Read the latest news and brand new pieces on youth, social media, and emerging technologies! We focus on preventing harm and promoting positive online behaviors.

Humor Limits and Cyberbullying post thumbnail

Humor Limits and Cyberbullying

I have recently been chatting with Dr. Linda Young – whose work I greatly respect – about the topic of “humor limits.” In our trainings to youth-serving professionals, Justin and I discuss how teaching adolescents when comments made cross over a line and no longer are “funny” but are “abusive” and harmful. For example, the […]

The Current State of Cyberbullying Research: A Brief Summary post thumbnail

The Current State of Cyberbullying Research: A Brief Summary

The Committee on Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities heard testimony today about how teens are using and misusing technology, with a specific focus on cyberbullying and social networking. A full web cast of the testimony can be found here. The witnesses included a health care provider, an Internet safety advocate, a […]

Stop Girl Bullying Conference, San Antonio, June 25-27 post thumbnail

Stop Girl Bullying Conference, San Antonio, June 25-27

I hardly ever blog about my upcoming presentations, but I am particularly excited about my next one and so I thought I would let you know about it.  I am giving a keynote at the annual Stop Girl Bullying Conference this Sunday in San Antonio, Texas, and hope that you can come if you are […]

Ten Ideas to Involve Teens in Cyberbullying Prevention post thumbnail

Ten Ideas to Involve Teens in Cyberbullying Prevention

We have long thought that one of the best ways to deal with cyberbullying (from prevention through intervention) is to involve teens.  Including youth is essential in any comprehensive and coordinated community response to cyberbullying.  Earlier in the week Sameer posted a blog discussing the ways that older teens can be used to mentor their […]

Peer Mentoring as a Strategy to Address Cyberbullying post thumbnail

Peer Mentoring as a Strategy to Address Cyberbullying

The concept of peer mentoring generally involves older students advising and counseling younger students about issues affecting them. Since younger adolescents tend to look up to (and seek to emulate) older adolescents, this dynamic can be exploited to teach important lessons about the use of computers and communications technology. Peer mentoring has been fruitful in […]

Our book is NCPC’s June Book of the Month! New Podcast! post thumbnail

Our book is NCPC’s June Book of the Month! New Podcast!

We have more great news concerning our book: the National Crime Prevention Council has chosen to feature it as its June 2010 Book Club selection!  Part of this feature involves an extensive interview, where I discussed in detail how each and every person can take an active role in the prevention of cyberbullying and online […]

New Report: “Youth Safety on a Living Internet” post thumbnail

New Report: “Youth Safety on a Living Internet”

The Online Safety and Technical Working Group just released their comprehensive report “Youth Safety on a Living Internet” detailing the current state of knowledge, practice, and tools regarding safeguarding our youth while they explore technology.  The Report focused primarily on identifying industry efforts to promote online safety through education, technology, content, and other measures.  In […]

What is your Online Reputation? post thumbnail

What is your Online Reputation?

I have been talking a lot lately about online reputation with teens.  I think it is important for youth to recognize that anything they put online and anything they do offline that gets posted online, could end up being immortalized on the World Wide Web.  I advise students to start thinking about their online reputation […]