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Are you an aspiring filmmaker? If so, grab your cell phone, digital camera or any other device that shoots video and see if you can win $10 grand by creating a video about being a good online citizen, using a mobile wisely or maintaining your online privacy.

If you submit that video between now and the deadline of April 5th, I might get to see it and if I and my fellow judges like it a lot, you could be a winner. Click here to enter or get more information.

For the second year in a row Internet Security firm Trend Micro is holding its “What’s Your Story” contest to encourage people to produce compelling videos about same and response technology use.

The contest is open to residents of the U.S., Canada (excluding Quebec) and the United Kingdom who are 13 or older.

And don’t worry if your device has limited memory, because so do the judges attention span. Short videos are great. It’s best to keep them between 30 seconds and two minutes.

Special Prizes for Schools

Although anyone can enter, young people are especially encouraged to participate. In addition to the $10,000 grand prize, there will be three $500 prizes awarded to schools, for each category as well as three additional cash prizes to individuals.

Why do this?

Aside from the possibility of winning, there are other good reasons to enter the contest. For one thing, it’s great experience. Not only are you encouraged to create a great video, but one of the criteria is how well you promote the video so you could also be rewarded by how well you use social media and other tools to get people to view your video. And if you’re one of the winners, your video will be posted on the contest site, Facebook and elsewhere so you’ll have plenty of impact.

Another reason for participating – especially for teens – is that it’s a great way to learn about Internet safety.

If you’re looking for inspiration, check out last year’s winning video (below) and take a look at some of the advice you’ll find at SafeKids.com and ConnectSafely.org, two Internet safety sites I help operate.

Disclosure: Trend Micro provides financial support to ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit Internet safety organization where I serve as co-director.

Here’s last year’s grand prized “Overexposed” by Nicholas Chen and Edan Freiberger