Blue Coat and Indiana PTA to Educate Members on Internet Safety, Increase Community Action
In recognition of Internet Safety Month, joint initiative dedicates efforts to raise awareness on the impact the Internet has on children, community, and parenting strategies
SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 26, 2007 –Blue Coat Systems (Nasdaq: BCSI), the leader in secure content and application delivery, today announced a joint initiative with the Indiana Parent Teachers Association (PTA) that will encourage and educate its member organizations on how to create a safe, family-friendly Internet environment within their homes and communities. Through Blue Coat's Community Outreach Program, the Indiana PTA will distribute the necessary tools, materials and resources to its member organizations, including the Blue Coat® K9 Web Protection filter. The U.S. Senate has officially designated June as Internet Safety Month
According to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project more than half (55 percent) of all online American youths ages 12-17 have profiles on social networking sites. The survey also found that 32 percent of online teens have been contacted by strangers online, 21 percent of teens who have been contacted by strangers have engaged an online stranger to find out more information about that person, and 23 percent of teens who have been contacted by a stranger online say they felt scared or uncomfortable because of the online encounter.1
"The Indiana PTA is the second association we've teamed with as part of our state-level outreach program promoting child online safety. We're excited to be working with an organization that has such a rich history of helping parents and communities protect children," said John Carosella, vice president of content control for Blue Coat Systems. "Since the launch of K9 and its Community Outreach Program just over a year ago, we have consistently received great feedback and genuine interest from many organizations who want to work with us to be a catalyst for their own communities on the issue. Our partnership with the Indiana PTA is another step in this direction."
The Indiana PTA will also recommend each region implement a child online safety program as part of their Building Successful Partnerships Program, a multi-faceted program focused on increasing awareness and implementation of the National Standards for Parent/Family involvement programs established by the National PTA in 1999. According to Indiana PTA President Dee Jones, "The efforts of Blue Coat Systems align with our mission, vision and purpose of this organization which include assisting parents in developing their skills to help raise and protect their children. The bottom line is both parties agree that the issue of child online safety is paramount to the well-being of children, and we look forward to working together to make a difference."
Designed for parents, K9 Web Protection implements the same enterprise-class Web filtering technology used by Blue Coat's enterprise and government customers worldwide. K9 Web Protection divides the Internet into 60 categories, relying 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 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 offered through the Blue Coat Community Outreach Program (www.k9webprotection.com) which provides materials and resources to educate Internet parents about the impact of the Internet on children and on parenting strategies.
About Indiana PTA
The mission of the Indiana PTA is to empower and engage parents to have a positive impact on student achievement, success in school, and in life. PTA continues to advocate for children in schools, in communities, before governmental bodies and other organizations that make decisions affecting children. This partnership is an opportunity to provide resources and tools for parents to keep children safe while utilizing technology via the internet. As it was over 110 years ago, our work is more important than ever. This partnership will provide support to families, schools and communities throughout Indiana and beyond. The Indiana PTA office is located in Indianapolis and may be contacted at 317-357-5881 or www.indianapta.org.
About Blue Coat Systems
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 – provide 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 30,000 appliances worldwide and is ranked #1 by IDC in the Secure Content and Application Delivery market. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or www.bluecoat.com.
1 Source: Lenhart, Amanda and Madden, Mary. How Teens Manage Their Online Identities and Personal Information in the Age of MySpace. Pew Internet & American Life Project, April 18, 2007, www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Privacy_SNS_Report_Final.pdf, accessed on June 25, 2007.
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.
