You may've heard the term "doxxing." It's where online harassment can spill over into the offline kind, increasing risk of harm to whoever's being targeted, regardless of age, race, gender, etc. The form it usually takes is public exposure of the target's personal information – street address, phone number and other records – and, as we've seen in the news lately, it's "often accompanied by … [Read more...] about Doxxing: Key Internet safety risk & what to do about it
harassment
Dealing with the nasties online
Pondering positive ways to deal with online negativity seems to be a trend – maybe even a blooming social norm! Because, in response to social cruelty like the recent tragic trolling of Robin Williams's daughter Zelda Williams, other people sympathized, defended her and started thinking of ways to counteract cruelty like that. Negativity grabs our attention more than positivity, New York Times … [Read more...] about Dealing with the nasties online
A courageous target turned upstander
Read Caitlin Seida's story for a great example of resilience and how to be an upstander online. Caitlin had publicly posted an unflattering Halloween photo of herself, forgetting to make it private, and the photo – along with plenty of nasty comments – went viral. What started out to be a fun Halloween became a nightmare. "I don’t generally view my body size as positive or negative – it simply … [Read more...] about A courageous target turned upstander
Twitter’s improvements to abuse reporting
Now that more than a quarter of US teens use Twitter, according to the Pew Internet Project, parents might want to know that Twitter has upgraded its abuse-reporting process. Apparently in response to a series of serious threats in Twitter aimed at women journalists in the UK, Twitter is "cracking down" on abusive behavior, USATODAY reports, with specific categories for reporting, including … [Read more...] about Twitter’s improvements to abuse reporting
Less bullying & fear at school: Fresh federal data
Do people ever consider the possibility that, if they're exposed to increased reports about a social problem, it's the reporting that has increased rather than the problem? It's increasingly clear that this is the case with school bullying: Only news reports about it have increased, not the behavior itself. In fact, both bullying and fear of it are down among US middle school students (the grade … [Read more...] about Less bullying & fear at school: Fresh federal data