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I am traveling to Washington, DC, at the annual Family Safety Online Institute (FOSI) conference. I have been involved in almost all of these events since they started in 2007, usually as a speaker, as CEO of ConnectSafely.org.

Larry Magid (Gary Reyes / Mercury News)

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A simple look at the agenda of the event gives us an idea of what concerns Internet security advocates, technology executives and government politicians.

The first session, Online Security in the AI World, emphasizes artificial intelligence concerns. AI can be incredibly useful. Along with speech recognition, it supports home digital assistants such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple SIRI. This allows companies such as Santa Cruz-based Full Power technologies to analyze sleep patterns with a networked device under the mattress, analyze sleep patterns, and make recommendations. AI is the driving force behind self-driving cars and an essential component of face and voice recognition, which can make us safer and safer. Indeed, the paper to be presented at the conference states that AI can be used to fight proliferationmaterials on child sexual abuse using technologies such as Microsoft's PhotoDNA. But this is not without risk, indicating misinformation such as fake content, as an example.

AI can also be used in hostilities, which can make it safer for U.S. troops, but it can also have unforeseen consequences, including the risk of mass casualties if it falls into the wrong hands, gets hacked or an error occurs in the case of software.

There is also a risk that the AI algorithm will not be able to take the necessary precautions. I still remember when my old GPS device informed me that I would move from point A to point B, crossing the lake, although there was no bridge there. If it were a fully autonomous system, my car could drive into the lake.

Indeed, the tragedy of the two Boeing 737 Max crashes are examples of erroneous software. Crash prevention software puts these aircraft on a dive as a safety measure, leading to crashes and 346 deaths.

I am also concerned about artificial intelligence, but, like almost all new technologies, it is also subject to myths and moral panic. It is unlikely that the breed of evil machines will become our masters. For security advocates, including myself, it is important to take into account their concerns and realize that in the early stages of technology development we cannot always predict what will and will not be dangerous. When MySpace and other early social media services first became popular in 2004, there was widespread concern that children were sexually abused by online predators, which, although clearly a risk, turned out to be much more statistically unlikely than risks that were not mentioned. While cyberbullying, damage to reputation and obsessive use, which today affects millions of media users.

Cyberbullying is always discussed at the FOSI conference because it is one of the biggest challenges young people face on the Internet. In past years, not very young adults, including myself, talked about the problem and its solution. This year, Lucy Thomas and Rosie Thomas from Project Rockit in Australia will talk about how giving young agencies the opportunity to bring technology back forever is likely to be more relevant than adult intervention. I dont know the exact age of these two Australian Internet security experts, but working with them on the Facebook Security Advisory Council, I know that they are many years younger than me and most other Internet security activists I know. This is good, and even better, if they work mainly with young people, with the goal of Empowering young people to lead change.

As a person whose teenage years are decades behind me, I am aware of my own limitations in understanding how teens use technology, so my nonprofit company ConnectSafely is currently partnering with MyDigitalTat2, a nonprofit organization in the Bay Area, an advisory board for teens is an integral part his operations. I spent a lot of time with these teenage consultants and leading teenagers in a series of future podcasts that we are working on, and I personally understood why it is important to involve young people in all aspects of digital security, including the fight against cyberbullying.

Microsoft also recognizes the value of working with teenage advisors with the recently launched Digital Goodness Council, an initiative that brings together 15 teens from 12 US states selected to advance our digital civilization work: fostering safer, healthier online communication between everyone ".

The keynote speaker at the FOSI conference is Federal Trade Commissioner Christine Wilson. I dont know what shes going to talk about, but the FTC is a federal agency that fined Facebook, Google and other technology companies for violating the rules and regulations on consent on issues such as privacy and child protection. An appeal to the federal regulator at this conference is appropriate given the mood in Washington these days. It is understood that Congress will ultimately enact a national privacy law and consider other laws governing social networks and other parts of the Internet.

FOSI has been holding these annual conferences since 2007, and in the early years regulation was a dirty word among many attendees, especially heads of Internet companies. Today, this is a largely neglected conclusion, although you can expect a lot of lobbying from companies that hope to shape it in such a way that they do not need to radically change their business models.

Finally, there is a conversation by the fireplace with director and activist Tiffany Shlein about her new book, 24/6: The Power of Disconnecting from the Network One Day a Week. Shlein stands for Digital Saturday, one of many offers to get people to put their phones and tablets and move away from their computers to relax, take a walk or just chat with friends and family. This is an idea whose time has come.

Disclosure: Larry Magid is the CEO of ConnectSafely, a non-profit Internet security organization that has received support from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other technology companies.

. (tagsToTranslate) Larry Magid (t) personal technology (t) Internet Family Safety Institute (t) Internet bullying (t) Internet regulation (t) Artificial Intelligence (t) AI

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AI, cyberbullying, probably the hot topics at the security workshop - Mash Viral