About Parry Aftab: Parry's Internet Safety Bio 

Parry Aftab is a security, privacy and cyberspace lawyer, as well as an author, columnist and child advocate. A substantial portion of her time is devoted to Internet issues involving children, from equitable access, to privacy, to safety, to helping develop quality and reliable content for children. She also acts as a consultant to most of the children's Internet industry, helping them comply with the law, while improving the Internet experience for children. When children and the Internet are concerned, Ms. Aftab's name is the first mentioned.  

Parry Aftab is a worldwide leader in the area of online safety and parent and child Internet education. As Executive Director of WiredSafety.org, the largest online safety and educational program in cyberspace, Ms. Aftab helps prevent and assist law enforcement agencies in investigating cybercrime. Under its former name, her group was awarded the President's Service Award in October 1998 from the White House and Points of Light Foundation. Ms Aftab also works closely with law enforcement around the world to prevent cybercrimes and police the Internet and is part of the Home Office CybercrimeTask Force in the UK.

In 1999, Ms. Aftab was appointed by UNESCO to head up its Innocence in Danger project for the U.S. The project was designed to make sure that all children (regardless of wealth or ethnic background) gain safe access to the Internet.  Its Wired Kids project, which launched in September 2000 (www.wiredkids.org) provides important information and programs for children and teens, educators, law enforcement, parents and librarians.  It is designed to be a one-stop source for all matters related to children online, including online safety and privacy.

Her first book, A Parents' Guide to the Internet...and how to protect your children in cyberspace, was released in January, 1998. It was a guide to the computer and Internet basics, for the “technology challenged.” The book provided practical solutions to parents’ concerns about Internet safety. The book is, notwithstanding its subject matter, was light and fun reading.  McGraw-Hill released her new book for parents and teachers on child online safety, The Parent’s Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace, in January 2000. It is the leading resource for parents on Internet safety for their children. It has already been adapted and released for the UK, Singapore and Spanish-speaking markets. Recently Ms. Aftab reacquired the rights to her book and will be making it available without charge at WiredSafety’s website.

Her newest project, Peers2Peers (peers2peers.org) is designed to teach children and teens to understand and respect intellectual property rights, whether to music, software, games, movies or trademarks. Understanding that the fastest way to stop the lawsuits against our youth by the RIAA and others is to teach the children to pay for what they download, Ms. Aftab plans to pool together some of the key players in the IP markets, including major recording artists, multimedia lawyers, software manufacturers, game designers and members of the motion picture industry to help teach kids that everyone has a stake in protecting the legal rights of others. The Peers2Peers program includes classroom lesson plans and curricula, videos and public service announcements as well as a competition where youth volunteers can design their own public service awareness campaigns.

Ms. Aftab has helped design programs for parents and children in a wide range of Internet-related issues since 1997, including the P.I.E. Program (Parent Internet Education) for the Baltimore County School system. This was the first of its kind, in educating parents and families about safe and fun online use. She is also an expert on filtering and blocking products.  The FBI has even (unofficially) endorsed Ms. Aftab's work with online safety and her book. Also, Family PC Magazine named Parry Aftab the Internet Pioneer of the Year Award in 2001.

 

She has been providing public service safety information for many years. Parry Aftab also provides parent Internet education and online safety content for such diverse sites as Nickelodeon, Children’s Television Workshop, Disney, Microsoft, AOL, AT&T and MSNBC.  She is a regular keynote speaker, and resource on camera for the media on diverse cybercrime, safety, privacy and cyberlaw issues. Recently she became The Privacy Lawyer for Information Week Magazine where she rights weekly on a range of topics that affect technology, privacy and law. Her expertise is especially in demand on children’s Internet issues, because no one knows more about children online than Parry Aftab.

 
A free speech advocate, Ms. Aftab seeks to empower parents, not the censors. Her work has been featured nationally and internationally in online and print publications, including Readers Digest, Playboy, TV Guide Magazine, Cosmopolitan, People Magazine, Redbook, Biography, Information Week, Working Women, Teen People, U.S. News & World Report, Family Circle, Newsweek, Ladies Home Journal, Smart Money Magazine, PC Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Better Homes & Gardens, Family PC Magazine, Yahoo! Internet Life, Information Week, CIO Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The LA Times, most regional newspapers in the United States, The London Times Magazine, The Strait Times (Singapore), The South China Morning Post Sunday Magazine (Hong Kong), and more. As a result of her work online with children, Ms. Aftab was selected as a charter member of Children Television Workshop’s Advisory Board, as well as appointed to The National Urban League’s Technology Advisory Committee. In 2003 she was elected to TRUSTe’s Board of Directors. Ms. Aftab also served on the advisory board for the Ad Council.

Parry Aftab has spoken to many governmental agencies and groups worldwide, conducted briefings for the U.S. Senate, been a key speaker at the White House Summit on Online Content, the sole Internet-related expert speaking at the 2002 White House summit on Missing and Exploited Children and testified before leading legislative committees and The House of Lords, all with the same message: The Internet is a wonderful resource for families, and once parents understand the online risks, they can use common sense (and perhaps some filtering tools) to help their children enjoy cyberspace safely.

 

As one of the first lawyers in the world to specialize in Internet legal issues, Parry Aftab is admitted to practice law in New York and New Jersey. She attended law school at NYU School of Law where she received her J.D. degree. She received her B.A. degree as Valedictorian of Hunter College (having completed her full undergraduate degree in less than two years), where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

She resides in the New York metropolitan area and is a mother of two. Ms. Aftab can be reached at Parry@Aftab.com.