Family Online Safety Institute Conference – December 11th, 2008 post thumbnail

Family Online Safety Institute Conference – December 11th, 2008

I’m going to be in Washington, DC on Wednesday, December 10th and Thursday, December 11th for the Family Online Safety Institute’s annual conference, where I’ll be participating in a formal roundtable to discuss cyberbullying prevention and response and Internet safety issues.  I am really looking forward to this, as many top practitioners and authors in […]

JuicyCampus.com and the response by schools post thumbnail

JuicyCampus.com and the response by schools

My local newspaper just ran a story on JuicyCampus.com and asked me about it (since it could be considered cyberbullying), and so I figured I’d share a few of my thoughts here.  First, the fact that college students are flocking to the site to read and write highly-offensive gossip about others is a sad commentary […]

Anger in Cyberspace post thumbnail

Anger in Cyberspace

I found this new CNN article on anger online really interesting.  In our new book, we talk about two theoretical concepts which are highly relevant: disinhibition and deindividuation.  To be disinhibited is to be freed from restraints on your behavior.  In some venues, disinhibition can be a positive thing. For example, someone who tends to […]

Cell Phones and ChaCha post thumbnail

Cell Phones and ChaCha

In the last several months, we have received more calls and emails from school administrators about issue related to cell phones than probably anything else.  The concerns about cell phones are varied.  For example, students are texting on them all hours of the school day, cell phones can be used to take pictures or video […]

Focal areas within cyberbullying prevention and response post thumbnail

Focal areas within cyberbullying prevention and response

Mike Donlin, Senior Program Consultant (aka Program Manager), for Seattle Public Schools (and our good friend and esteemed colleague) recently asked us a few thought-provoking questions about cyberbullying prevention and response.  They are as follows: 1. How can we consistently involve all the major stakeholders – educators, legal, the tech industry, families and youth – […]

Problematic pictures circulated via cell phones post thumbnail

Problematic pictures circulated via cell phones

I just read an interesting article covering a topic that is frequently brought to our attention when we speak at conferences – cell phones and sexually-explicit images of teenagers being circulated among peers. The bottom line is that we have got to figure out the best way to get kids to think hard and seriously about […]

Cyberbullying and Schools: Edweek Live Chat (Archive) post thumbnail

Cyberbullying and Schools: Edweek Live Chat (Archive)

At its best, the Internet helps students find information and stay in touch with friends through everything from text-messages and blogs to social-networking and other video- and photo-sharing Web sites. But the Internet can also enable students to aggressively target and harm their peers. This chat will inform educators and parents on how to recognize […]

Tagging of personal pictures online, facial recognition, implications for youth post thumbnail

Tagging of personal pictures online, facial recognition, implications for youth

As most of you know, Justin and I have conducted some studies on the youth use of social networking sites.  Our primary intention was to determine if and how adolescents are rendering themselves vulnerable to victimization based on the content (diary entries, personal information, pictures, video, etc.) they post within their profile pages.  This content […]

Offline Consequences of Online Victimization: School Violence and Delinquency post thumbnail

Offline Consequences of Online Victimization: School Violence and Delinquency

As increasing numbers of youth embrace computer-mediated communication to meet academic and social needs, interpersonal violence directly and indirectly related to the Internet is occurring more often. Cyberbullying in particular has shot to the forefront of agendas in schools and communities due to the emotional, psychological, and even physical harm to which victims can be […]

Cell phones on School Campuses in California post thumbnail

Cell phones on School Campuses in California

In keeping with a trend we have been seeing across the country, another school board in California has decided to ban the inappropriate use of cell phones on school grounds (largely to prevent cyberbullying and the recording and online posting of fights). There is one exception – students are able to use cell phones to […]