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.
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
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
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 […]
Rates of cyberbullying in Australia, and the reasons why…
Just a quick cross-cultural thought – this article discusses how approximately 10% of 9th and 10th graders in Australia have been cyberbullied…and the article compares that figure to the 50% or so (????) of American students who have been cyberbullied. The lead researcher and professor stated that their country is about five or so years […]
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
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 […]
Wide variation in reports of cyberbullying frequency…
As my eyes tend to be super sensitive to statistics and data related to cyberbullying, I was taken aback by the findings from a study mentioned in this recent FoxNews article. It states: According to Parry Aftab, an Internet security and privacy lawyer and founder of WiredSafety.org, 85 percent of 5,000 middle-school students surveyed said […]
Live Web Chat for EdWeek Today
We will be participating in a live web chat for EdWeek today from 1-2 Eastern time. From EdWeek: “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 […]
UCLA Research on Cyberbullying
A new research piece on cyberbullying was published recently by a couple of UCLA professors that pointed out that 72% of youth between 12-17 experienced online bullying within the past year. I find this number insanely high; the authors rightly note that their web-based methodology (constructed very similar to our older studies) possibly led to […]
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 […]
