Social World Podcast: Suicide prevention with Jeff Paterson

Suicide, self harm and depression haunt young people across the world, taking thousands of lives all over the globe. Combined with the threats from drug and alcohol abuse, bullying, in all forms, and child pornography the risk to students are manifest. Based in Los Angeles, Jeff has developed a company that now offers protection and support to over 4.5 million school and college students.

He has been starting businesses since he was five. Some were failures while others were marginal survivors, and those prior businesses set the groundwork for the success of Gaggle. http://www.gaggle.net

Seeking a solution to manage student safety issues, Jeff founded Gaggle as a secure student email provider in 1999. As trends in risky student behavior like suicide, self-harm, violence toward others, cyberbullying, and child pornography grew, he expanded Gaggle’s offering to include products that help schools create safe learning environments. Unable to find investors when he first launched the company, Jeff has enjoyed not having a boss for the past two decades and uses this freedom to express his creativity and sense of fun—all while helping save kids.

Developments we talk about include a confidential concern line and a cyber tip line as well as a 24 hour monitoring service. Most recently, a service offering qualified telephone councelling is being introduced.