About Larry Magid
Larry Magid, Ed.D, is an internet safety advocate and a technology journalist. He is CEO and co-founder of ConnectSafely.org, a columnist for the Mercury News and a frequent guest on TV and radio in the US, UK and other countries. He served for 20 years as the on-air technology analyst for CBS News and 19 years as a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He has also been a columnist for the New York Times, a reporter for BBC World News TV and, for many years, had daily radio segments on KCBS in San Francisco and KNX in Los Angeles. Larry is author or co-author of nine books including the best-selling Little PC Book along with Cruising Online: Larry Magid’s Guide to the New Digital Highways, The Fully Powered PC and the Electronic Link.
Internet Safety work
In 1993, in an effort to save kidnapping victim, Polly Klass, Magid was the first person to post an image of a missing child online, which led to his work with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, where he served on its board of directors for 20 years.
During the nineties, he wrote two of the first online safety guides, Child Safety on the Information Highway and Teen Safety on the Information Highway for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and has since authored or co-authored several parents and educators guides for ConnectSafely.
In addition to running ConnectSafely.org, Magid founded and operates two popular Internet safety sites: SafeKids.com and SafeTeens.com.
He has served on the advisory boards of the Internet Education Foundation, Family Online Safety Institute and the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, formed by 49 state attorneys general and based at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He was also an advisor to PBS Kids and has served on safety advisory boards for Meta, Google, Twitter, Comcast, Roblox, Zepeto and Snapchat.
He served on the Obama administration’s Online Safety & Technology Working Group where he chaired the education sub-committee and wrote the education section of the report to Congres
Awards
Larry has received awards both for journalism and his work on child safety. He was honored by the Software Publishers Association and the Península Press Association for his journalism work. He also received awards from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Computerworld, Smithsonian Institute and the Family Online Safety Institute for his work in online safety. Larry was part of news teams that received Murrow awards and Emmys.
Ancient history and academic background
From 1983 to 1988 he was co-founder and Executive Vice President of Know-How, one of the world’s first computer training companies. In 1982 he was editor of PC Magazine and in 1981 he wrote one of the manuals for IBM’s first personal computer. He’s also worked as a printer, car washer, restaurant delivery person and dishwasher. Long before he started writing for the LA Times, he delivered its afternoon sister publication, the Mirror, from his bicycle.
Larry Magid has a doctorate of education from the University of Massachusetts and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts and Boston University. He served for eight years as Director of the Student Center for Educational Research at UMASS/Amherst and, early in his career, as Director of the National Student Association’s Center for Educational Reform. At Berkeley, he helped run the Center for Participant Education (CPE), one of the nation’s first student-initiated course programs. He resides in Palo Alto, California where he helped raise two digital natives. His personal website is www.larrysworld.com.