Cyber Safety for Kids and Families

Online, November 13, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Take a heavily published global security expert, Winn Schwartau www.WinnSchwartau.com. Add his editor-in-chief wife, Sherra; his multi-media production maven daughter, Ashley, the creative juice behind the award winning documentary, Hackers Are People, Too; and blend in his son Adam, who first demonstrated wireless security vulnerabilities on national television at eleven.

Collectively, you have a family with decades of experience and a relentless passion to help kids, families, schools and other groups with security, safety, privacy and ethics. Glue it all together with digital artist Kayley Melton and you have one family's security awareness vision come to life in Schwartau's latest book and awareness project, Cyber Safety and Ethics and Stuff for Kids and Teens, and Parents and Teachers. http://www.cybersafetyandethics.com.

In order to meet Winn's goal of "giving away a million or more copies" of Cyber Safety and Ethics and Stuff, (he and his family have embarked on an ambitious crowd funding initiative through crowd funding company KickStarter.

2002, Schwartau published Internet and Computer Ethics for Kids (and Parents and Teachers Who Haven't Got a Clue) (www.Amazon.Com) - and "with strong corporate support from the security community, we distributed more than 125,000 copies... but that is nowhere near enough."

Now, it is 10 years later the need is greater than before.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano agrees. "Now, more than ever, it is important that all Americans - adults and children alike - learn to protect themselves online and do their part to ensure that cyberspace is a safe and secure environment for all Internet users," she said, announcing the Stop. Think. Connect campaign in July 2011.

"For the last few years," Schwartau continues, "I have been asked by all sorts of interested people and companies to do a rewrite and update the original. With crowd funding, we can involve everyone, from every walk of life, from individuals to schools to faith-based groups to youth organizations to small business and mega corporations. This can be the important difference in successfully reaching the 25 million kids in K-12 today."

For as little as $3, anyone can become a backer of Cyber Safety and Ethics and Stuff on Kickstarter. "We are also developing coloring books, on-line courses, videos and other aids aimed at the younger kids," adds Ashley Schwartau, who leads the production team behind this much needed and highly anticipated project. "We have so much we want to do... and how much we can accomplish in 2013 depends entirely upon the level of support we receive from the community."

Ideally, the Schwartaus want to give away a million hard copies, ten million e-books plus unlimited free training and videos. "I know that's lofty," Winn agrees. "But if you never try, you never succeed."
"Our initial minimum goal of $60,000," Sherra Schwartau says, "will allow us to fulfill our backer's rewards, plus get copies to every member of Congress, every State education director, leaders in Washington, key media and online groups that support kid and family cyber safety."

Her optimism is contagious. "If we raise $500,000, we plan to give away 90,000 books and make the on-line e-courses (CBTs) and videos available for kids, as well."

The project has already developed significant interest by corporations and security vendor who want to private brand Cyber Safety and Ethics and Stuff for their own good will and promotional purposes.
To find out more about Cyber Safety and Ethics and Stuff, the Schwartaus' Kickstarter project http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winnschwartau/cyber-safety-and-ethics-and-stuff or for TV, web or print interviews with Winn, Sherra, Ashley or Kayley, contact [email protected] or call +1 727 393 6600