By “extreme,” I mean bullying that has led to teen suicide attempts. Two such cases involving three New Zealand girls have come to my attention in the past week – one through our BlogSafety forum and the other covered in that country’s national news media. The Sunday News in NZ reported this week that two 15-year-old secondary-school students were tricked by another girl into believing two teenage … [Read more...] about Extreme cyberbullying: 2 cases
Social Media
Overexposed on the social Web
Photos of and lewd comments about high school track star Allison Stokke, 18, are “plastered across the Internet,” the Washington Post reports, and this week newspapers and blogs nationwide have covered this social-Web phenomenon (a Google News search Wednesday turned up about two dozen newspaper stories). This is all unwanted attention for Allison. “After dinner one evening in mid-May, Stokke … [Read more...] about Overexposed on the social Web
AGs’ ‘p.r. campaign’
That’s what Mark Rasch, former head of the Department of Justice’s computer crimes unit called it. In his column “Your space, MySpace, everybody’s space” that appeared in The Register and SecurityFocus.com, Rasch writes, “This is not the first time that law enforcement agents have used public perception of a crisis to try to convince private entities to waive privacy policies and pony up … [Read more...] about AGs’ ‘p.r. campaign’
Non-private pasts
In a commentary in The Observer, a media company chief creative officer talks about how young users of “the confessional media” will never be able to “take it back” the way today’s politicians, celebrities, and other grownups can. “The bulk of them use their MySpace and Facebook entries for self-advertisement, social networking and the generally raw process of growing up and working out their … [Read more...] about Non-private pasts
Social-networking training wheels
Remember Beanie Babies? Cabbage Patch Dolls? Well, now there’s Webkinz. The only (significant) difference is Webkinz have a social site/virtual world for their young owners – kind of a starter MySpace for people below its minimum age. “Last year, Webkinz brought in more than $45 million in retail in the U.S.,” CNET reports. The writer went through hoops to acquire her Webkinz, named Cneta, then … [Read more...] about Social-networking training wheels