Dangers of Careless Internet Surfing

What is the name of your children? What was the price of your house? How much money is there on your bank account? How much did you spend on clothes last month? What is your bank card code number? Your entire life is online, and it may be used against you. That is why you have to be vigilant.

Dave, a grey haired man with a spiritual look on his face, is a fortune-teller. Or better said: he pretends to be a fortune-teller. In fact, he is an actor who constantly gets his information from a small microphone in his ear. The people who provide him with information, are hackers wearing a balaclava and hiding behind a shabby curtain. They are constantly screening public websites for information about the unsuspecting visitors waiting in line for a consultation with this medium. The things they find, are truly spectacular.

You Need To Get Off Facebook

Labor Students,

Have you got a Facebook account? Or Twitter? or Tuenti? Maybe you have an account in some or all of them. Do you spend too much time on the social networks? Actually, do you waste your time on them? Are you learning anything from your social network? Do you get any profit from them?

Maybe these questions had never even occurred to you. Or maybe they had because you've experienced this uneasy feeling 'I really ought to be doing something else but I'll log off in just a sec'. That is why we would like to offer you some answers. Watch this video carefully and THINK!

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Stop Cyberbullying

`

What is cyberbullying, exactly?

"Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is NEVER called cyberbullying.

It isn't when adult are trying to lure children into offline meetings, that is called sexual exploitation or luring by a sexual predator. But sometimes when a minor starts a cyberbullying campaign it involves sexual predators who are intrigued by the sexual harassment or even ads posted by the cyberbullying offering up the victim for sex.

The methods used are limited only by the child's imagination and access to technology. And the cyberbully one moment may become the victim the next. The kids often change roles, going from victim to bully and back again.

Children have killed each other and committed suicide after having been involved in a cyberbullying incident.

Cyberbullying is usually not a one time communication, unless it involves a death threat or a credible threat of serious bodily harm. Kids usually know it when they see it, while parents may be more worried about the lewd language used by the kids than the hurtful effect of rude and embarrassing posts.

Cyberbullying may arise to the level of a misdemeanor cyberharassment charge, or if the child is young enough may result in the charge of juvenile delinquency. Most of the time the cyberbullying does not go that far, although parents often try and pursue criminal charges. It typically can result in a child losing their ISP or IM accounts as a terms of service violation. And in some cases, if hacking or password and identity theft is involved, can be a serious criminal matter under state and federal law.

When schools try and get involved by disciplining the student for cyberbullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right. They also, often lose. Schools can be very effective brokers in working with the parents to stop and remedy cyberbullying situations. They can also educate the students on cyberethics and the law. If schools are creative, they can sometimes avoid the claim that their actions exceeded their legal authority for off-campus cyberbullying actions. We recommend that a provision is added to the school's acceptable use policy reserving the right to discipline the student for actions taken off-campus if they are intended to have an effect on a student or they adversely affect the safety and well-being of student while in school. This makes it a contractual, not a constitutional, issue.

If you want to know more, click on the following icons:

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

NY Times: Parents Struggle with Cyberbullying

The following article by JAN HOFFMAN was published on The New York Times online last Friday 4th December:

As Bullies Go Digital, Parents Play Catch-Up

Ninth grade was supposed to be a fresh start for Marie’s son: new school, new children. Yet by last October, he had become withdrawn. Marie prodded. And prodded again. Finally, he told her.

“The kids say I’m saying all these nasty things about them onFacebook,” he said. “They don’t believe me when I tell them I’m not on Facebook.”

But apparently, he was.

Marie, a medical technologist and single mother who lives in Newburyport, Mass., searched Facebook. There she found what seemed to be her son’s page: his name, a photo of him grinning while running — and, on his public wall, sneering comments about teenagers he scarcely knew.

Someone had forged his identity online and was bullying others in his name.

Students began to shun him. Furious and frightened, Marie contacted school officials. After expressing their concern, they told her they could do nothing. It was an off-campus matter.

But Marie was determined to find out who was making her son miserable and to get them to stop. In choosing that course, she would become a target herself. When she and her son learned who was behind the scheme, they would both feel the sharp sting of betrayal. Undeterred, she would insist that the culprits be punished.

It is difficult enough to support one’s child through a siege of schoolyard bullying. But the lawlessness of the Internet, its potential for casual, breathtaking cruelty, and its capacity to cloak a bully’s identity all present slippery new challenges to this transitional generation of analog parents.

