Tag: Cyberbullying

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Establishing Safeguards to Prevent Legal Trouble Online: A guest post from Carver, Cantin & Mynarich

Posted on by Rachel Chipman

As parents, we know excessive screen time and online mischief can impact our kids’ physical and mental health, grades, spirituality, and values. What we often forget or don’t realize, though, is getting into trouble online can have legal consequences for our kids. Today’s guest post from Carver, Cantin & Mynarich offers their legal perspective on why we need to keep our kids safe online.

 

Today’s children are the first digital natives. They were born into a world surrounded by digital devices- the perfect tools for education, communication, and entertainment. Unfortunately, the internet is also a dangerous world with issues ranging from cyber-bullying to inappropriate content. Here are a few ways parents can keep their children safe online and help them avoid legal trouble.   

 

Begin by limiting online time. The longer a child is exposed to digital media, the greater the chance of being exposed to its harmful effects. Several of the harmful effects of lengthy screen time include obesity from a sedentary lifestyle, sleep problems, and behavioral problems like bullying, learning developments, and violence. Additionally, more screen time means more time to find inappropriate content or get into other trouble online.    

 

So, just how much screen time is too much? According to the Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children under the age of 18 months should not be exposed to any. Those between 18 to 24-months can be exposed to very limited amounts, while those between 2 to 5-years can handle just one hour of supervised exposure. Beyond the age of 5, an allowance of no more than two hours per day is recommended.

 

Next, parents should monitor online time. Besides exposure time, parents need to determine the quality of the content their children consume. They should help their children choose positive educational content and talk about how to make good choices online. This could entail helping kids discern what is “fake news,” putting in place parental controls to ensure kids aren’t looking at overly-sexualized or other age-inappropriate content, or just talking about things online that might interfere with their emotional, physical, or mental well-being. Moreover, parents should watch programs with their children and discuss what they are watching. This will not only help parents monitor what their kids are doing, it will also help teach their kids the boundaries of what is and isn’t appropriate.

 

Consider installing protective software. Given that adults aren’t available 100% of the time to monitor what kids are watching, protective technology can be really helpful. There are a myriad of technologies that can protect them from potentially harmful content. One such tool is Clean Router. This enables parents to manage and monitor all digital devices in their home. As such, it blocks internet pornography, filters Youtube, enforces time restrictions, and logs all activity.

 

Finally, when it comes to your kids’ online time, be consistent with rules and consequences. One of the negative effects of online exposure to inappropriate content is violence, which includes physical and emotional bullying.

 

Cyberbullying is on the rise, especially among teenagers. It is bullying carried out via digital technologies, such as texts, emails, and social media. Among other things, bullying can cause low self-esteem, drugs and alcohol abuse, poor grades in school, and physical and emotional health issues. Moreover, cyberbullying has serious legal ramifications.   

 

Kids also may not realize the danger of sharing personal information or photos online. This is especially true when it comes to sexting, which involves sharing sexually explicit content via digital devices. Your teenager may think they are just sending a cute picture to their significant other, but in some states, sexting between teens can be legally considered the distribution of child pornography. In fact, several states have specific laws on teen sexting. In Missouri, for example, distribution of a minor’s sexually explicit content can attract a one-year jail sentence and $1,000 fine.

 

With serious risks like this, it is critical that parents establish safeguards to protect their children online. Though the internet is an incredible resource, it also opens the door to emotional, physical, and legal risks, especially for kids and teens.

 

 Carver, Cantin & Mynarich are a team of criminal defense lawyers in Springfield, Missouri. The firm specializes in Internet crimes, along with serious felonies, criminal tax, death penalty prosecutions and a wide-range of other criminal cases. The firm is a 2017 and 2018 U.S. News & Best Lawyers Best Law Firm in America.

 

Thank you, Carver, Cantin & Mynarich!

 

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Cyberbully or victim? Here’s what research says about kids who bully (or are bullied) online

Posted on by Rachel Chipman

Which kids will be bullied online? Which kids will become the bullies? According to this study, it all comes down to why they log into social media.

 

Researchers from the University of Georgia and the University of Iowa examined data from 340 teens in a national survey. The teens had been asked about their social media habits, including why they use social media, if they’d ever been bullied online, or if they had ever bullied anyone else online.

