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Presentation by Nancy Willard outlining the dangers of association with online communities by at-risk youth. This includes self-harm communities, hate groups and gangs and suicide communities.

Schoolyard bullies are a long-standing problem but now, in the age of the Internet, they are increasingly using electronic devices to torment their victims. Because cyberbullying has become so prevalent, several states, including New York, have proposed legislation to control cyberbullying.

HB 669 prohibits the bullying or harassment, including cyber bullying, of any public K-12 student or employee. It requires the Department of Education to adopt a model policy to prohibit bullying and harassment and directs all school districts to adopt a similar policy. School districts are directed to work with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and local law enforcement on developing this policy. School districts will be required to report all instances of bullying or harassment and to notify the parents of the bully and the parents of the victim.

[Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey]
Leading and Learning with Technology, Vol. 32, Number 7
Everyone has an internal compass but adults need to teach children how to find and use it. This article includes some scenarios that require students to use their internal compasses.

Florida Virtual School includes a learning module on Internet Safety in their student orientation materials. Through colorful flash-based adventures, students solve four Internet Security mysteries and learn about cyberstalking, identity theft, cyberbullying and email scams, then create their own Internet pledges based on NetSmartz materials. ISafe materials on cyberbullying and copyright are also included as downloads in the resource section.

Over the last five years, scholars say, the meteoric rise of social media sites, including MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, has sparked a public explosion in self-documentation, making the "me" in multimedia more prominent than ever.

AOL has unveiled a new online safety education Web site, SafetyClicks.com, and introduced an improved version of its free, downloadable parental controls software (parentalcontrols.aol.com). To develop content, SafetyClicks.com worked closely with ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit safety organization. For organizations and Internet safety experts that have direct contact with parents, educators, kids and teens, AOL continues to build relationships with them to promote awareness of online safety. "Friends of SafetyClicks.com" includes organizations such as ConnectSafely, ESRB, Enough Is Enough, Family Online Safety Institute, GetNetWise, Internet Keep Safe Coalition, iSafe, LOOKBOTHWAYS, NetFamilyNews, NetSmartz411, ParentDish, WebWiseKids, WiredSafety, WorkingMother.

Case Study and discussion points. Includes answers to legal questions.
A bad idea has turned into a full-fledged legal battle ever since the principal of Gibbons Preparatory School, Cornelius Southwick, learned that a group of male students at his school created a website that ranked the qualities of every freshman girl - often in mean-spirited, unflattering ways.

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.

2005 Report by Dr. Beth Manke, Associate Professor, Human Development, California State University, Long Beach. Often the most dramatic incidents of cyberbullying get the attention of educators, parents and the authority. Those incidents that involve threats, particularly death threats and those that result in school shootings and suicide attempts prompt intervention for both the perpetrators and victims. We must remember, however, that all cyberbullying, even the less dramatic incidents including the spreading of rumors and saying mean things online can be harmful as they can erode a child's self esteem and confidence and lead to later academic difficulties, interpersonal problems and psychological distress.

Amends the Harassing and Obscene Communications Act. Creates the Cyberbullying Law. Provides that the offense of harassment through electronic communications also includes the use of electronic communication for making a harassing statement for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person on at least 2 separate occasions; or creating and maintaining an Internet website or webpage, which is accessible to one or more third parties for a period of at least 24 hours, and which contains harassing statements made for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person. Establishes penalties. Effective immediately. The new law takes effect January 1st and provides that the Internet safety curriculums in schools will begin with the 2009-2010 school year. The bill allows the age-appropriate unit of instruction to be incorporated into the current courses of study regularly taught in the districts' schools.

A new state law in Kentucky now requires the state Board of Education to develop disciplinary guidelines for bullying. Under the bullying law, the legal definition of harassment would be changed to include student behavior that causes physical harm, intimidation or humiliation for fellow students. The AB 91 law also says bullying can be done and cause harm to a student through the Internet, phone or by mail. It also elevates bullying to a criminal offense - a class B misdemeanor.

When school starts today, Broward County schools will be armed to take action against you.A new district policy, adopted July 22, allows a range of punishments, from "positive behavioral interventions" to suspensions for students, to sanctions against teachers' certificates for "egregious acts of bullying." Included are cyber-stalking and cyber-bullying, which experts say are becoming more common among South Florida students.

The California Department of Education (CDE) and the Office of the Attorney General (AG) co-administer the School/Law Enforcement Partnership program. The Partnership has funded the Kern County Office of Education for a five-year period to administer the statewide School Safety and Violence Prevention Training Grant. The grant provides for safe schools planning, bullying prevention, and crisis response training. This training program does not currently include prevention of bullying that occurs via electronic communication devices. Need for the bill : A poll commissioned in 2006 by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, showed that one in three teens and one in six preteens have been victims of cyber bullying and that more than 2 million of those victims told no one about the attacks.

The real issues of digital citizenship include understanding identity online and the opportunities afforded to students when teachers teach students to be global citizens. More at http://ideasandthoughts.org

Identity theft can affect everyone, including teenagers. It is important for you to know what information is needed to steal your identity and the best ways of protecting your information. Your information, in the wrong hands, can 'jack your life!' The site includes lesson plans, games and a video.

The Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative (Michigan CSI) is an Internet safety education program with customized presentations for kindergarten through eighth-grade students and a community seminar. There are many downloadable handouts for educators and parents, including an online safety contract, social networking discussion questions (parent dialogue with child), templates, slides and sample presentations.

Learn everything you need to know about identity theft, credit card theft and fraud alerts and how to protect yourself. The portal provides both generic and state-by-state information. This resource would be good for a digital citizenship class and includes information on protecting both children and adults.

Download this free 64-page document on developing appropriate policies and procedures to ensure safe use of the Internet. A checklist for developing acceptable use policies and practical strategies for responding to incidents are also included. Developed by the Internet Safety Group of New Zealand.

With Photoshop's ease in alteration of photos, students need to be taught to authenticate visual and textual information as part of any good digital literacy program. A recent photograph of Iranian missles was displayed by many prominent news organizations (including the BBC, the L.A. Times, and the New York Times) before it was noted that portions of the dust clouds beneath the missiles were identical. Online news sites have been abuzz all morning, engaged in a debate over what, exactly, this means. As the New York Times notes, this is not the first time Iran's state media has altered photographs for political ends.