Internet Safety/ cyberbullying

Vocabulary bullying: Repeated, unwanted, hurtful, negative behavior against someone. cyberbully: A bully who uses Internet services and devices to harass a target. cyberstalking: When someone uses the Internet to track the activities of another to spy on and harass them.

Vocabulary accomplice: Someone who supports a bully either by encouraging the bully or actively engaging in the bullying activity. anonymity, anonymous: The state in which a person keeps his or her identity hidden from others. Online bullies can stay anonymous with user names that hide their real names. bystander: Someone who observes bullying. By their inaction or non-support of the target a passive bystander increases the target’s feeling of isolation and encourages the bully who may take their inaction as a sign of approval.

Types of Social Media

RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF WEBSITES When joining social media sites you agree to the following terms, and not to post content that is 1. is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, vulgar, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise offensive or discriminatory; 2. is obscene, pornographic, excessively violent or harmful to minors or depicts minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct or in a sexually explicit manner; 3. is illegal; 4. is tortuous, defamatory, libelous or invasive of another's privacy or publicity rights; 5. infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary or intellectual property rights of any party; 6. you do not have a right to make available under law or contractual or fiduciary relationships; 7. includes copyrighted materials for which you do not possess appropriate rights to so display, perform or otherwise make available; 8. bears any false, disguised or misleading origin; 9. contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to destroy, interrupt or otherwise limit the functionality of any computer software, computer hardware or other equipment.

Examples of cyberbullying mean text messages or emails rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles.

Why Cyberbullying is Different Kids who are being cyberbullied are often bullied in person as well. Additionally, kids who are cyberbullied have a harder time getting away from the behavior. Cyberbullying can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reach a kid even when he or she is alone. It can happen any time of the day or night. Cyberbullying messages and images can be posted anonymously and distributed quickly to a very wide audience. It can be difficult and sometimes impossible to trace the source. Deleting inappropriate or harassing messages, texts, and pictures is extremely difficult after they have been posted or sent.

Stats on cyberbullying 1. An estimated 160,000 children miss school every day out of fear of attack or intimidation by other students. (National Education Association, 1995) 2. One out of every 10 students who drops out of school does so because of repeated bullying. (Oklahoma Health Department, 2001) 3. Those who are bullied are five times more likely to be depressed and far more likely to be suicidal. (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, September 2003) 4. Harassment and bullying have been linked to 75 percent of school-shooting incidents, including the fatal shootings at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado, and Santana High School in Santee, California. (US Secret Service Report, May 2002)

Stats on cyberbullying 6. The effects of any kind of bullying can be long-lasting. By age 23, children who were bullied in middle school were more depressed and had lower self- esteem than their peers who had not been bullied. (Dan Olweus, University of Bergen, Norway, 1993) 7. There is a growing trend towards children cyberbullying adults. An angry child may post unfavorable comments about a parent or teacher in order to retaliate for a perceived or real injury. A child might take revenge by posting the family's financial information or making up stories to ruin a teacher’s reputation.

Preventing or Dealing with Abuse • DON'T RESPOND. When you send an e-mail message, many services display your real name. When you send a text message you show your cell phone number. Don’t communicate with bullies in a way that gives this information away. BLOCK. Use tools on your device to block anyone whose behavior is inappropriate or threatening in any way; preferably block specific individuals or contact by people you don't know. (Bullies can create new identities in a heartbeat.) STAY PRIVATE. Bullies can’t use personal information if you keep your profiles private and you tightly manage who can see your information; don’t give away your gamer tag to strangers so they can find you in a game space. REPORT. Report abuse that you experience or observe. Look for a Report Abuse button or link you can use to report inappropriate or abusive activity.

Choose strong passwords It’s easy and can actually be fun to create strong passwords and the payoff in increased safety is huge. There are five principles for building strong passwords: Length: Use at least 10 characters. Strength: Mix it up with capitals, characters, and numbers. Unknown: Use nothing that is associated with you, your family, your company, etc. Protect: Do not place paper reminders with passwords on them near your computer. Keeping a folder that is private to you is a good way to note passwords if you forget them. Change: The more sensitive the information, the more frequently you should change your password.

What to do if you are bullied Don’t respond to and don’t forward cyberbullying messages. Keep evidence of cyberbullying. Record the dates, times, and descriptions of instances when cyberbullying has occurred. Save and print screenshots, emails, and text messages. Use this evidence to report cyberbullying to web and cell phone service providers. Block the person who is cyberbullying.

Report Cyberbullying to Online Service Providers Cyberbullying often violates the terms of service established by social media sites and internet service providers. Review their terms and conditions or rights and responsibilities sections. These describe content that is or is not appropriate. Visit social media safety centers to learn how to block users and change settings to control who can contact you. Report cyberbullying to the social media site so they can take action against users abusing the terms of service.  

Report Cyberbullying to Law Enforcement When cyberbullying involves these activities it is considered a crime and should be reported to law enforcement: Threats of violence Child pornography or sending sexually explicit messages or photos Taking a photo or video of someone in a place where he or she would expect privacy Stalking and hate crimes Some states consider other forms of cyberbullying criminal. Consult your state’s laws and law enforcement for additional guidance.