HSDF THE PODCAST

Know2Protect in Action: Strengthening Partnerships and Leveraging Technology to Safeguard Children Online - Part 2

• Homeland Security & Defense Forum

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Welcome to “HSDF THE PODCAST,” a collection of policy discussions on government technology and homeland security brought to you by the Homeland Security and Defense Forum

The discussion continues focusing on how protecting children online requires collective action and strategic partnerships. The Department of Homeland Security's "Know to Protect" campaign represents a groundbreaking approach to combating child exploitation through innovative collaborations with tech giants, sports leagues, and influencers.

Featuring:

  • Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations
  • Bobbie Stempfley, Vice President and Business Unit Security Officer, Dell Technologies 

This discussion took place at the HSDF’s Symposium Defending the Frontline on June 26th, 2025. 

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Bobbie Stempfley, Vice President and Business Unit Security Officer, Dell Technologies:

One of the things that I like about both your story and the way you approached it is a public-private partnership is a partnership right. It's not the government saying do this, nope, we can't, right. But both parties have to have and see value within it, and I know from working with the former CISO of Snap, very invested in the security of his constituents Roblox as well, right, very much so. So you found a common objective and outcome with overlapping value, which I think is really pivotal to all of these public-private partnership successes, definitely.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

And certainly it's in the best interest of the tech companies to play ball with this campaign. But why does the NFL have to care, right? Why does the NHL? Why? Why does major league soccer and they were all in. They understand that this is an issue that's going to affect their fam, their current fam base, their future fam base, and so it's. It's been a fantastic. I think that's the my most. I love this whole campaign, but I really love our partnerships. It takes a lot of work, though. It's relationship building. Yeah, exactly this whole campaign, but I really love our partnerships. It takes a lot of work, though. It's relationship building?

Bobbie Stempfley, Vice President and Business Unit Security Officer, Dell Technologies:

Yeah, exactly, and that's I think that's the other lesson learned for me from from building partnerships is you think you think it'll be easy? You know it's like, oh, of course they're going to, it just makes sense, we're going to do it. And then it's like, oh, wait, yes, it does, and you have them that go. But then you've got to nurture that over the life cycle. It can't get stale. Yep, exactly, and people problems are hard to scale, so those are important. So you built on a history of awareness campaigns in the department. Can you talk a little bit about? You know, I know, campaign Blue. Then there was National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, national Preparedness Functions, others. How did that?

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

Yeah, we definitely there's been trailblazers that have gone before us. So we did some good, had some great conversations with Blue Campaign, csa and others, and it was really helpful. I would say too, especially for the Blue Campaign I think they just celebrated their 15th birthday. When it was first formed, it stayed up at the department. It was part of office of partnership and engagement and they really suffered, I would say, from their messaging because they were detached from the criminal side the folks who actually investigate or work with victims and so we knew at the outset that this is a DHS campaign and it's embedded within the DHS Cybercrime Center.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

But that's led by HSI, and within the DHS Cybercrime Center is the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit. So I sit right down the hall from them and so we're constantly in conversation about cases they're working, what they're seeing, so that and the threat is constantly evolving it just takes my breath away just when you think, all right, hopefully it ends with financial extortion, nope, then you have generative AI and now you have these nihilistic, violent, extremist groups. It's just every day evolves, and so being in lockstep with those who investigate this crime type is so important, because content is king and if your message is off or if you're articulating incorrect information, you could lose your audience very, very quickly and your reputation. So that was a huge, huge lesson that we learned.

Bobbie Stempfley, Vice President and Business Unit Security Officer, Dell Technologies:

Yeah, that, content and context, getting those two right and understanding your audience. I want to make sure we save a minute or two for questions, so if anyone in the audience has a question, now would be the time. If not, I have others to.

Audience:

Thank you, melissa Wright with LMI. Thank you so much for the work you're doing. I was at C3 a couple weeks ago and it's just incredible what you all are doing for our nation's children.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

I get teary just thinking oh, every day.

Audience:

Yeah, where do you see the campaign going in the future? So how do you continue to evolve? Is it new partnerships? Is it different ways of reaching our young people? What does that look like for you in your next sort of five-year vision for the?

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

campaign? Great question. Certainly, this is, in the words of the Army, the toughest job you'll ever love. This is definitely it. But the good news is that we believe this is a preventable crime and we also see a really bright future on the horizon. And it's also a bipartisan issue. There's no fighting or discounting this, getting behind this issue, so it's really encouraging to be a part of something that Washington DC can agree on.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

We have some really great plans in the works. We're starting to talk to influencers. We will be signing some. One of them may be Tim Tebow, who is his heart is literally as big as his bicep, so I don't know how that's possible. A professional female she plays for the National Women's Soccer League. Professional soccer player. She's 14 years old. She's the youngest person to ever be signed. She's fantastic. She's going to be our youth ambassador.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

