Two national news stories this week – one about anti-gay cruelty that ended in a young man's suicide in New Jersey on September 22 (see the New York Times) and the other about anti-gay hate speech from an assistant attorney general in Michigan (see this CNN blog) – indicate a serious need for family discussions about hate speech and bullying, how they are hurtful and destructive to everyone … [Read more...] about Fixing hate online and offline: Everyone’s needed!
Risk & Safety
More spam in Facebook, Twitter
Don't be socially engineered. Tell your kids that social Web users really need to think before they click, because writing malicious code isn't cybercriminals' only skill. Increasingly it's social engineering, which usually involves being tricked to click on a link that is not what it appears. Attacks on Facebook and Twitter, the two social-media services on which malicious hackers are focusing … [Read more...] about More spam in Facebook, Twitter
Tech-enabled dating abuse
If your kid's like mine (and has a cellphone), s/he is getting text messages all the time. What you might want to check on with him or her is whether it's all the time from one person. If it is, there could be some good reasons for this seemingly obsessive or stalking behavior – maybe the child needs help, a confidant for a few days. Another possibility is what blogger April Peveteaux at cafemom … [Read more...] about Tech-enabled dating abuse
Why digital citizenship’s a hot topic
Digital citizenship keeps coming up in more and more places.... It just came up at the Social Good Summit in New York this week I just co-moderated a multinational panel on it at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Vilnius, Lithuania, last week The European Schoolnet and the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) just announced a new category for Europe's eLearning … [Read more...] about Why digital citizenship’s a hot topic
Watching students relate to a president
In its coverage of President Obama's back-to-school speech this week, Youth Radio led with his point toward the end that gets to the core of defeating bullying and cyberbullying (among other social ills!): "If you take away one thing from my speech," the President told students at Masterman Lab School in Philadelphia, "I want you to take away the notion that life is precious, and part of what … [Read more...] about Watching students relate to a president