 

The results were very interesting: the bullies and their victims were using social media for slightly different reasons. The bullies used social media for romantic relationships and social comparisons, but they were less likely to log on for information or entertainment. Their victims also used social media for romance and social comparison, but they were more likely than the bullies to use social media to have a community or place they belonged.

 

This study highlights two important lessons for parents. First, online dating is now a completely redundant term– teens are starting, developing, and ending their romantic relationships online as often as not, and all teen romances now have a digital component. Some relationships even take place entirely through smartphones. If your teenage daughter isn’t driving off to the movies every Friday night with a boyfriend, it does not preclude the possibility that she’s seeing someone.

 

Perhaps more significantly, however, is that there is overlap between the motivations between the cyberbullies and the cyberbullied. This makes perfect sense for the simple reason that they are often the same people. What too many people don’t realize about emotional pain is that it’s essentially a game of hot potato– hurting people hurt people. When people don’t cope with emotional pain, it explodes out of them.  Give a hurting teen a smartphone and the illusion of anonymity, and the temptation is too much to handle.

 

You can read the study by clicking here.

 

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Rebecca Black Writes About Cyberbullying in NBC Essay: “It was open season and I was the target.”

Posted on by Rachel Chipman

Rebecca Black was only thirteen years old when her music video, “Friday,” went viral. A deluge of scorn and mockery followed. Six years later, she opened up about her experience in an essay on NBC: “What I Learned from Being a Target of Internet Hate at Age 13.”

 

As parents, when we read about cyberbullying, our first impulse is to protect our children, to keep them from becoming targets. While understandable, this knee-jerk reaction is unhelpful, because our first impulse should be to prevent our children from becoming bullies.

 

Surely not our children, though. Never ours! And yet, as Ms. Black points out in her essay, “It is increasingly obvious to me that every single one of us is experiencing pain, and trying to deal with it in one way or another.” No matter how privileged or pampered our children may seem, each one has disappointments and hurts he or she is trying to emotionally metabolize. When we don’t properly handle emotional pain, we can’t contain it, and we end up weaponizing our pain and hurting others. Ms. Black calls this cycle “the chain of pain.”

 

When the internet became accessible to all, suddenly all hurting individuals, all of us, gained an outlet. We could rant and rave, mock and threaten, all from the safety and anonymity of our computers. We could tear another person to shreds without ever seeing his face. In a few short decades, the chain of pain has become infinitely broader. Research shows that cyberbullying is more destructive than face to face bullying because the victims can never escape. They open their laptops and find hate. They turn on their phones and are told they are worthless. Is it any wonder teen and tween suicides frequently appear in the headlines?

 

Obviously, we should all keep careful tabs on our children’s digital communications– read texts, follow social media profiles, and periodically check private messages. However, this is the not enough. We must teach our children to end the cycle– to break down and digest hurt, disappointment, and rejection instead of passing it on. Rather than insisting “My child would never,” we need to make sure our children have healthy outlets and coping mechanisms for stress and disappointment. We also need to teach them to intervene if they ever witness or learn of online or offline bullying.

 

It was easy to make fun of Rebecca Black’s music video. The lyrics were uninspired, the singing heavily autotuned. We all forgot on the other side of the screen there was a thirteen year old girl with a dream. She didn’t deserve our unkindness, and neither does any other victim of cyberbullying.

 

To read Rebecca Black’s essay, titled “What I Learned from Being a Target of Internet Hate at Age 13,” click here.

 

Ready to protect your family online? Use the Clean Router Proven Process!

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Cyberbullying– The stats say it’s affecting YOUR kids

Posted on by Rachel Chipman

Is your family looking for a meaningful New Year’s resolution with far-reaching consequences? Check out these statistics about cyberbullying to spark a conversation in your family about why cyberbullying hurts and what each person can do to end it!

 

*58% of kids admit someone has said something mean to them online. Almost half of kids say it’s happened more than once.

*Over a third of students have been threatened online. One in five students have received multiple threats.

*21% of students have received a hurtful or threatening email or private message.

*Over half of kids admit to have said something mean or threatening online. More than one in three kids have done so repeatedly.

*Over half of kids have not told their parents about a cyberbullying incident.

