A new website has gathered resources about online safety for...

A new website has gathered resources about online safety for teenagers, “the likes of which has never been put together,” said Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute, which created the site. The site, Platform For Good (http://xrl.us/bnpr8v), launched Wednesday and has privacy policies of major websites and social networks frequented by teenagers, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google. “It’s there in an easy to find and use way,” Balkam told us Thursday. FOSI’s partners for the site include Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. Those competitors have “all shown an extraordinary willingness to work together,” Balkam said. Privacy’s a top priority for FOSI, he said. The group has many U.S. and European ISPs and websites as members, including AOL, AT&T, BT, Comcast, Facebook, Sprint-Nextel, Telecom Italia, Verizon and Yahoo and some of their associations (http://xrl.us/bnpsbb). Privacy has also been a top issue for some members of Congress and FCC members, Balkam said: “There’s been considerable interest in” the site on the part of lawmakers. The new site’s not just a place to get information, “it’s a change of the conversation,” Balkam said. In addition to being “a place to help parents, teachers and teens connect to share and do great things online,” it’s an effort to highlight the good that can come out of the Internet, rather than the dark side that tends to dominate the news cycle, he said. “Let’s shift the conversation from a rather fear-based approach ... and let’s foster instead an informed discussion.” For parents, the site has a daily blog with guest writers and a resources page, he said. Teachers can access a resource page specific for them as well as information on how to integrate social media and online content in classroom learning. Teens will find resources, a quiz asking them what they think their parents should know about the Internet and information about online volunteering opportunities, such as building websites for local charities, Balkam said. FOSI wants young Internet users to think about digital citizenship, which he said is “your rights and your responsibilities when you're online.” The difference between the real and virtual worlds is in the latter people don’t always know how to intervene when someone’s being hurt, he said: “There are plenty of train wrecks online,” and the site’s meant to empower people to think about how they can help.