Category: Cyberbullying
How to Prevent Mobile Phone Cyberbullying – Know the Warning Signs and What to Do
This is a guest editorial by McAfee. While bullying is nothing new, online bullying has taken this torment to a new level. Public threats, taunts and nasty comments can all be linked to and shared in an instant, and mobile phones make it all easier. In fact, cyberbullying is so common that over one in [...]
RAT Hackers Targeting Women, Children for Fun and Extortion
If you’ve used services like WebEx or Skype then you’re probably familiar with desktop sharing technology. In a nutshell, desktop sharing allows someone to remotely control someone else’s computer, meaning they can access files and launch applications as if they were on their own computer. In applications like this, desktop sharing technology is totally legal, [...]
How to Avoid Falling Victim to a “Catfish” Hoax
The term “catfish” comes from the 2010 documentary film in which a young New Yorker named Nev Schulman has an online relationship with a woman on Facebook. Turns out the woman fabricated her entire life on the social network, and when Nev finally made plans to meet her in real life, he realized that everything she told [...]
What to Do When You Learn Your Child Has Cyberbullied
When you first find out that your child has been involved in a cyberbullying incident as the perpetrator, your emotions can be overwhelming. You might feel shock, denial, embarrassment and anger towards your child, and though these feelings are normal, they need to be put to the side because your first responsibility as a parent [...]
The Unexpected Bully – A New Perspective on an Old Problem
When most people think of a bully, the first image that comes to mind is an angry, scowling child who resorts to physical or verbal aggression whenever possible. That may have been true before the advent of social media, but in today’s world this mentality isn’t only inaccurate, it’s dangerous. The truth is anyone can [...]
Two Signs Your Child Is a Bully and What to Do
The headlines are familiar: “Cyberbullying Victim Takes Their Life”; “Bullying at an All Time High”; “38% of Girls and 26% of Boys Report Being Bullied Online”. The media has done a good job of bringing the problem to the forefront to raise awareness. Countless groups and a number of resources have been established to help [...]
Cyberbullying: 5 Steps to Combating & Documenting
While starting a new school year can be exciting and fun, it can also be tough for children of any age — dealing with new teachers and new students, and continuing the friendships (and rivalries) that they formed during the previous year. But these days it’s even more difficult for students as school dynamics and [...]
Choose Not to Bully
A little over a week ago, the Huffington Post wrote an article about the Youth Service America Top 25 Most Powerful and Influential Young People in the World. Reading about twelve-year old Olivia Bouler who has managed to raise $200,000 for environmental causes, and sixteen-year old Jonny Cohen who has been retrofitting school buses to be more [...]
Cyberbullying on YouTube: Six Things All Parents Should Know
Between the entertainment, marketing and sharing advantages that it offers, we can all agree that YouTube is a fantastic service. But in today’s world it either takes a lot of bravery, a huge desire for attention or a lot of ignorance to post a video of yourself on YouTube. Cyberbullying has highlighted something that we’ve [...]
Smiley Faces and “LOLs” Do Not Mitigate the Effect of Cyberbullying
Three Indiana girls were expelled from Griffith Public School last week after a concerned mother provided the school principal with a copy of a malicious Facebook thread about her daughter and other students at the school. In the thread, the three girls discussed different ways to kill their classmates, including putting someone in a bathtub [...]
Cyberbullying and Online Gaming: How to Protect Your Child
First let me say that, just as I am not OK with it offline, I am not okay with the idea of my children talking to strangers online. But that’s exactly what happens in online gaming services like Xbox Live and Playstation Network. As soon as your child logs onto their profile or joins an [...]
Yoursphere.com Survey among Kids and Teens Reveals Online Safety Education Works
I want to share some very encouraging research results that really shine a light on the difference online-safety education can make. At Yoursphere Media, Inc., we conducted a survey among our membership at our kids-only social network Yoursphere.com. Members that participated in the October 2011 survey were between the ages of 9 and 15 years [...]
Two Solutions to Help You Detect Cyberbullying on Your Child’s Smartphone
I’ve said it time and time again: face-to-face communication with your child or teen about issues like cyberbullying and sexting, and the consequences of such actions, is the key to helping them make the smartest digital decisions. Of course, not all teens are willing to listen, let alone talk about the issues, and most young [...]
Dealing with the Bullies – Avoiding, Recording and Reporting
Unlike physical bullying, where parental intervention or school intervention can help address the problem, cyberbullying is a bit more complex to deal with. The first question that needs to be answered is: How do you define cyberbullying? Well, for the most part, cyberbullying occurs when your child feels that their safety is being threatened due to [...]
Social Networking Linked to Teen Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Researchers at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (Columbia University) recently released a study where they found that teens who regularly use social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are twice as likely to smoke marijuana and three times are likely to drink alcohol. As well, the study points out that cyberbullied [...]
An Easy Guide to Teaching Online Privacy to Your Child
The online privacy risks that our children face increase as they get older; and this is for several reasons: they’re getting more involved in social networks (as are their friends), they’re using the Internet more often for school research, and they’re growing more curious about the world around them. And if you’re like me, I [...]
How to Deal With Cyberbullies and Online Creeps
It can be a scary thing when you notice a change in your child’s behavior and you come to find out that something happened, or is happening, to them online. That’s what happened to a friend of mine who recently reached out to me. The details are private, but she said her daughter was dealing [...]
Giving In to Tweens Who Want to Join Facebook – Is It Too Much Pressure for a Parent to Bear?
From firsthand experience, I can tell you that it’s very difficult not to simply succumb to the pressures of letting your tween have an account on an adult-intended social network like Facebook. Most of their friends probably have one—in fact, their friends’ younger siblings probably have one. But does that justify giving in? That’s the [...]
Twitter – A Revolutionary Way for Kids to Text for Free, Cyberbully and More
Everyone uses Twitter—or at least it seems that way. Major news companies use it to engage audiences from all over the world; politicians use it to leverage their outreach, and celebrities use it to let their followers know what kind of dressing is on their salad. But, you probably already know all of this. What [...]
50 Percent of Bullies Go Beyond the Playground
Yesterday, technology journalist Larry Magid posted an article in the Huffington Post called “Online Safety Tied to Real World Behavior”. In the article, Magid points to some interesting statistics related to real-world bullying and how it ties into cyberbullying. Magid points to a recent study from the Cyberbullying Research Center: out of 4,400 11-to-18-year-olds, the [...]
3 Ways Kids Can Become Good Digital Citizens
Education – Whether this is facilitated through teachers or parents (hopefully both!), awareness of the issues that exist online are first and foremost in an effort to avoid them. Parents also need to be educated so they can have…well, educated conversations with their kids about safe online practices. Of course, education goes hand-in-hand with open [...]
Mary Kay is a nationally-recognized Internet safety expert and the founder of 
