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Online hangouts like Facebook and MySpace have offered crime-solving help to detectives and become a resource for employers vetting job applicants. Now the sites are proving fruitful for prosecutors, who have used damaging Internet photos of defendants to cast doubt on their character during sentencing hearings and argue for harsher punishment.\n\n

Based in Virginia, the Safe Surfin' Foundation works with the Department of Justice and provides parents, teachers and school administrators, law enforcement, community groups and librarians with the information and resources necessary to educate the public about cyberpredators and protect children from Internet crimes.

Cyberethics curriculum and lesson plan created for elementary and middle school teachers by the Department of Justice. Covers computer crimes like hacking and pirating software or music.

The National Crime Prevention Counci developed a series of public service announcements done in partnership with the Ad Council on topics related to cyberbullying. In 2007, they came out with CYBERBULLYING TALENT SHOW and CYBERBULLYING KITCHEN - both aimed at girls. In 2008, they followed up with a third PSA, BOYS EXPERIENCE IT TOO. See: Chicken: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t5OajyQywY Talent Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seOQyMvG99w Kitchen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYaWNYXpBis

KINSA has partnered with Nelvana to create a 16-page cyber-safety comic featuring characters from YTV's hit show, Grossology. The original comic takes kids on an adventure into the underworld of crime (and slime!) while reinforcing KINSA's Surf Smart™ principles. The comic will be distributed in POP! Magazine in spring 2008 to over 300,000 students in Canada, and is also available for download here.

Online safety advocates are urging President-elect Barack Obama to put more resources toward protecting children from crime, harassment and predators on the Web.

Links to video/audio and full transcripts of a children's online safety panel [May 2007] with Danah Boyd, David Finkelhor, Amanda Lenhart and Michelle Yberra. This was the first time these prominent academics have appeared together to present their research, which, altogether, represents volumes of data on the state of online youth victimization and online youth habits. The 34-page transcript/download is worth the read. You'll also want to download a copy of David Finkelhor's Just the Facts: Getting It Right , which he developed so that presenters would accurately represent his research findings. In this document, he coaches you explicitly on how to report the facts. Very valuable, since reports on incidences of online victimization are so inconsistent and so many people misinterpret the findings!

From Qwest Communications. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America with 18-29 year olds being the largest group of victims. Educating 13-18 year olds about how and why they are being targeted is critical in preventing new victims. Clean credit and a low level of identity theft awareness are two top reasons teens are targeted. A new survey from Qwest Communications Teen Council Program shows that an alarming number of teens are making it easier for thieves to steal their identity. With answers from more than 1,600 students about their online habits, the report identified the top 5 ways teens are compromising their identities.\n

New form of school cyberbullying toward red heads demonstrated with "Kick A Ginger Day" - a hate crime with redheads as victims, promoted via a Facebook group and inspired by a Southpark episode from 2005.

Online threats of violence and acts of cyber-bullying are not protected free speech. That's according to a California appeals court that upheld a decision from a lower court, allowing a hate crimes and defamation suit to continue. The case cited involves a 15 year old student who became the target of threats and taunts from other students after launching a web site promoting pursuit of a film and singing career.

In the United States, there's no federal law against cyber bullying -- yet. A bill introduced to the House of Representatives last year would make it against the law to "transmit in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior." Anyone found guilty of this crime could face a fine or a prison term of up to two years.

New Jersey Legal, a firm specializing in computer forensics, (eDiscovery, litigation support and trial service), also provides custom court room exhibits and multimedia presentations. They run a weekly comic series on their web site called CAPTAIN FORENSICS - with comics that are all related to computer crimes. This is part one of a 4-part series on Cyberbullying. Click "next" for the rest of the episodes.

One in seven juveniles will be solicited online"-a number that got predictably huge media play when it came out in 2006, and a number David Finkelhor, (Crimes Against Children Research Center) stands by, with one enormous caveat: Most of those solicitations, he says, are the Internet equivalent of "wolf whistles."

Internet users in full-time education (2) are almost twice as confident online as other internet users - more than half (51%) consider themselves 'very' internet literate, compared to the national average of 26%. Despite this, they are the most dismissive of the risk of online crime and of the importance of basic security tools (such as anti-virus software) in protecting them against it.

Fcebook describes these staffers as an internal police force, charged with regulating users' decorum, hunting spammers and working with actual law-enforcement agencies to help solve crimes. Part hall monitors, part vice cops, these employees are key weapons in Facebook's efforts to maintain its image as a place that's safe for corporate advertisers-more so than predecessor social networks like Friendster and MySpace.

Rumors had been flying at Freedom High School in South Riding, Virginia that students were distributing nude pictures of each other on their cell phones. It's a phenomenon, known as "sexting," that's become increasingly worrisome to educators across the country, and Ting-Yi Oei, a 60-year-old assistant principal at the school, was tasked with checking it out. The investigation was inconclusive, but led to a stunning aftermath: Oei himself was charged with possession of child pornography and related crimes

One of the main qualities that insurance adjusters or an independent claims adjuster needs to have is to be trustworthy. Ethics play a major role in any business, and especially when it comes to insurance claims. Fraud in this industry can sometimes be written off as a "victimless" crime which is not necessarily true, as other insureds are footing the bill for the insurance companies' losses. If an adjuster is committing fraud or trying to scam the system and earn extra money, he is hurting everyone who uses that insurance company

ID theft has become the crime this generation will deal with most of their lives.Kids just never think about Identity Theft. Most parents are not even aware that kids have identities to be stolen. A 2-minute, eye-opening news video.

On June 30th, Missouri governor, Matt Blunt, signed a bill updating state laws against harassment by removing the requirement in the legislation requiring that such harassing communication be written or made over the telephone. Now, harassment from computers, text messages and other electronic devices may also be considered illegal. The amended law also requires school boards to create a written policy requiring schools to report harassment and stalking committed on school property to local police, including such done via the Internet.