Cable Deepens Its Commitment to Child Online Safety With Membership in FOSI: NCTA Joins Preeminent Online Safety Group

WASHINGTON D.C. - December 17, 2008. Further building on the cable industry’s commitment to children’s online safety, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) today announced that it has joined the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), the preeminent global non-profit dedicated to enhancing online safety for children and families around the world.

Membership in FOSI helps the cable industry extend its commitment to giving parents a full range of tools, information and resources to help better shape and manage their family’s online use.

“Cable’s membership in FOSI adds a significant new dimension to cable’s online safety efforts,” said Kyle McSlarrow, President & CEO, NCTA. “As the nation’s leading broadband provider, cable is committed to help parents and families ensure that the Internet remains a trusted, safe environment for children.”

NCTA will be represented on FOSI’s Board by David Pierce, Vice President, Public Affairs, NCTA.

“FOSI welcomes NCTA as a new member who will help us further promote online safety,” said Stephen Balkam, CEO of FOSI. “At FOSI we are working to develop best practices and having David Pierce and his experience with PointSmart.Click Safe. will be beneficial in determining how to best reach parents.”

Last year, the cable industry launched PointSmart.ClickSafe. (www.PointSmartClickSafe.org), a comprehensive online safety and media literacy initiative to help educate parents about online safety and appropriate use of the Internet by their children. Cable’s approach centers on three components: control, including parental controls; education, especially media literacy; and choice, helping children make the right choices when online.

In June 2008, NCTA, in partnership with the Internet KeepSafe Coalition (iKeepSafe), Common Sense Media, and Cable in the Classroom, staged a major summit in Washington, D.C., under the PointSmart.ClickSafe. banner (www.pscssummit.org) in which dozens of online safety experts discussed potential “best practices” for online safety.

Also, as a part of the cable initiative, a “blue ribbon” commission currently is working to further discuss, synthesize and develop best practices to recommend to telecommunications and entertainment companies, for enhancing online safety and Internet literacy.

For more information about children’s online safety, visit PointSmart.ClickSafe. at www.PointSmartClickSafe.org and FOSI at www.FOSI.org.

About FOSI

The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) works to make the online world safe for kids and their families by identifying and promoting best practices, tools and methods that also respect free speech. FOSI’s members include: AOL, AT&T, Blue Coat, BT Retail, Cisco, Comcast, Computing Technology Industry Association, Crisp Thinking, France Telecom/Orange, Google, GSMA, Loopt, Microsoft, Mpower Media, MySpace, NCTA, Ning, Privo, Rulespace, Sentinel, Sprint, Symantec, Telefónica, Telmex, The Wireless Foundation, and Verizon. FOSI hosts an annual international conference to bring together Internet safety advocates from a variety of sectors, including global corporations, government, non-profits, academia and the media, to discuss the current pulse of online safety and emerging solutions that will enhance it. For more information, please visit www.fosi.org.

About NCTA

NCTA is the principal trade association for the U.S. cable industry, representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation's cable television households and more than 200 cable program networks. The cable industry is the nation’s largest broadband provider of high-speed Internet access after investing more than $130 billion over ten years to build a two-way interactive network with fiber optic technology. Cable companies also provide state-of-the-art digital telephone service to millions of American consumers.