Pandora’s Blog

I am very excited to finally announce this, as I’ve been working on it for a few weeks now. The gist is thus: if you are a school entity (district or private school), we want to give you FREE copies of PC Pandora to help keep your kids safe at school. There are no strings attached… Below is a letter I am sending to all superintendents across the country. You can also read the SAFE SCHOOL press release here.

Check this out:

Dear Superintendents and school administrators,
I am writing to offer your school district/organization FREE software that will help you monitor student PC activities and halt potential cases of predator solicitations and peer cyberbullying. This is not a sales pitch or scheme; this is a completely no-strings-attached free offer! If you are interested, keep reading…

At Pandora Corp., we fully recognize two things: a need to keep students safe while online at school, and the limited resources of the education system. We want to cover both bases with our SAFE SCHOOLS one program.

Our monitoring software, PC Pandora, is a desktop application designed to allow parents and teachers the ability to monitor and control PC activity by children, even when they can’t be present. In addition to basic filtering and blocking functions, the program will keep an accurate record of all actions on the PC via screen capture. This enables school administrators to make sure no one is trying to solicit their students online or partaking in cyberbullying. Furthermore, it can help protect your school computers from illegal file sharing, for which you can be held responsible.

We are offering to donate up to $100,000 worth of PC Pandora monitoring software to your school district (up to $10,000 for private/charter schools) to help keep your students safe online. Donations will be made based upon number of grade 7-up schools and students in your area. An appointed technical advisor must be available to ensure smooth communication between your staff and us and to maximize the program’s effectiveness.

All we are asking in return is that you use the opportunity to address Internet safety with both parents and students in your district/school. It is an important issue that must not be overlooked. We would also reserve the right to make our donation known to local media.

In addition to the giveaway, we can provide you with a unique code that will allow parents of your students to purchase the software at a discounted price ($10 off). The code will be tracked and a portion of those sales (25%) will be donated to your technology fund/budget to help shoulder the cost of online safety education for parents and students. This could also work well as a fundraiser for your PTA. This is completely optional and not an obligation to fulfill.

It’s an all around win situation: your students will be safer, your schools will have much-needed, effective resources, parents will have access to a cost-effective solution for their homes, and your school(s) can receive extra funds to help further online safety education in your area.

Please visit http://www.pcpandora.com/educators.php to learn more about us. You can also visit our PRESS page to see some of the great press we’ve received and some of the strides we have made; you can also read my thoughts on the issue on our BLOG.

If you are interested, simply reply to this email for a Software Request Form, which will determine the amount of our donation and also help us keep in contact with you throughout the year (we want to know that we are making a difference). Please note that the software is only compatible with windows-based platforms at this time.

Thanks for your time. If this email has reached you in error, accept our apologies and please share the offer with appropriate staff members…

Have a wonderful school year!

Best,
Ken Shallcross
Pandora Corporation
Director of Media and Public Relations

So if anyone out there knows an educator or school administraotr, have them contact me to receive FREE software!!!

Here’s a pretty big story in our little world of online safety. A senate hearing was held on Tuesday where the current reigning Miss America, Lauren Nelson (who has pledged her tenure to fighting online predators), the president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and a top GoDaddy.com executive all testified and gave their thoughts on the problem of online predators and what should be done to stop them.

Of course, each person had something different to add. There is a great video from NBC in Indianapolis here and a great story sharing GoDaddy’s side here. Check ‘em out.

Whatever the Senate decides to do with this, one thing is clear – the message is getting out there. A Senate hearing means Washington is at least willing to listen…

Then, on Wednesday night, Chris Hansen graced us with another segment of To Catch A Predator. This time, he picked up scumbags in New Jersey!

The issue is hot… and things are happening. But that still doesn’t excuse parents from feeling safe and like they don’t have to do anything. Parents should educate themselves on the net and the issue, discuss it with their Internet-surfing children, and protect their PCs. PC Pandora monitoring software is the best tool you can get to record websites, emails and chats that your children partake in. For less than a night out, you can protect your family.

Of course, just a day after i made a post about the slow news summer, this comes across my desk…

WGXA/FOX 24 has reported the Twiggs County Sheriff’s Office teamed with the famous Perverted Justice organization and arrested 7 men intending to have sex with “children” they met online.

