Nigel Williams: A Man With A Mission

Most Americans have never heard of Nigel Williams but he had an impact on every child who uses the Internet or carries a cell phone. Nigel, who was 51, died on March 28th at his home in Northern Ireland after a two-year-long battle with cancer.

Nigel, who spent over ten years working to promote the safe use of technology for children, did so for the past three years from the vantage point of government, as Northern Ireland's Commissioner for Children and Young People.

Northern Ireland is one of a handful of nations with an "ombudsman" for children – a position that, unfortunately, doesn't exist in the United States. Prior to taking that position, Nigel founded and ran Childnet International, a London-based nonprofit that focuses on promoting the rights and best interests of children on the Internet.

Childnet may be familiar to longtime readers of this column because over the years I've written about the organization and its international awards program, which recognizes the achievements of Internet-related projects run by young people from every continent in the world.

I have attended all of Childnet's annual award programs and "academies" from 1997 through 2005 - not as a journalist, but as a participant. In 1997, Nigel invited me to be a judge on the international panel that decided which projects to recognize. (Disclosure: I was not compensated for my work as a judge, but travel expenses to awards ceremonies and meetings were paid by the organization). Happily, Nigel and I also became personal friends during the process.

I decided to write an obituary for a man most readers have never heard of, not so much to celebrate my friend's life, but to talk about the work he started. It is work that must go on - not only in Northern Ireland and the U.K., but also around the world.

Childnet International is one of many groups that promote Internet safety, but, as its name implies, it doesn't limit its activities to one country. At Nigel's insistence, it recognizes, celebrates and cautions one fact with many ramifications: namely, that the Internet is a truly global medium.

As anyone who has ever received spam from Nigeria knows, the Internet doesn't have a border patrol. There have even been cases of child predators traveling across oceans to exploit victims in other countries who they have groomed on the Internet.

As someone who has been very active in Internet safety issues for some time, it is very clear to me that both the problems and solutions necessary to help protect children rely on both international cooperation and a global perspective.

But there was more to Nigel then just protecting children against harm. He pointed them towards good. From its very start, Childnet International emphasized the positive contributions of children and young people.

Nigel created the Childnet Academy awards program to recognize the positive – providing rewards and incentives for children who used the Internet to help solve social problems, reach out to children in other countries and enhance their communities.

Winners have included Internet-related projects supporting wounded child soldiers in Africa, childcare givers in Ireland and victims of cyber-bullying in Canada.

Childnet has also forged links between students in schools across continents to deal with global environmental programs and help implement United Nations resolutions on behalf of the rights of children.

Nigel's dream helped dreams come true for hundreds of children and the thousands of others they supported in every corner of the world. Eventually the awards program morphed into an international academy - currently searching for a new funding partner - which trains young Internet pioneers, possibly destined to be future world leaders.

Nigel was also one of the first Internet safety experts to understand that children need to also be protected on the "mobile Internet." Americans are just beginning to understand that cell phones and other connected mobile devices make it possible for kids to be "online" even when they're away from home, school and adult supervision.

In 2003, Nigel organized a conference in Tokyo at which I was privileged to speak, exploring the ways children are using cell phones and what needs to be done to protect them from predators and bullies who can now reach them wherever they are.

Some of the proposals introduced at that conference are now being implemented by cell phone companies in the United States, Europe and Asia.

In July 2003, Nigel stepped down as Chief Executive of Childnet to become Northern Ireland's first Commissioner for Children and Young People, a post in which he applied his passion for protecting and uniting to help heal scars that remain in that war-torn country even after the fighting has mostly subsided.

In December 2005, six months after he was diagnosed with cancer but while he was in remission, I had the opportunity to visit Nigel in Belfast to get a firsthand look at how far Northern Ireland has come and how far it still has to go after so many years of religious and political warfare.

While only some of the many who care about the impact of technology on children will remember the name of Nigel Williams, we have all benefited from his work.

But, as with all legacies, there is more to be done.

Now is as good a time as any to sit down with your children to remind them about what they can do to stay safe while online, especially while using social networking services such as MySpace.com.

Childnet International has some excellent resources as does GetNetwise.org and NetSmartz.org. I've also put together a couple of sites on the subject, which you can visit at SafeKids.com and BlogSafety.com.

Thank you, Nigel.