The issue of kids and internet safety seems to crop up every other day, always with some new horror story involving social media sites like Facebook or ‘flirting’ apps like Skout.

But while this negative news tends to hog the headlines, there are plenty of positive stories that never seem to get any press. This is a crying shame, because the truth is that there’s just as much good news as there is bad, but few ever get to hear about it.

With any luck, this won’t always be the case. In a major effort aimed at improving the overall image of the web, the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) has teamed up with internet giants including Microsoft, Google and Facebook to bring us A Platform for Good.

The idea is to help kids, teenagers, parents and teachers connect and share experiences online, but most of all, the project is about doing good deeds online. The FOSI, in the course of all the online safety and awareness work it does, comes across numerous ‘good’ stories of people using the internet to raise social awareness, enhance learning and encourage activism. Now, in order to balance all of the negative stories we hear, FOSI is aiming to draw attention to more positive issues regarding the net.

A Platform for Good stated its goals on its official website as follows:

“Our vision for A Platform for Good is to start a dialogue about what it means to participate responsibly in a digital world. While recognizing the potential risks, we will celebrate technology as a vehicle for opportunity and social change. We hope to achieve this goal by providing parents and teachers with the resources to learn about and interact with new technologies, and by giving teens the ability to engage and teach their peers, family members and educators. Through this approach, we hope to encourage good digital citizenship, responsible online behavior, and the use of technology for positive change and making a difference.”

To accomplish its goals, a Platform for Good will employ a number of tools and features on its interactive website, including online polls, blogs, videos for teachers, sweepstake competitions for kids, and other resources.

The ultimate hope is that by highlighting the most positive aspects of social media and the web, A Platform for Good will be able to ease parents’ concerns about their children’s use of the internet, and highlight the numerous ways in which their children can enrich their lives from being online.