NetSupport Joins The Digital Citizenship Institute to Enhance Digital Citizenship Approach

    ATLANTA, GA, June 22, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Today, NetSupport Inc. and The Digital Citizenship Institute announced a strategic partnership aimed to help schools and their stakeholders reignite the digital citizenship discussion and enhance their approach.

With children between the ages of 8 and 15 spending more than twice as much time online at school and at home as they did a decade ago, now more than ever there is a need for young people to be educated about positive digital interactions and how to behave responsibly online - as well as ensuring schools and guardians are providing a safe learning environment.

Working together, the partnership will leverage the benefits that come with The Digital Citizenship Institute's expertise in changing the narrative from a reactive to a more proactive approach and NetSupport's 29 years' software experience helping schools and districts manage their technology and its users effectively.

NetSupport's latest software solution, NetSupport DNA, helps schools and districts to promote a culture of good digital citizenship, both in the classroom and across the school, with its unique features. NetSupport DNA offers keyword and phrase monitoring tools, age-appropriate internet controls, concern reporting to trusted staff, and access to self-help resources. It allows teachers to demonstrate appropriate behavior while ensuring schools can stem the increasing instances of cyber-bullying, radicalization, sexual predation, racism and more - while complying with CIPA requirements.

"Often, discussions around kids and technology begin and end with all the don'ts. We are committed to changing this narrative from the reactive to the proactive where the don'ts become I will statements and the positives outweigh the negatives," states Dr. Marialice B.F.X. Curran, Founder and Executive Director of the Digital Citizenship Institute. The Institute expands the digital safety discussion to explore how adults and children can also work side-by-side to learn about and experience deliberate, positive uses of technology together.

Marcus Kingsley, MD of NetSupport Inc., explains "The increasing use of technology in schools brings with it the responsibility to keep students safe. Unfortunately, many schools rely on a restrictive policy to achieve this and believe this supports and cultivates good digital citizens. Restricting sites does help keep students safe (in school); however, it doesn't educate or prepare them for the dangers online outside a school environment. This opens up a wider debate as to who is responsible for this task, but in short everyone is, from teacher to guardian, which is why we hope that this collaboration will not just enforce the importance of the digital citizen message to everyone but also, educate schools to consider applying proactive standards to allow teachers to demonstrate positive digital usage in a safe learning environment."

In addition to joint collaboration and representation at upcoming industry events, the partnership will also entail the dual creation of factual and informative materials to help educate the global education audience and mutual input in a community-driven approach for empowering students and other educational stakeholders, transforming them into 21st century facing digital citizens.

About the Digital Citizenship Institute:
The Digital Citizenship Institute is an inclusive innovation network promoting a positive digital citizenship message of safety, social responsibility and social good through the use of social media and technology. The Institute partners with districts, schools, parents, organizations, industry and government agencies to provide a community approach to digital citizenship. The Institute is committed to turning negatives into positives and helping transform participants into designers, creative thinkers, global collaborators, problem solvers and justice-oriented digital citizens.

Since digital citizenship is everyone's responsibility, the Institute's mission is a community-driven approach to educating and empowering all stakeholders to be actively involved and engaged in solving problems and creating solutions in local, global and digital communities. The Institute provides professional development and certifies teachers, schools, districts and organizations.

About NetSupport:
Atlanta based NetSupport, Inc. is a member of the UK headquartered NetSupport Group of Companies and with a 29-year development pedigree, is an award- winning developer of IT Asset Management, Classroom Management, Desktop Security, ITIL ServiceDesk, and Desktop Alerting software.

NetSupport solutions and their derivatives are sold worldwide and enjoy market-leading status in many countries while supporting more than 16 million customers. Its flagship multi-platform classroom management solution, NetSupport School, has been consistently named best in breed, most recently awarded 'Best of Show' at ISTE 2017 and TCEA 2018.

For more information about the NetSupport range of IT Management solutions, visit www.netsupport-inc.com.

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