We're in discussions with YouTube creators to start really zeroing in on that influencer network which, by the way, everything we do gives DHS hives in. The attorneys. They're like you want to sign influencers? We're like, yep, we do so with these attorneys. I have gotten in so much hot water. I yeah. God bless my boss, mike Prado, who's the head of the Cybercrime Center. He has really gotten me out of some of that hot water because we pushed the envelope hard and so working with influencers, certainly deepening these partnerships. So with Google, it was just like, okay, here's a significant ad credit to your campaign and we re-signed Google. It's like, hey, how about we introduce you to our YouTube influencers? And then how about we get you in touch with Google Classroom? So it's really growing these partnerships, signing new partners.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

And then, looking ahead, we will be launching in August and September, as the nation's 49.6 million kids head back to school. We will be launching Take the Pledge to Protect. So we will launch, we will surge with this moment, the back to school moment every year, august and September, pushing the nation to take the pledge to protect yourself or those in your care. Really pushing taking the campaign from the knowing to doing.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

The protection side. It's not enough to just understand the threat, but there's some really easy, quick, fast, free, preventative strategies that parents, trusted adults, kids and teens can put into place to enjoy their time online. So we'll be launching Pledge to Protect. We have really big plans for this national call to action and so, yeah, I mean that's probably next on our list, I would say and growing these partnerships, taking them to the next level and harnessing the power of outside voices to uplift and spread this far and wide. We want to make no to Protect a household name just part of the national dialogue, built into the nation's lexicon the way we knew what the DARE campaign was. Say no to drugs, but bigger, better, stronger, permanent.

Bobbie Stempfley, Vice President and Business Unit Security Officer, Dell Technologies:

Yeah, I love it. I mean you have to keep up with the threat, which is always evolving, so your campaign has to evolve in that way. You have to keep up with the kids and where they're moving to, because they don't stay on one platform for very long, and then I love that evolution of thinking there as well. So you know all three of those dimensions on your shoestring of an ad budget in that mechanism. I saw one more question. I think there's a mic coming.

Audience:

With KBR. Thank you very much for making it here today. We appreciate you taking the time out of your day to spend your time here with us and thank you very much for what you're doing. It's a very powerful cause and I think it's one that we can all get behind, and you took some time to touch on quite a bit of partnerships that you have at the larger levels the, the nfls, the mls's of the world, um, and I know that you actually just it was actually a great segue the previous question where you touched on the tim tebow foundation, some of the great work that you've done with with tim and his foundation, and I know that there was a recent uh podcast with john rich and the country music band, but, uh, so I was just wondering you know, on an individual level or even at the organizational level, do you have any recommendations on what we can do to help get the word out and help promote the great cause?

Bobbie Stempfley, Vice President and Business Unit Security Officer, Dell Technologies:

Thank you for asking, so bear with me a second. Can I build on that one, because I know we're sort of in our last minute. I'd love if you answered that and left the audience with their call to action. Yes, because I think those two tie together really well and I know everybody in this room is motivated and give them something to do when they walk out the door.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

Yeah, Can you rephrase the question again? What can he do? Oh right, I'm so sorry. So we have on notaprotectgov, under the About Us you can see our signed partners. Partnerships requires an MOU signed and reviewed by our legal folks, the outside organizations, legal folks Right underneath. That is becoming a NotaProtect champion. That doesn't require an MOU. You can co-brand with the campaign. You can request a Project iGuardian training for a corporate lunch and learn, or to your kid's school, or to your scout group, what have you? You can uplift us, your company's social media platforms, uplift and push out that you're proud to support the Know to Protect campaign, to reach your stakeholders and customers. And so the champion level. We have over 200 champions and they are just their foot soldiers in their communities, spreading the word in a way that you know we wouldn't be able to do with our tiny budget.

Bobbie Stempfley, Vice President and Business Unit Security Officer, Dell Technologies:

I mean figuring out who's most influential on these kids. Right, that happens in a face-to-face, very local, very local thing, and so that extension is so important.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

Yep. The call to action is go to notarprotectgov, follow us. If you're active on social media, uplift our posts, request an iGuardian training in your community. One quick note on the significance of Project iGuardian. That's the official in-person educational program, the campaign. It's where our agents go into the communities and present on this topic.

Kate Kennedy, DHS Know2Protect Campaign Director, Homeland Security Investigations:

Last month in the Midwest we had well prior to that, back in August, september we were presenting to a group of incoming freshmen at their orientation just six in a row orientation sessions. And after this one session, an incoming freshman female student went and disclosed to her parents, who were educators at the school, that a coach was grooming her online and her parents were devastated. Thankfully, one of our top agents and computer forensic analysts were there. They were. This led to an active investigation. He was charged and he was just or. He was prosecuted and just charged and he's going to spend seven years in federal prison. He's tried to solicit. He tried to solicit that young woman and another one, and you sit there and think, had she not sat through that presentation, how long would this have gone on for how many other girls would he try to have targeted? And he was a coach at the school, so he a trusted adult so that's everybody's homework assignment.

Bobbie Stempfley, Vice President and Business Unit Security Officer, Dell Technologies:

When you walk out, go become a champion and think about how we get this into um, into communities throughout the country and across the globe as a, as a global program there, um, I know we are at the end of our schedule and if you have further questions, kate, we'll definitely be here at the reception, and so thank you so much for time and thank you so much for really sharing this wonderful story.