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.
Autism and Cyberbullying
I spoke at an Autism conference last week, and presented information on cyberbullying victimization and ASD youth. I am particularly interested in this population as one of my close friends is on the spectrum, and has shared with me his experiences being harassed by peers who perceive them as “different.” These youth are especially susceptible […]
Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Cyberbullying
I spoke at an Autism conference last week, and presented information on cyberbullying victimization and Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) among youth. I am particularly interested in this population as one of my close friend’s has AS, and has shared with me his experiences being harassed by peers who perceive them as “different.” These youth are especially […]
Are teachers and parents really talking to youth about online safety?
As you know, we are endlessly working to have our finger on the pulse of how adults are educating youth about online technology. The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Educational Technology Policy, Research, and Outreach (ETPRO) recently found that less than 25% of educators feel comfortable teaching students about Internet safety issues. You and […]
Teen Tweeting
Sysomos released a report in June describing the “explosive growth” of twitter over the past several months. We’ve certainly seen an increase in tweeting in popular culture, but are adolescents jumping on board? Our conversations with teens suggest no. And a recent account from one particular teen about his peers’ views of twitter also reaffirms […]
Jostens 2009
I just got back from presenting at the Jostens Renaissance National Conference in Orlando. As I wrote about after attending this conference last year, these folks really know how to have a good time! The energy was just amazing. There were once again over 1100 educators and high achieving students from around North America in […]
The sexting case in Virginia, and the need to identify and share best practices
Justin and I have both blogged about the case where an assistant principal in Virginia was charged with possession of child pornography after trying to investigate a sexting case through the collection of evidence where a student emailed the evidence (a sexually-explicit picture of a minor) to his office computer. The charges were eventually dropped, […]
Cyberbullying Research Center
For those of you who are regular visitors to the site, you may have noticed some changes over the last week or so. Sameer and I have been working hard to add and update information on the site to make it even more useful for you all. For example, we’ve added a few videos to […]
Video recordings of student and teacher behavior in the classroom
In this recent story from the West Coast, a 15-year-old high-schooler named Arielle was suspended for two days after surreptitiously capturing video on her cell phone of her chaotic algebra class. Apparently, the situation was horrible with the teacher unable to control the students, who were participating in paper-ball fights, smoking cigarettes and marijuana, and […]
More on seizure and search of student cell phones at school…
In April, Justin briefly blogged about this article from the Washington post entitled My Students. My Cellphone. My Ordeal. I’d like to follow up by saying that more educators are contacting us with questions on what to do in cases where students have cell phones with sexually-explicit pictures of other youth on them. While the […]
Facebook privacy settings
Thankfully, Facebook is soon going to restructure the way it displays privacy settings to users. Currently, those settings are scattered across multiple pages, and it is a chore for individuals to customize them to their liking. When we talk to elementary, middle, and high-schoolers, we ask about those settings – and have found that very […]