 

These statistics are from STOMP Out Bullying at stompoutbullying.org

 

What can parents do to influence kids to stand against cyberbullying! Dr. Meg Meeker, M.D. and parenting expert, recommends encouraging empathy by asking kids about others and their feelings:

 

“Talk with your kids about what life must be like for their best friends, for someone you meet at a ball game, etc. Take the time to ask your kids questions about others by saying, ‘I wonder if Johnny sees his parents much’ or ‘I heard that Ellie’s father passed away a few years ago, I wonder how she’s doing.’ Simply by asking thought provoking questions, you can help your kids begin to see how other kids live.”

 

You can read the full article on Dr. Meeker’s blog by clicking here!

 

Encouraging empathy in children of any age is one of the best ways to prevent desensitization to cruelty and bullying both online and off. The internet in particular seems to encourage unkind words and behaviors, especially when individuals can act anonymously.

 

To read more about teaching children healthy internet habits and cyberbullying in particular, click here!

 

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The Four R’s of Cyberbullying

Posted on by Rachel Chipman

As you introduce your children to the Internet and to social media, it won’t be long before they encounter cyberbullying. While your child might not be involved directly, he will see it. Whether the bully and victim are friends, acquaintances, or strangers, here’s what you can teach your child to do when she sees cyberbullying.

 

1) Respond

If your child is being bullied, the best response may be no response. However, if your child is only an onlooker, he could be in a position to stop the cyberbullying. According to Common Sense Media, 80% of bystanders do nothing, but when they do intervene, the bullying stops over 50% of the time.

2) Record

This step is applicable whether your child is the victim or the bystander. To prevent a “He said, she said,” scenario, it is important to have a record of what exactly occurred in case the bullying continues or escalates.

 

3) Report

Cyberbullying is receiving both legal and scholastic attention these days. If your child sees or experiences severe cyberbullying, it needs to be reported. At the very least, she needs to come to you, her parent or guardian. The bullying should be reported to the social media app, site, or forum. Together, you may also want to report the bullying to a school principal or the police.

 

4) Retreat

If your child responded to the cyberbullying, tell him not to revisit the conversation. Bystanders intervening in cyberbullying have the advantage of being able to act but not have to face a possible response from the bully. An attack can not hurt if it is not read. Blocking the bully on social media is probably a good idea as well.

 

While cyberbullying can be even more painful than face to face bullying, there are advantages for the victims and bystanders who want to intervene. Computers and mobile devices are equalizers; there’s no need to be intimidated by physical size or strength. Those who are cyberbullied can block and delete the bullies from their online lives easily and effectively. In short, cyberbullying can be fought! Teach your children to join the fight against cyberbullying, and help everyone have a fun, safe online experience.

 

Here at Clean Router, we believe that online peace of mind is not just possible– it is essential!

 

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Education World publishes anti-cyberbullying tips

Posted on by Rachel Chipman

Kids may be kids, but cyberbullying can inflict both short term and long term trauma.

 

“Cyberbullying is proven to have a range of serious and negative mental, physical and behavioral effects in young people, which can include and lead to problems such as anxiety, substance abuse, self-harm and even suicidal thoughts or actions,” said the YMCA of Greater New York.

 

Because October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, Education World has assembled some advice for parents to help them know if their kids have been cyberbullied, and how to prevent cyberbullying.

 

Among other tips, parents of cyberbullied children are counseled not to blame the kids for not standing up to the bullying. Instead, it may be helpful for the parent to share a bullying experience of their own.

 

Experts agree that one of the best ways to prevent and cope with cyberbullying as a parent is to have daily face to face conversations with their children– no technology allowed.

 

See more at: http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/tips-identifying-and-preventing-cyberbullying-83673064#sthash.NZIFMhWT.dpuf

 

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Teens consider cyberbullying worse than face to face

Posted on by Rachel Chipman

 

Vodafone commissioned a survey from YouGov to ask 4,720 teenagers about cyberbullying. Sure enough, cyberbullying is a part of many teenagers’ lives, whether they or a friend have been affected.

 

Interestingly enough, over half of teenagers consider cyberbullying worse than face to face harassment. Cyberbullies have the advantages of anonymity and ubiquity. Their targets don’t know whom to trust, and they can’t walk away. While bullying has always existed, technology has given bullies more tools and more power.

 

To read the original article on NakedSecurity by Sophos, click here!

 

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