SocialShield Addresses Internet Safety Issues Highlighted by New California Law on Schools and Cyberbullying

SAN BRUNO, Calif., July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 746 on Fri., July 8, 2011, giving the state's schools new powers to address cyberbullying by enabling them to suspend students for bullying classmates on social networking sites, including Facebook.  The bill highlights Internet safety issues involving children that are addressed by the SocialShield social network monitoring service.

The Internet and the social web are compelling parents to define a new approach to parenting, and SocialShield offers them a new tool to help by enabling them to see not only their kids' activity, but their friends' activity as well. SocialShield monitors and summarizes a child's online activity and alerts parents about situations where their children may be victimized by cyberbullying or child predators, in addition to reputation damaging posts and pictures.  Because SocialShield lives in the "cloud," there is no software to download or install, and it functions wherever children access their social media profiles, including cell phones. 

"This important legislation enables our schools to step forward and address cyberbullying more effectively, even when it occurs off-campus or after school hours," said Steve DeWarns, Chief Security Officer, SocialShield.  "This is, first and foremost, a parenting issue.  Parents need to be aware of how their kids are using technology and behaving on social media sites.  SocialShield was created to offer parents a way to effectively monitor their children's online behavior and inform them of important situations that need to be addressed."

Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose) introduced the legislation to update California's anti-bullying laws as a result of recent increases in abuse leading to depression and, in some devastating cases, suicide.  It specifies the necessary requirements in such cases, including the empowerment of schools to suspend students for bullying classmates through the "transmission of a communication, including... a message, text, sound, or image, or a post on a social network Internet Web site by means of an electronic device."  In the legislation, "bullying" is defined as one or more acts by a pupil or group of pupils as defined in Section 48900.2, 48900.3, or 48900 of the California Education Code.

SocialShield is the only service that analyzes a child's friends by checking their info against more than 50 data points to determine if person is someone the parent should be concerned about.  Alerts are generated when an adult becomes a friend of a child, when someone looks suspicious or has no other friends in common with a child, or if something appears out of the ordinary.  In addition, SocialShield monitors a child's social network activity for inappropriate pictures and reckless discussions about subjects like drugs, sex, violence, alcohol and suicide. Parenting is difficult enough without all of the outside concerns. With SocialShield, parents are allotted extra piece of mind knowing they are doing what they can to try to protect their children on the Internet.

For details on the SocialShield social network protection system, visit www.socialshield.com.

About SocialShield

SocialShield is the leading cloud-based social network monitoring service.  SocialShield gives parents affordable, easy-to-use, state-of-the-art tools to help them enhance Internet safety for their children in the online environment.  The patent-pending SocialShield technology flags parents about their children's activities on popular social networks so they can feel comfortable about who their children interact with online, what photos and conversations are being posted, and where children have profiles.  Yet, by operating primarily as an "exception reporting" technology, children can still use these networks with a feeling of privacy and independence.  Based in San Bruno, CA, SocialShield is backed by USVP and Venrock as well as several notable private investors.  www.socialshield.com

SOURCE SocialShield