Blue Coat and New York State PTA to Raise Awareness on Child Internet Safety
Joint initiative launched to educate members, parents and community on the impact of Internet dangers
SUNNYVALE, Calif., November 5, 2007 -Blue Coat Systems (Nasdaq: BCSI), a leader in WAN Application Delivery and Secure Web Gateway, today announced a joint Internet Parenting initiative with the New York State Parent Teachers Association (PTA) to inform and educate its members, parents and communities state-wide on how to create a safe, family-friendly Internet environment both inside and outside of the home. Through Blue Coat's Community Outreach Program, the New York State PTA will distribute the necessary materials and resources to the designated audiences, including the Blue Coat® K9 Web Protection filter. The National Cyber Security Alliance and the Department of Homeland Security have designated October as Cyber Security Awareness Month, encouraging the public to practice safe online behaviors.
"Our state-level Internet Parenting initiative launched through the Blue Coat Community Outreach Program is generating considerable attention, and we couldn't be more pleased," said John Carosella, vice president of Content Control for Blue Coat Systems. "Partnering with the New York State PTA adds significant value to our efforts and helps us serve the families and communities of New York State. The mission of our Community Outreach Program is to reach as many first generation Internet parents as we can to inform, educate and raise awareness on Internet dangers and encourage community action in order to help keep their children's Internet experiences safe. We look forward to a long-term relationship with the New York State PTA."
The New York State PTA is committed to serving all children and its diverse membership through increased parent and community awareness, advocacy, education, and involvement. According to New York State PTA President Maria DeWald, "The New York State PTA has built a reputation for its advocacy efforts in a variety of areas. Blue Coat Systems is the ideal partner to help us extend and expand these efforts by bringing the issue of online dangers to the forefront while providing tools and materials to help our members manage and maintain Internet safety measures within their communities and schools."
Designed for parents, K9 Web Protection implements the same enterprise-class Web filtering technology used by Blue Coat enterprise and government customers worldwide. K9 Web Protection divides the Internet into 60 categories, and relies on Blue Coat's commercial filtering service that processes 80 million Web site rating requests per day. Parents can configure the software to block or allow content from specific categories such as pornography, spyware, and adult/mature content, and also block access to the web at selected times of day-after bedtime, for example. K9 Web Protection is available at no charge through the Blue Coat Community Outreach Program (www.k9webprotection.com), which also provides materials and resources to educate Internet parents about the impact of the Internet on children and on parenting strategies.
The 111th Annual NYS PTA Convention will be held November 16-18, 2007 in Albany, NY and will include a free Parent Expo on Saturday, November 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. John Carosella will be speaking on the topic, "YOU are an Internet Parent," and will host a screening of the award-winning, feature-length documentary, "Traffic Control: The People's War on Internet Porn," starting at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, November 16th in meeting room 6 at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center. The film also features Carosella. For more information, please visit http://www.nyspta.org/events.php?ID=21.
About New York State PTA®
PTA (and New York State (NYS) PTA, the first state organization) is celebrating its 110 th anniversary, and is the largest child advocacy organization in the nation. NYS PTA believes that every child deserves excellence in education and in quality of life, and speaks for every child with one voice. NYS PTA has over 350,000 members in over 1500 units.
As part of its advocacy program, PTA works to inform and educate parents, students and communities on the dangers associated with Internet, wireless and other electronic communication; works to heighten parents' technologic awareness and skills and encourage the use of cyber safety strategies to ensure the safety of children and youth; and works with collaborating partners and others to advocate for the protection of children and youth in a cyber world. To learn more about New York State PTA, please visit us at www.nyspta.org.
About Blue Coat Systems, Inc.
Blue Coat secures Web communications and accelerates business applications across the distributed enterprise. Blue Coat's family of appliances and client-based solutions - deployed in branch offices, Internet gateways, end points, and data centers - provides intelligent points of policy-based control enabling IT organizations to optimize security and accelerate performance between users and applications. Blue Coat has installed more than 40,000 appliances worldwide. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or www.bluecoat.com.FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Blue Coat Systems’ expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, and including statements regarding the capabilities and expected performance of Blue Coat Systems’ products. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to Blue Coat Systems as of the date hereof, and Blue Coat Systems assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These and other risks relating to Blue Coat Systems’ business are set forth in Blue Coat Systems’ most recently filed Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 31, 2007 and Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2006, and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
