A serial social entrepreneur, Stephen has set up four organizations and turned around a couple more in both the US and the UK. Stephen is the Founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute, an international non-profit dedicated to making the online world safer and more civil for kids and their families.
Prior to this, Stephen set up the Internet Content Rating Association – the world’s leading content rating system on the Internet, and before that, the Recreational Software Advisory Council where he oversaw an innovative self-labeling system for computer games and, eventually, for websites. Stephen has run organizations as diverse as the National Stepfamily Association (UK), Islington Voluntary Action Council (London) and Camden Community Transport.
He writes regularly for LinkedIn, Huffington Post and often appears in the media on online safety and digital parenting issues. He loves to bring new ideas into reality and positively enjoys the creative disruption that technology brings while finding ways to mitigate its worst effects. He is a life long learner and eternal optimist. And his favorite Richard Bach quote is, “You teach best what you most need to learn.”
Opinion
T+E NYC Preview: Are Smartphones the New Cigarettes?
Our devices have overwhelmed us. In this preview of a session to be held at Techonomy NYC, an advocate for online safety argues that we need to develop new behavioral norms and self-discipline to curb our problematic digital habits.
Artificial Intelligence
Are Connected Toys Worth the Risk?
Children's toys and rooms are quickly becoming connected, like just about everything else. Parents may find monitors useful and talking toys a merciful distraction, but is this new digital world safe? Big companies like Mattel, whose Hello Barbie is illustrated here, may handle the responsibilities, but the raft of startups creeping toward our children's lives may be another matter.
Are We Addicted to Smartphones? Do You Really Have to Ask?
Session Description: A highly interactive session on slumped-shoulder dilemma. What is happening to us, and to our kids? Even activist investors say phone makers aren’t doing enough. The session transcript can be found below, with a PDF version available here. Are We Addicted to Smartphones? Do You Really Have to Ask? (Transcription by RA Fisher Ink) […]
Conferences
Techonomy 16
MANkind’s evolving relationship with tools and MACHINES is nothing new. But the speed at which we, and everything around us, are becoming more closely connected and NETWORKed is.
