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The Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication (I.R.O.C.2) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating society about safety, self responsibility, and self accountability as well as the devastating and life altering consequences that can occur when failing to apply our concept of "Digital Responsibility 2.1C" while using the internet, cell phones and other digital technologies.

Do school officials have the authority to impose discipline in response to harmful off-campus online speech? Should they? This is a major challenge facing school administrators today. Many state legislatures are now adding statutory provisions requiring schools to incorporate cyberbullying into bullying prevention policies. But this has presented some concerns. For example, in Oregon and Washington, language incorporated into cyberbullying legislation appears to restrict administrators from responding to any off-campus bullying regardless of the harmful impact on campus. Administrators from these two states are advised to check with their legal council. Administrators in other states should understand that the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to use language in the cyberbullying statutes to override federal case law and restrict administrators from doing anything in response to off-campus harmful speech.

An effective school-based strategy to address the issue of online safety should include these six key components:
EDUCATIONAL USE - Schools must ensure that when students use the Internet, their activities have an educational purpose -- class assignments, extra credit work, and perhaps some high quality enrichment activities as a reward
SUPERVISION AND MONITORING Schools must shift focus from reliance on filtering to better supervision and monitoring.
MEANINGFUL CONSEQUENCES Misuse of the Internet must lead to a meaningful consequence -- but it should be recognized that suspension of Internet access privileges just causes more work for teachers. Requiring a service contribution to the school and establishing "close monitoring status" for all Internet use are preferable consequences.
ACCIDENTAL ACCESS TO PORN - All students and staff must know that if inappropriate material appears, they should quickly turn off the monitor or turn it so it can't be seen, and then report it. Following any incident or discovery, there must be a responsible assessment of culpability.
INAPPROPRIATE BLOCKING Selected staff in every school building must have the authority and ability to quickly override the filter to provide other staff or students access to sites that have been inappropriately blocked
INTERNET SAFETY AND RESPONSIBLE USE EDUCATION Schools must provide effective Web 2.0 Internet safety and responsible use education to students and parents.

Most of today's students are entirely comfortable with technology, but are they using it appropriately? Do they understand their roles and responsibilities in digital society? How can teachers help students become responsible digital citizens?

We need to stop talking cyberbullying and start talking cybercitizenship. Flip to the positive. Our focus in schools needs to shift towards responsible, positive use of social media. We need to stop ignoring and blocking and start embracing and amplifying. It is our duty to our students to start modeling responsible use of social media and encouraging them to follow our lead.

School officials are justifiably concerned about when and how to respond to cyberbullying of educators. What actions, if any, should administrators and teachers take when faced with such occurrences? Which responses will stand up in a court of law? Educators' most important first response is to pause, step back, and take a deep breath. Administrators and teachers must avoid reacting to students' offensive online communications in anger or fear.

Five ideas to enable educators to develop and model a purposeful and professional digital footprint.\n\n1-Model responsible footprinting with your own practices in blogging, commenting, social networking, and picture posting.\n2-If you have established a professional blog, share it widely and proudly such as placing it in your email signature (if your employer will let you) and as Jeff Utecht suggests include your blog url when you comment on others blogs and in other forums. This enables others to see best practices and is a great way to get the conversation started.\n3-Google yourself (aka ego surfing). If you have something posted online that you'd be uncomfortable having a current or future student, parent, colleague, or employer find, delete it (if you can) or request that it be deleted. There are ways an aggressive internet detective can still find this information, but most won't go through the trouble and the mere fact that you deleted it shows some level of responsibility.\n4-If you do have online personal information and/or interests you wouldn't want discovered, use an unidentifiable screen name/avatar. This means you may need to update your screen name/avatar in your existing online presence.\n5-Engage in the conversation and professionally comment, reply, and present online, onsite, and at conferences.

To Willard the key is not to frighten children, but instead teach them proactive ways to protect themselves while adults keep an eye out as well. Willard charges students to act responsibly, such as "Stay Out of the Garbage," and avoid pornography or other "gross stuff" online, and also to "Connect Safely," reminding kids not to send mean or nasty messages. Adults get some advice as well-with Willard cautioning them not to make a big deal if a child brings up something that happened online, such as a stranger trying to gather personal information. Any kind of extreme response, like taking away Internet privileges, could discourage them from bringing up concerns again.

