Child Safety Initiative brings together thought leaders, subject matter experts, and visionaries to help build safe and inclusive experiences for children using Extended Reality (XR). Children start engaging with the internet and technology at a very young age without necessarily being aware of the risks associated with it. They can have access to inappropriate content, contact or easily be trapped into fraud transactions, phishing, virus and malware. In the case of immersive and augmented experiences, there are external hazards and a realistic component that may not suit all child users.
We at XRSI are committed to foster the positive elements associated with the use of Extended Reality (XR) and protect kids from risks associated with it.
We do this by conducting research, building standards, and establishing measures to keep kids safe in such worlds. We also provide guidance to empower families, teachers, and policymakers around emerging technologies to be more active and decisive in their roles.
Well known as the “Cyber Guardian”, founder of the XR Safety Initiative (XRSI), Kavya Pearlman is an award-winning cybersecurity professional with a deep interest in immersive and emerging technologies. Kavya is constantly exploring new technologies to solve current cybersecurity challenges. She is one of the Top 50 speakers in the cybersecurity industry and named Top 20 Cybersecurity influencers for three consecutive years 2018-2019-2020 by IFSEC Global. Kavya has won many awards for her work and contribution to the security community including:
Cybersecurity Woman of the Year 2020 by Cybersecurity Excellence Award Series
Cybersecurity Professional of the Year 2020 by Cybersecurity Excellence Award Series
Most Influential Cyber Security Leader 2020 by Acquisition International
40 under 40 Top Business Executives 2019 by San Francisco Business Times
Rising Star of the year 2019 by Women in IT Award Series
CISO Women Security Leader award from Middle East CISO Council
Minority CISO of the Year 2018 by International Consortium of Minorities Cybersecurity Professional (ICMCP)
Kavya has previously advised Facebook on third party security risks during the 2016 US presidential elections and worked as the head of security for the oldest existing virtual world “Second Life” by Linden Lab. Kavya constantly shares knowledge via webinars, conference talks and blog posts around Application Security, Cloud-native technologies, Machine Learning and immersive technologies such as XR.
Kavya holds a master’s degree network security from DePaul University, Chicago and many prestigious Information Security certifications including CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) from ISACA, and PCIP for Payment Card Industry Security Standard Council.
Kavya is truly passionate about her work and inspires many around the world including women and underrepresented communities in security and emerging technologies. Kavya is a board of directors for EM360, non-profit “Minorities in Cybersecurity”, an advisory board member for "CISO Council North America", Spark Mindset LLC, and cybersecurity advisory board member for the University of New Haven.
Tamas is an instinctive, meticulous, and forward-thinking security professional with years of senior leadership experience. Tamas has created and implemented many effective cyber-security programs, best practices, strategies and technologies via a combination of exceptional skill and innovative directions.
Throughout his career, Tamas has made significant progress in both prevention and advocacy for Child Safety Initiatives in technology, his work in the field started while at Roblox and continued via his work at XRSI. Tamas is currently the Director of Security Engineering at Marqeta, an advisor at XR Safety Initiative focusing on Trust and Safety and a vCISO for OR Security. Previously was interim CISO for Novi and focused on child safety initiatives at Roblox.
Our Resources For You
Captain Cuttle and The Quest for Virtual Safety!
On this adventure into Virtual Worlds together we will go on a Quest for Safety for all explorers. Together we will make sure everyone, even your friends and family, read the Explorer Notes so we can all play safe.
VR Safety Tips for Parents: 7 XRSI Recommendations
If you are a parent, a teacher, or a guardian, you may be confused about whether VR is safe for children. There are several ways for you to enable safe exploration of VR technology, with a key understanding in mind: It is your responsibility to guide your kids to facilitate safe, responsible, and healthy relationships with VR. With an objective to help facilitate safe exploration of VR for kids, XRSI has put together Top 7 Safety Tips for parents.
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Contact us
Would you like to join the initiative for Child Safety in XR? XRSI’s Child Safety Initiative is growing and we welcome your contribution! Please reach out and help build safer and healthier emerging technologies!
We believe children can explore immersive worlds as long as they have consistent safety, security, and privacy measures in place to safeguard their experiences. By supporting the XR ecosystem with standards, awareness programs, research, and innovation specially designed to safeguard children, we can prevent risks and harms in such experiences, and with that, we fulfill our mission of creating safe immersive environments in immersive worlds.
