Everloop and i-SAFE to Launch the Nation’s Largest System of E-Learning Social Networks for K-8 Schools

SAN FRANCISCO & CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Everloop, the online community for tweens that allows them to connect, communicate, and collaborate on projects through a safe “social loop,” and i-SAFE, the leading publisher of media literacy and digital citizenship education materials and programming, announce a joint venture to launch the largest series of school social learning networks in the United States. Everloop and i-SAFE will begin to roll out the new e-learning platform in April, 2011.

“All tweens are left out of the social graph because they must be over 13 in order to legally use services such as Facebook. Without having a centralized online community of their own, a tween’s social media experience is disparate, confusing, unmanageable and filled with risk”

The innovative e-learning platform developed by Everloop will enable i-SAFE to distribute digital literacy and cyber citizenship curriculum in a way that is current, engaging and compelling for kids, tweens and teachers. “With Everloop's new technology, we’re actually able to re-define the educational model by using social networking for learning,” says Teri Schroeder, founder and CEO of i-SAFE Inc. “We’re pushing past traditional learning concepts and truly bringing globalization to the classroom through a social e-learning platform.”

Everloop’s innovative social “looping” technology was specifically designed as an alternative to open social networks like Facebook. It allows users under the age of 13 to participate in online learning, communicate with friends and classmates, and spend purposeful time with activities tweens love. It does not allow kids to post information that could identify them to strangers, and prevents bullying and inappropriate behavior. Everloop’s unique, age-appropriate social media experience created by intertwined micro-networks called “loops” is unlike any other social platform on the market today. Loops featured on Everloop include communities of common interest (art, science, culture, reading, sports, current affairs etc.), creative applications for the creation of digital art, music, social games, videos, photos, animation, premium content e-storefront, user-generated content, and other integrated online learning experiences.

In addition to Everloop’s main site, Everloop is the leading provider of COPPA-compliant and fully moderated social looping solutions for tween-centric brands and organizations that want their own branded experience online. Additionally, Everloop is the first company to offer tweens advanced social media features including real-time texting, SMS (short message services) and voice chat to keep kids connected while ensuring highest level of privacy protection and parental insight. Everloop’s “single sign-on, multi-service access” allows tweens to connect directly to an unlimited amount of relevant content, services, applications and experiences via a single COPPA-compliant, parent-approved registration process.

“All tweens are left out of the social graph because they must be over 13 in order to legally use services such as Facebook. Without having a centralized online community of their own, a tween’s social media experience is disparate, confusing, unmanageable and filled with risk,” says Hilary DeCesare, Everloop co-founder and CEO. “By joining with i-SAFE, tweens will now have their own community platform, specifically designed to meet their needs with special attention paid to collaboration tools and superior privacy protection.”

Everloop offers the most comprehensive privacy protection of any social utility on the market, including user authentication, privacy protection, automatic, patent-pending parental “insight” controls and real-time content and behavioral moderation to ensure the highest level of subscriber safety.

About Everloop:

Everloop's mission is to give tweens a protected space where they can connect with friends they know, express themselves, play games, collaborate on projects and discover talents. Everloop's Social Loop, a loop of safety around kids' connections, introduces state-of-the-art privacy protection and monitoring, keeping tweens from sharing more than they should with people outside their approved loops. Everloop offers a branded experience option to the brands that tweens love and other unique partner content designed to tween interests. For more information, visit www.everloop.com.

About i-SAFE:

i-SAFE Inc. is a leading publisher of media literacy and digital citizenship education materials and programming with worldwide distribution channels. i-SAFE is dedicated to educating and empowering youth to safely, responsibly and productively use Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). i-SAFE’s classroom curriculum for primary and secondary school students is embedded with dynamic community outreach activities to empower students, teachers, parents, law enforcement professionals and other community members to control their online experiences by proficiently and independently exercising a learned and practiced ability to use the Internet and other ICT with a level of sophistication that results in increased safety and utility. To date, more than 32 million students have been trained utilizing i-SAFE curriculum in more than 4,500 school districts across the United States and in 33 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.isafe.org.