Who Will Defend the Internet? Inside the Panel Asking the Question Every Parent Should Be Asking
A recap of “The Youth Cybersecurity Crisis” panel at NYC Tech Week 2026 — featuring Girls Who Code, Girl Scouts of Greater New York, and craigslist founder Craig Newmark — and what it means for how schools teach cybersecurity.
NYC Tech Week brings out some of the most important conversations happening in technology right now, and this year, one panel stopped me in my tracks: “Who Will Defend the Internet? The Youth Cybersecurity Crisis,” held at Civic Hall on East 14th Street.
As a digital literacy educator who builds cybersecurity directly into my curriculum, this wasn’t just an interesting panel to attend. It was a room full of people doing the exact work I care most about — and a Girl Scout troop leader’s dream lineup, with Girl Scouts of Greater New York represented right there on stage.
Who Was on the Panel
The panel brought together leaders from some of the most respected organizations working on youth digital safety in the country — moderated with sharp, honest questions about where things stand and where they’re headed.
The event description put the stakes plainly: as cyber threats grow more sophisticated, the need for the next generation of cybersecurity leaders has never been greater — yet young people remain significantly underrepresented and disconnected from the field. This panel set out to examine that exact gap, between the scale of digital risk and the pipeline of young talent prepared to defend against it.
As a Girl Scout Brownie troop leader myself, seeing Vivian Yu represent Girl Scouts of Greater New York on this stage meant something extra. The Girl Scouts have built cybersecurity directly into how they develop girls of courage, confidence, and character — both online and offline. Watching that mission show up in a room full of tech leaders was a genuinely proud moment.
The Core Message: AI Is a Tool, Not a Replacement
The most important thread running through the entire panel was this: artificial intelligence cannot replace human judgment when it comes to cybersecurity — and the panelists were clear-eyed about why.
“AI lacks critical thinking and judgment. We need humans for that.”
This wasn’t a dismissal of AI’s usefulness. It was a clarification of its role. AI is also expensive for companies to build, maintain, and scale — and several panelists pointed out that companies are increasingly realizing they need human oversight first, not as an afterthought. Pure AI-driven security simply isn’t sustainable without people directing it.
The framing that stuck with me most: AI is a tool for humans, not a replacement for them. That distinction matters enormously for how we prepare young people — they don’t need to compete with AI, they need to understand how to direct it, question it, and catch what it misses.
Practical Takeaways for Parents and Educators
Create Profiles Where Your Kids Are
If your child is active on a platform, you should understand it well enough to have a presence there too — even just to recognize what they’re navigating.
Give Kids the Power Back
Teach them how to report scams and build healthy digital habits. Awareness without action isn’t enough — they need concrete steps.
Make Space for the Conversation
Young people need real opportunities to talk about these issues openly — with each other and with professionals who can answer their questions honestly.
Teach Pattern Recognition
Kids who learn to recognize the signs of a scam — and who feel comfortable reporting it to a trusted adult — become genuinely harder to exploit.
One Concrete Action: Bring Young People Into Cybersecurity
A question came up that I think every school leader should be asking: how do we actually bring young people into the cybersecurity field, not just protect them from its dangers?
The panel’s answer was refreshingly simple — you don’t have to build something from scratch. There are already organizations with resources prepared and ready to deploy. Subject matter experts exist. The work is to reach out and connect with organizations that specialize in this exact space.
One resource referenced at the event was GetCyberSmart.org, built by the Cyber Education Alliance — a coalition including Girls Who Code, Girl Scouts of Greater New York, and other organizations providing free K-12 cybersecurity lesson plans, tip cards, and classroom-ready resources. This is exactly the kind of material that should be taught proactively in schools — not introduced for the first time after something has already gone wrong. It’s also exactly the kind of resource I bring into my own digital literacy programming.
You can view the original event listing for “Who Will Defend the Internet? The Youth Cybersecurity Crisis” here.
What Gives the Panel Hope
I appreciated that the conversation didn’t stay in crisis mode the entire time. When asked what gives them hope, the panelists pointed to something I see constantly in my own work: young people are remarkably adaptable.
- Talking to kids directly and engaging them builds awareness faster than any policy or filter ever could
- Young people adapt to changing systems quickly once they understand the underlying mechanics
- Teaching recognition over restriction — kids who can spot the signs and report to a trusted adult are genuinely safer
- Curiosity, not fear, is what keeps young people engaged in protecting themselves online
Holding Companies Accountable — and a Roblox Strategy Worth Sharing
The panel also touched on something every parent of a Roblox-playing kid should hear: a simple, practical way to build a safer online identity without sacrificing the fun of online community.
🎮 The Roblox Persona Trick
One of the most useful tips from the panel: encourage kids to create a fun, fictional username and persona on platforms like Roblox instead of using anything tied to their real identity. A creative alias protects their real information while still letting them build community and make friends online. It’s a small habit that makes a meaningful difference — and it’s an easy one to start today.
The internet isn’t going to slow down to protect our kids.
The only real defense is teaching them to understand it.
How This Connects to My Digital Literacy Program
Cybersecurity Isn’t an Add-On in My Curriculum — It’s Built In
Everything covered at this panel reinforced what I already build into every BAM Digital Media workshop: students need to understand phishing, scam recognition, and safe online identity practices before they encounter a real threat — not after.
Just like getcybersmart.org teaches, recognizing a phishing attempt is a learnable skill — and it should be taught proactively in schools, the same way fire drills are taught before there’s ever a fire. That’s exactly the approach I bring into classrooms: practical, judgment-building cybersecurity education woven directly into broader digital literacy, not treated as a separate, optional unit.
If your school or organization wants to bring this kind of proactive cybersecurity and digital literacy education to your students, parents, or staff — this is exactly the gap my programs are built to close.
Final Thoughts
Events like this remind me why this work matters beyond any one classroom. The same urgency, expertise, and care I saw from Girls Who Code, Girl Scouts of Greater New York, and every organization on that stage is exactly what I try to bring into every school and community I work with.
Cybersecurity isn’t a separate subject from digital literacy. It’s a core part of it. And the sooner students learn to think critically about the systems they use every day, the more equipped they are to protect themselves — not because an algorithm told them to, but because they understand why it matters.
See the Digital Literacy Curriculum
Cybersecurity, algorithms, AI, and online safety — built into a comprehensive program for NYC high schools.
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Book a Workshop →Thank you to NYC Tech Week, Girls Who Code,
and every organization defending the internet
for our kids. 🧡