I came across an article recently about children in foster care across the United States, and the numbers stuck with me. It mentioned that around 400,000 children were in the system, and while the exact number changes from year to year, the outcomes are still difficult to ignore. Recent research suggests that roughly 69 to 85 percent complete high school or earn a GED, while only around 8 to 12 percent go on to earn a college degree.
That made me wonder what happens to everyone else, especially the kids who grow up without someone consistently teaching them how to navigate the things most of us are expected to figure out on our own.
I grew up feeling like that kid in a lot of ways. I often felt out of place, and there were plenty of things nobody really took the time to explain to me. Because of that, this idea became personal pretty quickly.
My background is in OSINT and cybersecurity, so I spend a lot of time thinking about how information moves online, how easily people can be found, and how much someone can reveal about themselves without realizing it. Kids in foster care are already dealing with enough uncertainty in their lives, and I don't think basic digital safety should be another area where they're expected to learn everything through mistakes.
That is the idea behind Project F1NDX™.
I want to work with foster care organizations and residential programs across Florida to provide basic, practical digital safety education to the children they support. The focus would be on things they can actually use: recognizing dangerous behavior online, understanding what personal information can reveal, protecting their privacy, spotting situations that do not feel right, and knowing when to involve a trusted adult.
Anyone involved in delivering the training would be properly trained and vetted before working with the children or entering any partner facility. When you are working with kids in care, that responsibility has to be taken seriously.
Project F1NDX™ is still in its early stages. There are no formal partnerships yet, and the curriculum is still being developed, but the intention is there, and I want to turn it into something real.