Nothing has changed my life more than the birth of my son just over a year ago. I always have had a deep interest in online safety and especially the protection of kids online. But it has assumed a new urgency as I think about the world I want Aidan to experience.

On Tuesday, I continued my service on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Online Safety and Technology Working Group, working with federal government officials, representatives from the Attorneys General, and private sector colleagues to build a safer and more trusted online experience.

My testimony focused on our experience at Facebook, and especially the importance of designing a system that requires people to take responsibility for the information that they are communicating. Our rules and enforcement systems have always been oriented toward the principles of authenticity and responsibility, and a major reason for Facebook’s success has been our adherence to these principles.

When people step out of line – as some inevitably will in any large social system – a well-designed environment makes sure their transgressions have consequences. This can range from minor account limitations for posting wall spam to the more extreme measures that are necessary when people try to use Facebook as an instrument for an offline crime. James Madison’s formulation is still one of the best in capturing this fundamental truth – “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

In building an enforcement infrastructure for a large society, we have had to think ahead to problems that might occur and have ready response mechanisms to address them. We have had to deploy technical resources in a smart and targeted way to address difficult societal problems like online predation and cyberbullying. For the most dangerous situations, we have built the relationships necessary with law enforcement to be ready when these problems are translated into offline illegal action.

In the past four years while growing to an overall size larger than the United States, Facebook has seen only a handful of serious safety incidents, in large part because we prepared for them with proactive measures designed to make the Internet safer. The work with the Attorneys General and law enforcement across the world that I have had the privilege of leading has paid huge dividends.

Just as there is no city in the world without some crime or random violence, we can’t protect against every bit of evil in the world on Facebook or on the Internet as a whole. But intelligent planning and deployment of resources makes crime less likely and assists in bringing perpetrators who seek to harm others to justice.

The beginning of all of this is adhering to the design principles of authenticity and responsibility around identity. That central insight – a major shift on the Internet – has helped carry Facebook from its humble beginnings in a college dorm to the current day service of more than 300 million people worldwide, nearly 100 million in the United States.

Aidan won’t be ready for a full online experience for quite a few years to come, and I won’t ever be able to protect him from everything bad in the world, but it’s been a pleasure through my time at Facebook to help lead the way toward a safer and more trusted online environment.

It’s that kind of innovation that I want to bring back to government as California’s chief law enforcement officer.

As the Online Safety and Technology Working Group continues its work, I’ll keep you up to date here and on my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/chriskelly.