Perverted Justice used their incredibly effective tactic of posing as 13 or 14 year old females and entering chat rooms. Sheriff Darren Mitchum says it didn’t take long for 30, 40 or even 50 year old men to initiate risqué conversation.

In the end, the sting operation caught 7 – some young, some old, some married with children, and some claiming to be deacons and youth ministers. All of them from outside Twiggs County. Three of them even drove to meet the child, but met a deputy instead. The Sheriff says they have air tight cases against all of these men and trials should start in October.

GOOD WORK SHERIFF MITCHUM & CO.!!!

Summer is slow for Internet safety news. So, before the weekend arrives, I’m going to give you a look at what we have planned for back-to-school time!

I briefly mentioned in a previous blog some of our plans for fall. I am waist deep in research right now… our plan is to offer FREE copies of PC Pandora to schools across the country in an initiative I am dubbing “Safe School Surfing ‘07″. We are thrilled to be able to provide the desperately-needed resources to school districts at a very low cost – can’t get much lower than free. We are hoping that this will not only keep kids safe while on school computers, but also give schools the excuse to bring up the issue with parents.

With our PC Pandora monitoring software, teachers and administrators will be able to produce visual records of everything that happens on school machines. Via screen captures, they will be able to stop potential Internet predator threats and cyberbullying between peers.

We also plan on making a big media push in both national and local press, so if there is anyone out there that wants to help me relay this free offering, drop me a line at media@pcpandora.com.

Have a great weekend… I’ll post again when news starts happening!

This story came across my desk last week from a number of different NY State media outlets… One of the most complete stories is here: WGRZ.com, Posted by Jerry Gasser, News Operations Manager.

Congressman Tom Reynolds (R-NY) is working on what he calls “The Deleting Online Predators Act of 2007.” Coming at the national level, the bill would require schools and libraries that receive federal funding to block children’s access to social networking websites, such as MySpace.com, or a chat room unless they have a parent’s permission or are under direct adult supervision. The legislation would also create an online clearinghouse website to inform parents, teachers, school officials and students about the potential dangers of social networking sites and chat rooms. The bill also requires the Federal Trade Commission to issue consumer alerts regarding dangerous sites and suspicious activity, and these alerts would be posted for parents and educators online.

This bill is awesome on two levels:

1. Tom Reynolds is the MAN! Clearly he cares about kids and is hoping to make a national impact on this very important issue. Though he doesn’t represent the NYC district – I am PROUD to have him representing my state in Washington!

In a press release from his office, Reynolds says:

“In today’s world, parents are faced with the challenge of making sure their kids are safe and protected from inappropriate and insidious content online, but they cannot watch their kids 24 hours a day. Parents need to know that at school and at libraries, their kids will also be protected…”

…which brings me to…

2. PC Pandora is making a big push in the fall to get PC Pandora into as many schools across the country as possible. Not only would our software make it incredibly easy for schools to comply with would-be federal law, but it will also give administrators and teachers the ability to monitor what sites their kids are going to and what they are doing online.

The issue of Cyberbullying has become just as important as Internet predators lately, especially within school systems and student peers. PC Pandora can help track, stop and prevent Cyberbullying on the computer…

So, not only is PC Pandora the best all-around defense that parents can have on their PC, but it’s also one of the best tools available to schools… and it’s FREE (for schools)!!!

If you are or know of a teacher or administrator that could use our software… drop us a line!

I came across this excellent online video today. It’s about an hour long, but well worth it.

“Keeping Kids Cyber Safe: A Family’s Guide to Internet Protection” was produced by the Sacramento County Office of Education in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Sacramento Valley High Tech Crimes Task Force and the Elk Grove Unified School District. It was designed to help instruct parents, teachers and youth of the dangers of unrestricted Internet use and how to protect children from online predators.

On February 20, the Sacramento-based United States Attorneys Office hosted a community forum at Sheldon High School in the Elk Grove Unified School District. The forum featured experts on Internet safety, including Katie Canton, who shared her experiences of being victimized by an online predator at the age of 15. This panel discussion is featured in the online piece, after a 12-minute general summary of information package.

I strongly encourage ALL parents and teachers to check this out: www.scoe.net/doj. The video is also being made available – at no cost – to schools, libraries and community groups.