Proactive Informed Parents Are The Best Cyber Bullying Deterrent

Cyber Bullying incidents tracked at 6 percent in 2000 have quadrupled.

Estimated irange - 18% to 49% of students in grades 4 through 12, saying they have been bullied online.

Cyber bullying is the use of Internet e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, pagers, cell phones, or other forms of information technology to deliberately and repeatedly hurt, taunt, ridicule, threaten or intimidate someone.

SOLUTIONS

> Step One - Send a kind message - BE a cyber bullying solution (Click here)

> Cyber Bulling Solutions Prevention For Schools (Click here)

> Parent Cyber Bullying Education Tools (See right column of this page for..)

• Contract - Positive character agreement parents and students
• Glossary - Internet, TXT terms
• Cyber Bully Tracker - finding the bully
• Global cyber bully news
• Message center, click Good Finder message, fill one in for yourself, click SEND. ENJOY!

> Cyber Bullying Prevention Lesson Plans Activities Grades K-12

> Cyber Internet Bullying Safety Tips

It's a fact - Less than 20 percent tell their parents that they have been cyber bullied out of fear of loosing Internet access. "For a teenager, internet access is nearly as important as oxygen."

It’s a cycle. More than half of students who experience cyber bullying behaviors also display cyber bullying behaviors. Teens tend to respond and escalate.

Cyber bullies sometimes leave their “electronic finger prints” behind. Electronic messages such as IM’s and emails leave "fingerprints" -- nine-digit numbers recorded with your ISP (Internet Service Provider). The bully may be breaking the ISP terms of use, and a parental email to abuse@ the isp name could cause the site owner or email provider to take action. Save bullying emails and the email header so site owner knows which account holder is "behaving badly."

Glossary Definitions Cyber Bullying

Bash Board: An online bulletin board on which individuals may post anything they want. The content tends to be malicious, ridiculing, hateful statements directed against another person.

Blog: Interactive web journal or diary (web log) viewable to general audience or specific groups

Buddy List: Collection of real names, screen names, or handles which represent “friends” or buddies within an instant message, chat program, or cell phone.

Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying is the use of e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, pagers, cell phones, or other forms of information technology to deliberately & repeatedly, harass, taunt, ridicule, threaten, or intimidate someone.

Cyber Bullying Victim: The one who is on the receiving end of online social cruelty

Cyberstalking: Harassment that includes threats of harm or is highly intimidating and intruding upon one’s personal privacy.

Cyberthreats: Online material that either generally or specifically raises concerns that the creator may intent to inflict harm or violence to self of others.

IM/Instant Messaging: The act of instantly communicating between two or more people over a network such as the Internet.

Flaming (email text etc.): Sending rude, crude, angry or obscene messages directed at a person or persons either privately or to an online group.

Happy Slapping: Extreme form of bullying where physical assaults are recorded on mobile phones and distributed to others. Sometimes they are posted on Social Networking sites or blogs.

Harassment: Unsolicited words or actions intended to annoy, alarm or abuse another individual

ISP: Internet Service Provider, the company that provides an Internet connection to individuals or companies

Offender: The one who instigates online social cruelty

Social Networking web sites: Online service that bring together people by organizing them around a common interest or by providing an interactive environment of photos bligs, user profiles, and messaging systems. Examples include Facebook and MySpace.

Spam: Unsolicited electronic mail sent from someone you do not know.

Trolling: Deliberately positing false information to entine a genuinely helpful people to respond and contribute to the discussion.

URL: Universal record locator: a string of text that specifies the location of an object accessible through the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), typically a World Wide Web address, as of a home page or iplay channel. A Web URL begins with "http://". Differs from a domain name in the sense that the domain name is a part of a URL and corresponds with IP addresses to form a URL.

The security concerns have spawned an industry of touted “software solutions.” At best software tools are reinforcements for your personal child safety campaign.

Software tools generally focus on two major tasks: tracking and monitoring internet usage and filtering or blocking certain forms of internet access. The following chart provides a comparison of the features of some of the more prominent programs available but is not a Kamaron recommendation.

Product/Price	Features	Evaluation
CyberPatrol from SurfControl $39.95 (12 month) $59.95 (24 month) Discounts for future subscriptions and for bulk purchases (5 or more licenses)	Records all web surfing activity Sends email report. Provides site and program blocking and time restrictions.2	PC Magazine Editor Rating of 4 (out of 5). Reviewers note its susceptibility to overriding, especially on outbound IMs.
CYBERsitter $39.95 for a single computer, with discounts for additional computers. No subscription fees.	Records all web surfing activity and IMs. Sends email report. Provides site and program blocking and time restrictions.2 Blocks Social Networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook.	Five time winner of PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award. Some minor Windows interface difficulties reported.
Safe Eyes $50.00 per year for up to three computers.	Records all web surfing activity and IMs. Sends email report Provides site and program blocking and time restrictions.2 Blocks P2P file sharing.1	Winner of PC Magazines Editor’s Choice Award Some trouble with URL filters blocking legitimate sites.
Allume Sustems Spycatcher $30.00	Beats others at detecting and blocking spam Activate Parental Controls	Consumer Reports reviewed.

1) Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs allow direct downloading between end user computers, without the safeguards of a mediating website. P2P programs are used primarily to share music and video files, but can be used for any kind of computer data.

2) Program blocking capabilities include both programs installed on the computer and programs accessed online (e.g., video games and gambling programs). Time restrictions capabilities include both limiting the amount of time spent online in a given period (e.g., per day or week) and limiting access at certain times of the day (e.g., between 1:00 and 6:00 a.m.).

THE FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE - CYBER BULLYING PROTECTON

This seeming cornucopia of solutions may be deceptive, however. CNet reports that the US Justice Department cast doubt last winter on the notion that software alone is adequate protection. And Anne Collier, editor of NetFamilyNews.org, argues on the StaySafe.org website that Web 2.0 (cyberspeak for the new generation of internet involving multimedia, mobile access, multidirectional communication, and user-driven content) defies control, and reliance on software to keep our children safe is a partial solution at best.

Cyber Bullying Resource from Kamaron Institute www.kamaron.org and Kamaron Institute Resource Cyber Bullying Resource Center

Also see: Cyber Bullying Coming To A Cell Phone Near You

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