About the Real Experts – WiredSafety’s Teenangels and Tweenangels

For the last ten years WiredSafety’s teen experts, the Teenangels, have provided the industry, media, policymakers and law enforcement with the inside scoop on what young people do online and how to keep them safer. (This is the 9th annual WiredKids Summit because the summit was cancelled in October 2001 after one of our Teenangels lost her father at the September 11th attack.)

In 2006 their younger counterparts, the Tweenangels, joined in the fun. They provided the much needed prospective of kids and preteens, especially when handheld gaming devices and virtual worlds are involved.

Teenangels must complete 12 training modules, with up to three classes each. They also have to conduct independent research on both technology features, devices or sites and on behaviors. Last, but not least, they must give presentations to 500 of their peers, parents or members of their community. They aren’t trained to recite Parry’s safety tips. They are trained to build their own.

Teenangels advise industry too. They provide expertise and content to Facebook, the MPAA, Procter & Gamble, LG phones, Verizon, Disney, McAfee, AOL and Microsoft. They are featured in national media and sought for their unique insight. They testify before Congress, advise state attorneys general and run programs for Parliament in the U.K. and, when law enforcement needs help locating a teen who sent a bomb threat on a school network – you guessed it! They call a Teenangel.

But no matter how impressive the Teenangels are, wait until you meet a ten year old who advises industry on best practices! Tweenangels have to complete six modules on cybersafety and conduct one independent research project as a chapter. When they are fully-trained, they are amazing. They advise industry too, and appear as experts for the media (like their piece on handheld gaming devices for the Today Show). Whenever Parry wants to find a hole in a site or product, she gives it to the Tweenangels. Like toddlers being able to find the one unprotected electric plug in the room hidden behind a low table, the Tweenangels are just the right height to find unprotected features online.

So, while the research they present will keep your attention at the WiredKids Summit, don’t miss the chance to network with the Teenangels and Tweenangels you meet during the event. Heck, you might find your new advisory board member right at your table. And getting their help is your only chance of beating our teens in our “R U Smarter than a Tweenangel!”