FOSI Applauds Digital Nation Documentary

WASHINGTON – The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) today congratulated award-winning producer Rachel Dretzin and Douglas Rushkoff on the FRONTLINE documentary "Digital Nation" set to air on PBS tonight. "Digital Nation" is a follow-up film to "Growing Up Online" that looks at how digital media has transformed every aspect of our culture, from how people learn to how they socialize to how they work.

"The FRONTLINE producers have created an amazingly compelling documentary that looks at what we've gained and lost in our 24/7 connected lives," said Stephen Balkam, CEO of FOSI. "'Digital Nation' takes a unique look at the many benefits digital technology brings to our families and communities, but also looks at the disadvantages that come along with our technology dependency. This documentary highlights the need for heightened digital and media literacy programs to help our society cope with the new challenges of living in a web 3.0 world."

"Digital Nation was a first for FRONTLINE: a multiplatform project, full of short online videos, a producers' blog and user-generated content called Your Stories," said Rachel Dretzin, FRONTLINE producer. "We wanted to use the transparency and interactivity of online media to examine the real-world effects of technology on kids, and start a dialogue on how technology could so drastically impact our society in just one generation. I learned a great deal from this film – from those I interviewed, from those I worked with and even from my own family." For more on FOSI's reaction to "Digital Nation" read Stephen Balkam's review in the Huffington Post, "Are We (Virtually) There Yet?"

FOSI, in association with NCTA, is holding a screening of "Digital Nation" on February 25, 2010 at NCTA. Click here to find out more.

About FOSI

The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) works to make the online world safer 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 Systems, BT Retail, Comcast, Facebook, France Telecom, Google, GSM Association, Kingston Communications, Loopt, Microsoft, MySpace, NCTA, Ning, Nominum, Optenet, Privo, RuleSpace, Sprint, StreamShield, Symantec, Telefónica, TELMEX, The Wireless Foundation, Verizon, Yahoo. 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.