Larry Magid: Tech Analyst To Host Safer Internet Day Event

SAN FRANCICO (KCBS)— I'm in Washigton D.C. where I'll be hosting a Safer Internet Day event on Tuesday; an  official United States event that will be held on Capitol Hill.

We're honored to have guest speakers like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as well as executives from Facebook, Google, and Tumblr just to name a few.

This event has been going on in Europe for 11 years. The U.S. has only been peripherally involved, but then, about a year ago, former Secretary Gen. Janet Napolitano and the European Commission vice president signed an agreement to run an event in the States. It's being webcast live (you can find more info at Larrysworld.com)

This event was initiated by the European Commission and it really was focused in Europe, but there really was no coordinated effort here. Government officials were really a part of it, but it wasn't until the Department of Homeland Security and the European Commission got together over a year ago that the U.S. really got on board.

In some ways we take the lead on things and in others we're slow and this is one of those instances where we were just late in getting involved.

Part of this event is the "One Good Thing" campaign where we encourage people to tell us good things that they've done to make the internet better or where they've used connected technology to make the world better. There's some great things that young people have done. You can check out some of these good things at Saferinternetday.us.