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Parry Aftab is an Internet privacy and security lawyer, considered one of the founders of cyberlaw and founder of the world's largest and oldest cybersafety charity. Named by ''
The Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Puli ...
'' as "the leading expert in cybercrime in the world," Aftab wrote the first cybersafety book in the world for parents (in 1996) and has received a long list of honors and has been appointed to the boards of directors and advisory boards of several companies, including TRUSTe, Facebook, MTV and Sesame Street Online. She is a longtime Internet safety expert who founded the Internet safety organization WiredSafety, StopCyberbullying and the consulting firm, WiredTrust. She was "the Privacy Lawyer" columnist for Information Week Magazine for many years. In 2016 Parry Aftab founded Cybersafety India and the StopCyberbullying and sextortion and morphing prevention initiatives for India. She resides in both the US and Canada.


Career

Aftab was appointed by UNESCO's Director General Federico Mayor as the chief of the U.S. National Action Committee for
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's World Citizen's Committee on Protecting Innocence in Danger group in 1999 to address online sexual exploitation of children. She became a member of the Board of Directors for the non-profit,
TRUSTe TrustArc (formerly TRUSTe) is a privacy compliance technology company based in San Francisco, California. The company provides software and services to help corporations update their privacy management processes so they comply with government laws a ...
in 2003. In 2005, the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
issued a
resolution Resolution(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate * Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body * New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual mak ...
that recognized her efforts to combat
cyberbullying Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital ...
as Executive Director of StopCyberbullying and WiredSafety. Her organization, WiredSafety, became a member of Facebook's Safety Advisory Board in 2009 and in April, Aftab appeared on '' Good Morning America'' for its
town hall meeting Town hall meetings, also referred to as town halls or town hall forums, are a way for local and national politicians to meet with their constituents either to hear from them on topics of interest or to discuss specific upcoming legislation or ...
on sexting. In 2010 she received the FBI Director's Community Leadership Award and was one of 28 members in the Online Safety and Technology Working Group of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. She was one of 29 members of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, run by Harvard's Berkman Center. She was the co-recipient of the
RCMP The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...
's Child Recovery Award in 2011. Aftab was the organizer for a 2015 anti-cyberbullying event in Ireland, and has been a member of the advisory boards for MTV's A Thin Line, Fair Play,
Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) ...
Online and the
Ad Council The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governme ...
. Her clients have included
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
,
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
and
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
.


Reception

Members of radical internet groups who disagree with her anti-cyberbullying campaigns have "launched a massive Internet harassment campaign" against her. In 2010, she was forced to cancel a '' Good Morning America'' appearance (where she would be discussing the cyberbullying campaign against Jessi Slaughter by members of
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
's /b/ board) due to targeted harassment, which included Google bombing baseless accusations of child molestation against Aftab. In July 2011 her detractors incited a swatting incident at her home when they contacted police claiming her house was the site of murders and hostages. Aftab was on vacation at the time and a local police swat team investigated the false claims. According to the British blogger Katie Jones, Aftab tried to coerce her into releasing control of the domain, Katie.com, which was also the name of a newly published book, '' Katie.com: My Story''. Jones refused and wrote about the incident on her website.


Publications

*''Child Abuse on the Internet. Ending the Silence'', Carlos A. Arnaldo, Ed., Chapter 21: "The Technical Response: Blocking, Filtering and Rating the Internet", pp. 135–140 (2001) *''Inocencia en Peligro : Conviva con sus Hijos y Protéjalos Cuando Naveguen por Internet'' (2001) *''The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace'' (1999) *''Parents Guide to the Internet: And How to Protect Your Children in Cyberspace'' (1997) *''Parent's Guide to the Internet - UK edition'' (2000) *''Ciberbullying, Guia Practica - Spain/Espana'' (2004) *''INTERNET con los menores riesgos. Guía práctica para madres y padres - Spain/Espana'' (2003)


References


External links


Aftab's web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aftab, Parry 1961 births American activists American lawyers Computer law activists Computer law scholars Cyberbullying Living people American non-fiction writers American writers of Iranian descent