steven W. White is the President and CEO of ImageVision and the creator of a visual recognition and image and video filtering technology with market applications for enterprise, mobile and social networking. His career and passion revolve around online security and contextual content delivery. As a result of his dedication to promoting online safety and educating parents of the various forms of digital abuse, Steven White has become a nationally renowned expert on the issues of “cyberbullying” and “sexting.” With nearly all 50 states battling the effects of these issues among youth, and as a parent of four children himself, White has made it his company’s priority to support legislation that deters and educates citizens about these issues that could help save the lives and reputations of youth all over the country.No compensation was received for sharing this guest post. All opinions are those of our Tech Savvy Guest.
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