Desperate to protect their children, parents are floundering even as they scramble to catch up with the technological sophistication of the next generation.

Like Marie, many parents turn to schools, only to be rebuffed because officials think they do not have the authority to intercede. Others may call the police, who set high bars to investigate. Contacting Web site administrators or Internet service providers can be a daunting, protracted process.

When parents know the aggressor, some may contact that child’s parent, stumbling through an evolving etiquette in the landscape of social awkwardness. Going forward, they struggle with when and how to supervise their adolescents’ forays on the Internet.

Marie, who asked that her middle name and her own nickname for her son, D.C., be used to protect his identity, finally went to the police. The force’s cybercrimes specialist, Inspector Brian Brunault, asked if she really wanted to pursue the matter.

“He said that once it was in the court system,” Marie said, “they would have to prosecute. It could probably be someone we knew, like a friend of D.C.’s or a neighbor. Was I prepared for that?”

Marie’s son urged her not to go ahead. But Marie was adamant. “I said yes.”

Parental Fears

One afternoon last spring, Parry Aftab, a lawyer and expert on cyberbullying, addressed seventh graders at George Washington Middle School in Ridgewood, N.J.

“How many of you have ever been cyberbullied?” she asked.

The hands crept up, first a scattering, then a thicket. Of 150 students, 68 raised their hands. They came forward to offer rough tales from social networking sites, instant messaging and texting. Ms. Aftab stopped them at the 20th example.

Then she asked: How many of your parents know how to help you?

A scant three or four hands went up.

Cyberbullying is often legally defined as repeated harassment online, although in popular use, it can describe even a sharp-elbowed, gratuitous swipe. Cyberbullies themselves resist easy categorization: the anonymity of the Internet gives cover not only to schoolyard-bully types but to victims themselves, who feel they can retaliate without getting caught.

But online bullying can be more psychologically savage than schoolyard bullying. The Internet erases inhibitions, with adolescents often going further with slights online than in person.

Read the full story: 

• 1 
• 2 
• 3 
• 4 
• 5 
• 6 

NEXT PAGE »

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Should Parents Snoop on Their Children Online?

A survey finds 72 percent of parents monitor their children's online activities, but the methods used by some parents have many kids saying "too far."

“According to a survey of 2,000 parents and teenagers conducted by an organization called TRUSTe and lightspeed research, 72 percent of parents look at their kids’ social networking media ... so the question is, are parents invading the privacy of teens by snooping on their facebook pages?” (KGO-TV)


The survey called “The Kids are Alright” finds 84 percent of parents had an accurate understanding of their teens’ online activity. But that good news is being overshadowed by another finding. One and ten are secretly logging into their children's accounts without their knowledge.


A blogger for Families.com says that in this world, snooping is necessary: “By snooping, we are saving children from a new world of internet and electronic predators ... Ask the parents of daughters who are abducted, raped or otherwise harmed through online predators if they wish they had spent more time snooping."


Some point to other dangers that await teens online as justification for parental spying. Adam Levin of credit.com tells ABC child identity theft is a growing problem: “Over 400,000 people below the age of 18 become victims of identity theft every year and for an identity theif it’s the gold mine because you get information about someone who won’t be checking credit reports for years, who wouldn’t even think about the fact that they might be getting bills, so as a result it’s like a tabula rasa.”


But many teens feel that fearful parents can go too far. One teen, writing for the non-profit My High School Journalism, says that it is easy for parents to cross the line from healthy monitoring to stalking: “[My mother] has used my password for Myspace; put my status as something very offensive ... ultimately creating a mass of confusion, and subsequently, drama. This is crossing the line, invading a teen’s privacy in such a perverse and inexcusable way is an outrage.”


Although the TRUSTe study did find that some children do engage in potentially reckless activity online, president of TRUSTe Fran Maier tells San Fransisco’sKGO-TV that kids can be responsible: “Kids do care about privacy, they do care about the control of their information, and in the last six months that we did this survey many have made changes to their privacy controls."


So how can parents provide both the protection their teens need to stay safe and the freedom they need to develop? Joe Sullivan, chief security officer for Facebook, tells ABC says that understanding of the technology and open communication is key.


If you want to see more of Joe Sullivan’s advice, visit the link here.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Filtering Facebook Friends

How do you filter Facebook friends to cause the least offence and maximize privacy?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Teens Charged in Cyberbullying Case

Nine students are charged in a cyberbullying case resulting in a Massachusetts teenager's suicide. Now, state lawmakers are considering tougher laws.

