Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, today announced its 2018 “What’s Your Story?” contest during the US Safer Internet Day 2018 event in Austin, TX. This year’s theme, ‘How do you know if something online is real or fake?’ aims to highlight the increasingly toxic issue of misinformation, disinformation, hoaxes and scams online – through the lenses of our youngest citizens.

Sponsored by Trend Micro’s Internet Safety for Kids & Families Program, the “What’s Your Story?” campaign was designed to provide a platform for youth to have a voice in the conversation about safe, responsible and successful technology use, while simultaneously encouraging a positive use of social media. Each year, the contest challenges students to answer a question related to a current topic or event, using multiple forms of media. This year’s theme aims to showcase students’ thoughts about the increase in questionable or false information online and the lowered trust in the internet because of it. While many teachers are trying to address this topic in their classrooms through media and digital literacy education, there needs to be more youth engagement on this topic at a national and international level. Through this contest, Trend Micro hopes to provide students a platform to reach as wide an audience as possible with their messages. 

“There have always been reasons to be cautious of what we see or do online, but the current climate has further made this case,” said Lynette Owens, global director, Internet Safety for Kids & Families Program, Trend Micro. “The internet seems more polluted than ever with messages that are unhealthy for us and our kids, and some of it is simply untrue. It’s a big problem with no easy answer. But kids spend as much time online as adults. We’re equally at risk of being fooled, and we believe we’re equally able to contribute to a solution. We hope this year’s contest will spark some creative answers from students and will encourage the rest of us to listen.” 

Trend Micro is offering a grand prize of $10,000 for the best student entry and two $5,000 prizes for the best school entries in the US and Canada. Additional prizes will be given to four runner-up winners. Finalists are selected based on a combination of views and ratings of their entries and winners are selected by a panel of judges based on the effectiveness, creativity and appropriateness of the finalist entries. 

Winners will be announced on or around May 14, 2018. To learn more, visit http://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.com. Follow Trend Micro’s Internet Safety for Kids & Family’s Twitter handle (@TrendISKF) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TrendMicro) for contest updates, and follow the discussion using the hashtag #WYS2018.

About Trend Micro Internet Safety for Kids & Families

Founded in 2008, the mission of Trend Micro's Internet Safety for Kids & Families is to enable and empower kids, parents, teachers, and schools around the world to make the Internet a safe and secure place for today's youth. ISKF does this through a worldwide employee volunteer program, grants and donations to eligible organizations, strategic partnerships with organizations working to protect youth, educational programs, and a robust series of online tips and solutions for parents, educators, and youth. For ISKF's free Internet safety tips, tools and advice, visit: http://internetsafety.trendmicro.com/. 

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. All our products work together to seamlessly share threat intelligence and provide a connected threat defense with centralized visibility and control, enabling better, faster protection. With over 5,000 employees in over 50 countries and the world’s most advanced global threat intelligence, Trend Micro enables organizations to secure their journey to the cloud. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com.

Additional information about Trend Micro Incorporated and the products and services are available at Trend Micro.com This Trend Micro news release and other announcements are available at http://newsroom.trendmicro.com/ and as part of an RSS feed at http://www.trendmicro.com/us/about-us/rss-feeds/www.trendmicro.com/rss or follow our news on Twitter at @TrendMicro.