There is no single solution to the problem of cyberbullying. It needs to be regarded as a live and ongoing issue. An effective approach requires clearly defined responsibilities, reporting lines and coordination. A member of the senior management team will need to be designated as the lead - preferably, the member of staff who takes overall responsibility for bullying cases.

Responsibility of Asian team's security takes By Rajeev Shukla.He asked Asian nation Cricket Board (PCB) to inform the rationale of not causation their team to The Asian nation for International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty20.

Our Space is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments. Through role-playing activities and reflective exercises, students are asked to consider the ethical responsibilities of other people, and whether and how they behave ethically themselves online. These issues are raised in relation to five core themes that are highly relevant online: identity, privacy, authorship and ownership, credibility, and participation

The Canadian Teachers' Federation advises teachers to: Be Professional, Be Prudent, Be Prepared and Know Your Rights & Responsibilities. Get the details and precautions for your own online behavior here!

Most school administrators have more than one story to tell about cyberbullying. They report that victims of cyberbullying experience low self-esteem, peer isolation, anxiety, and a drop in their grades. They note that victims may miss class or other school-related activities. Principals also point to recent high-profile cases where cyberbullying, left unchecked, led to suicide. In response, some schools have created new policies and curbed free speech on the school's computer network and on all electronic devices used during school hours. This article offers practical advice for actions schools can take to curb bullying, ranging from policy development to education.

The Authority & Responsibility of School Officials in Responding to Cyberbullying Article by Nancy Willard, M.S. J.D. [Journal of Adolescent Health 41 (2007) S64-S65]

Dizzywood, a virtual world and online game for children ages 8-12, today announced that it has been selected by the YMCA of San Francisco to enhance the youth program's technology curriculum. The YMCA is using Dizzywood's virtual environment to reinforce its program emphasis on activities that promote values such as caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. Children also learn about important issues relating to virtual worlds, such as digital citizenship and online safety, as well as complete storytelling and team-building exercises that emphasize creativity, writing and reading skills, and working together to achieve goals. The YMCA program is similar to the elementary school program that Dizzywood recently completed with the Reed Union School District (Marin County, CA). The highly interactive workshop, which ran from April through June, used virtual activities to reinforce the school's character pillars, which include caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness, among other core values.

The use of web filters runs counter to 21st century learning. Great editorial from THE JOURNAL (Jun 08) on putting the filter in student heads by teaching them responsibility rather than locking them out of sites with filters.

This three-part article includes a discussion of classroom connections to social networking sites and the school's role in intervening when information that affects the classroom is publicly posted on MySpace or Facebook. The authors also provide five key social networking tips:
1. Establish a policy for dealing with incidents in which students break school rules and their inappropriate behavior is showcased publicly on social-networking sites.
2. Outline clear guidelines for administrators that spell out how schools should discipline students based on information garnered from social-networking sites, and let parents and students know about those rules.
3. Educate students about online-safety issues and how to use sites such as Facebook and MySpace responsibly.
4. Have a policy in place for dealing with cyber bullying.
5. If teachers are using social-networking sites for educational purposes, they should establish clear guidelines for how they intend to communicate with students via those sites.

As tales of online cruelty mount, districts are trying a mix of prevention and punishment, incorporating internet safety into curriculum and tightening student conduct codes.Whether a pattern or merely an unfortunate streak, what's not disputed is the direction of the general drift in cyberbullying cases: upward. Once relegated to the playgrounds and back lots, the schoolyard bully now finds prey online. While the states are responding to cyberbullying by adopting legislation that mixes prevention with punishment, for school districts the issue quickly turns from educating the community about the threat of cyberbullying to crafting a response when an incident actually occurs. Districts are realizing that integrating internet safety education into curriculum isn't enough. They must also address cyberbullying in their conduct and discipline codes.

Students have always gossiped and complained about their teachers. But in cyberspace such behaviour can take on a life of its own. Cases of cyberbullying are opportunities to teach about responsibilities, consequences and healthy relationships. Employers are starting to check prospective employees' online habits: your resumé is one thing, but what kind of person are you online? We all leave digital footprints.

East Lothian Internet Safety and Responsible Use for Parents and Families - 2009 Workshops