Ad4dcss/Digital Citizenship

A short public information film on the problem of cyber bullying. Featuring the voice of Southampton singer song writer Stacey Douglas

The following is a list of five technologies currently employed by cyberbullies to intimidate other kids. Learn more about how each tool is used at this site.
1. MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites
2. Instant Messaging
3. Email
4. Photoshop
5. Blogs

StandUp! What Every Parent Needs to Know About Cyber Bullying , is a downloadable file produced by Unicel with the expertise of The Empower Program.The guide is designed to help parents identify, regulate and respond to cyber bullying by and against children.

The use of filtering or blocking software to prevent teens from accessing social networking Web sites is another approach that schools and parents can utilize. The disadvantage with blocking software is that teens eventually find a way to circumvent the blocking software. "Given the propensity for youth to constantly update language by the use of new words and phrases and alterations to the meaning of existing words and phrases, it would appear a difficult task to keep filtering software fully updated."

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.

With its evidence room overflowing with cell phones, the Richmond County school board is wanting to give away what it has taken 15 years to collect. The board decided to give the phones back to students when it changed its policy for cell phones in June. The policy replaces the often-criticized rule to seize phones for 365 calendar days when a pupil is caught with one. In 15 years, 5,725 phones were taken from students, according to the public safety department. Of those, 4,566 were still being held by the department this summer. Under the new rules, a parent has 10 days to claim a phone before it is turned in to public safety on the first offense. For a second offense and any phones not claimed at the school on the first offense, public safety takes the phone for 30 days.

Physical and verbal bullying among students are problems well known to teachers and school administrators. This article examines some of the literature on the topic of cyber bullying and provides information on its prevalence, the definition of cyber bullying, communication technologies, legal considerations and suggestions for dealing with the problem.

A "digital divide" exists in Canada between young people who see information posted online as private and older people who see it differently, according to a study released Thursday at a privacy conference in Toronto. Ryerson University professor Avner Levin, a keynote speaker at the Youth Privacy Online: Take Control, Make it Your Choice! conference, said in the study that young people have a notion of online privacy that is not shared by business managers and executives. He said the latter view all information posted online as public.

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.

Dr. Sam McQuade, principal researcher and graduate program coordinator, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Center for Multidisciplinary Studies-- Emerging dangers, threats and trends in kids' online safety according to a survey of 40,000 students conducted by RIT.

William Glass III, 14, sends text messages like a middle-aged, technology-clueless English teacher. Properly spelled words. Correct punctuation. Precise capitalization. Lengthy paragraphs. No shortened words.

Students, administrators and teachers at Gilbert Classical Academy have a new tool to express themselves that is rarely tapped by schools as a teaching aid: blogs. Blogs have been available on the Internet for years, offering Web users an opportunity to opine on various subjects and post images in a personal journal that anyone on the Internet can read. But schools have generally not utilized them as a classroom tool because officials have such worries as: What if inappropriate messages are posted? What if a hacker steals personal information on a child or staff member?

Brave New World of Digital IntimacyIt is easy to become unsettled by privacy-eroding aspects of awareness tools. But there is another - quite different - result of all this incessant updating: a culture of people who know much more about themselves.

Web-based course designed by Kevin HoneyCutt to help schools meet the training provisions of HB 2758 or the Kansas Anti-Bullying, Cyberbullying & Character Development Legislation.

A group of eight Windsor High School parents will file grievances with Re-4 School district in the wake of an Internet safety assembly that saw one girl leave in tears. The eight parents came together feeling nothing has been done since several high school students and their MySpace pages were used in an Internet safety presentation by Cheyenne Police Department officer John Gay on Aug. 19, the first day of school in the Windsor-Severance Re-4 School District.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is the key privacy regulation that protects children from having information about them collected by web site owners. In effect since April 2000, COPPA prohibits a web site owner or operator from "knowingly collecting information from children under the age of 13 unless the operator obtains parental consent and allows parents to review their children's information and restrict its further use."

Staff and students in Rainbow Schools will wear pink on Thursday, September 11th, 2008, as Rainbow District School Board marks its first ever "Stand Up Against Bullying Day."

Students who send and receive instant messages while completing a reading assignment take longer to get through their texts but apparently still manage to understand what they're reading, according to one of the first studies to explore how the practice affects academic learning.

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.