"Phoebe Prince's lifeless body was found by her younger sister upstairs in their South Hadley house...." (WCBV-TV)

The death of a Massachusetts teenager by suicide has renewed discussions about cyberbullying. 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hanged herself, after weeks of relentless bullying. Nine teens have been arrested for everything from statutory rape to civil rights violations and harrassment. Massachusetts lawmakers are considering cracking down. But others say this is an issue of parenting.

We're looking at perpsectives from WCVB-TV, ABC, boston.com, WAAF-FM, and CBS, and slate.com.

First -- to the case. Prince moved to South Hadley from Ireland last September. By January, she had hanged herself after months of taunting, some of which school officials knew about. And as ABC's Yunji Denise reports it didn't stop with her death: "Several tribute pages for Phoebe Prince have popped up on Facebook. Most of the messages are positive, but others were so cruel, they had to be taken down."

A writer from the Boston Globe says what happened to Phoebe Prince happens in a lot of schools. And not enough is done about it: "The Mean Girls are pretty, and popular, and play sports. So far, they appear to be untouchable, too."

Charges finally came down this week from the prosecuting attorney. But on WAAF-FM, a blogger who goes by the name -- Hill-Man -- says, some things you just can't prevent: "Like angry medieval villagers, holding pitchforks and torches, they scream about how justice must be done and the girls who bullied Phoebe should be charged criminally. For what? Being mean? I’m sorry…but we don’t do that in this country."

A bullying expert tells CBS News the problem doesn't rest with the bullies alone. But with the victims who can isolate themselves in their torment: "Too often kids face cyber bullying, all by themselves, in their dark, staring at the screen."

And while lawmakers look to enact tougher cyber-bullying laws, a columnist on Slate.com says, parents have a role in this as well. It starts with talking and monitoring what kids are doing online: "If all of this sounds obvious, well, that's the upside. These efforts take awareness and effort and commitment on the part of schools and parents, but they're not technical or particularly difficult—you don't need to open Twitter account to help your kid navigate the online world."

So what do you think? Is this an issue of parenting? Or should lawmakers and prosecutors crack down?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Philly Tackles Flash Mobs

Philadelphia is divided over what authorities are calling a violent flash mob phenomenon, where thousands of teenagers organize via social networking: Philadelphia police are blaming flash mobs for mayhem on the city's streets -- where as many as 3,000 teenagers organized via social networking.

Now, the City of Brotherly Love is divided over who's to blame for what started as performance art -- but in Philadelphia took a violent turn.

CNN reports flash mobs were first started as pranks, where large groups would organize a harmless spectacle --like mass pillow or snowball fights: "They call it flash mobbing. Usually through Facebook or Twitter. A whole bunch of people get together. Sometimes it's to support a cause, sometimes it's just to show the power of social networking, just for fun."

But it's not all fun and games in Philadelphia, where three teens will stand trial in a January death police blame on flash mobs.

Philadelphia's ABC affiliate talked with a teen psychologist who blames the violence on a perfect storm of impulsive social behavior.

DR. MICHAEL BRADLEY: "We're seeing these kinds of bizarre expressions of teen impulsivity, bad judgment, inability to understand consequences of their actions with the new technology which allows them in a New York minute to express these things in very dangerous ways."

But The New York Times suggests there could be deeper social reasons underlying the violence: "Most of the teenagers who have taken part in them are black and from poor neighborhoods. Most of the areas hit have been predominantly white business districts. ...Mayor Nutter, who is black, rejected the notion that race or the city cut in services was a factor."

Fox News reports city officials are pointing the finger at parents.

REPORTER: "They will be held responsible for their children's actions."

MICHAEL NUTTER: "Take control of your kids. It is not government's responsibility to raise your child."

REPORTER: "They are also considering making free transit passes for students invalid after 4 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. to control teenagers' ability to ride downtown."

But Philadelphia's CBS affiliate talked with students who say any proposal that punishes all teens isn't fair: "Every student is not a bad student. Every teenager is not a bad teenager. And some teenagers just go down South Street just to have fun, not to be disruptive or destructive. 

Philadelphia authorities have enlisted the help of the FBI in 24-hour monitoring of social networks.

So, Labor students, what do you think about all this?

Writer: Newsy Staff

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Think before you post

Once you post your image online, you can't take it back. Anyone can see it: family, friends... anyone!
Remember: Think before you post.
...and think twice if you are going to post someone else's photos!

Even not so friendly people: