I’ve just realized way too much of cyber-safety’s attention has been on minimizing negativity – whilst not enough has been given to harnessing positivity.

Courtney Martin, a columnist for The American Prospect Online, has just posted an article about how it’s humans, not technology, that cause most cyber-problems – and as humans, can do a lot of cyber-good as well – link – “But, as with all technology, we must recognize that it is not the tool that produces the mistreatment, it’s the wounded humans using that tool. And just as so many have managed to manipulate the Internet, many can also be inspired to use it for good.” She argues we should put effort into promoting ‘cyber-compassion’.

Courtney cites some examples of this so called ‘cyber-compassion,’ and pleads, “We must resist the inclination to brand all of the Internet as dangerous, evil, or dissident, and instead recognize it for what it is – one more communication revolution in need of intentional and inspired leadership. ”

Senator-until-a-few-weeks ago Natasha Stott Despoja’s recent youth poll found 22% of teens have experienced cyber-bullying (or as I’ll be calling it now, Internet Bullying). On the surface that sounds pretty bad. But subtract that from the total and you’ll soon realize that 78% of teens have not experienced cyber-bullying. Their time online has been fine – and that can only be a good thing. I’ve said for a long time it is important that technology isn’t demonized in efforts of goodwill – rather accepted as an overwhelming force for good – with a few bad elements.

Whatever you want to call it, Courtney’s point is clear, and very pertinent – that instead of dwelling on negativity – recognizing, and harnessing the positivity of the cyber-world is just as, if not more important.

It’s easy to dismiss this as a typical shot for positivity when it’s not really that helpful to the cause – but if you actually look into some of the examples she highlights – you’ll see her message is quite practical as well.

A message that should resonate with us all.

Someone call Max Markson.

Last month I said, “the words ‘Cyber-Bullying’ have a humorous quality often exploited by teenagers, so use the words ‘Online Harassment’ instead.”

And I just knew it was true – a lot of teenagers, especially older boys, tend to disregard online abuse when the term cyber-bullying is used. Bullying isn’t funny. Cyber isn’t funny. But when cyber is used in conjunction with something else, like bullying, for some, unexplainable reason, it is. It’s not because kids think bullying people over the internet is funny – it’s just something to do with the word. Maybe not ‘funny’ for some – but silly. It’s not perceived like this because kids are bad – it’s just a general thing to do with youth humor.

And this theory I think is proved today with some new research that has just come out of America – link. In a survey conducted by SAFE (Substance Abuse Free Environment) of 3,350 school students across multiple levels, 26.2 percent answered yes when asked if they had “received a threatening e-mail, text message or instant message”. But when asked directly if they had “been a victim of cyber-bullying” only 10.9 responded yes.

Receiving threatening messages is, in essence, cyber-bullying, but less than half of those who had received threatening messages saw it that way. Why this strange and substantial difference?

It’s because, put simply, Cyber-Bullying has a serious image problem amongst youth.

Also, because a lot of teenagers aren’t sensitive, they tend to fob it off as, well, a non-problem. Usually the top of the social crop. And subsequently the collective school attitude follows.

But not all kids have a psyche of steel.

Using the term ‘online harassment’, or something else, instead of cyber-bullying, to contend the problem of cyber-bullying, would not help its reputation in terms of its severity as a problem, but it would remove any element of humor the word may project, which if anything, would help it be perceived seriously by kids. And it matters because if they don’t take the concept seriously, because of a word, there is a lesser chance advice on the subject will achieve any traction in their minds.

So educators and the community must account for this in cyber-safety responses.

Words can make or brake something when it comes to kids. Cyber-Bullying, although well intended, just doesn’t cut it.

Recently my friend Michael Carr-Gregg blogged – link – about the new movie coming out called ‘The Happening’ – link. Not because of its deplorable critical reception, but its possibly devastating psychological connotations. It is a film about suicide – ‘The Happening’ referring to a phenomenon where people shoot, stab and plunge their way off rooftops to violent deaths.

Many psychological studies have found media that contains suicide methods may promote a ‘werther effect’ – copycat suicides – especially in young people.

So the Australian Psychological Society is arguing that this film, instead of being designated an MA ratings, should get an R rating – to be seen in the cinemas by people psychologically more developed – perhaps decreasing the chance it could have negative ramifications.

And so it should. Any measures to decrease its exposure should be taken. I’ve said once and I’ll say it again – the best society is one where freedom is granted to an extent where people can’t harm other people or themselves. This may promote people harming themselves.

But there is a huge dilemma. A huge dilemma not with just this movie, but all movies, games, and music. This affects the entire classification system. And as always, it’s due to the digital age we live in.

Parents can no longer rest assure that these classifications will keep there kids eyes from this worrying material. Because the entire classification system is being fundamentally undermined. Because increasingly kids, especially older teens, are illegally downloading music, games and movies for free – voiding any classification system in the world. No laws apply.

So no matter what this film is rated – it may not really matter. Because kids will simply download it. Too easy. In fact, thousands of people are sharing it on sites like this right now – link.

Where classifications, guidelines and ratings for the media used to have almost complete control over what kids could watch – a lot of that control has been lost. The control now lies with the kids. And the parents, too. But ultimately it’s too hard to regulate with this ramphant cyber-world.

The reccomendation that this movie should recieve an R ratings is a good one – because it can only be good. It will raise awareness as well. But unfortunely it’s not foolproof. And there is really nothing much that can be done about it. Just another detriment of Cyberia…

Quote from – link

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Cyber‑safety Plan

The Government will provide $125.8 million over four years to establish the Cyber‑safety Plan.

The Cyber‑safety Plan will provide a range of initiatives to combat online threats and protect children from inappropriate material on the internet, through activities such as an education program for teachers and the community, Internet Service Provider level filtering of an expanded Australian Communications and Media Authority blacklist, examination of options to allow families to exclude other unwanted content, a Youth Advisory Group to assist the Government to formulate age‑appropriate measures to protect children, an expanded Consultative Working Group focused on cyber‑safety issues, a dedicated website for children and research projects on cyber‑safety issues.

From 2009‑10, Internet Service Providers will receive a one‑off subsidy towards the costs of installing Internet Service Providers filters. This funding will largely occur in 2009‑10 with funding in following years only for new providers.

This measure will continue funding for the Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for the investigation and prosecution relating to incidents of child sexual exploitation.

See also the related savings measure titled Protecting Australian Families Online in the Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy portfolio.

This measure delivers on the Government’s election commitment.

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Interestingly the ‘related savings’ contention is a bit misleading. The area of spending was simply renamed from ‘Protecting Australian Families Online’ to ‘Cyber-safety plan’ as shown here – link

Also, I’m sure the ISP filtering subsidy will attract much media interest – perhaps a positive incentive for specialized filtering ISP’s to be established? A backup plan to provide some ISP-filtering in case the mandatory ISP-filtering doesn’t work out?

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Anyhow, in regards to Cyber-Safety, this budget will be judged on the response to promises made by the government, and its response to my recommendations.

They include – link

• Funding for research – Yes.
• Youth advisory group – Yes.
• Expanded consultative working group – Yes.
• An effective advice website setup – Yes.
• Cyber-Safety education – Yes.

So far pretty good – the fundamentals are covered. But there are a few questions:

• Online chatline – Not mentioned – Possibly a component of the website, however?
• Joint Parliamentary Committee – Not mentioned?

Update: The Wood Verdict was contacted by the Minister’s Office today and these questions have been confirmed to have been covered – very good:)

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The former government provided $189 Million in funding for cyber-safety – which is much more. But the over-arching component of that was the National Filter Scheme – which, in my view, was not merited, and that policy lacked the fundamentals of youth-involvement and a strong focus on education. So overall, although the money is not as much – it should be much more effective.

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The allocation for cyber-safety in this budget sets an adequate capital basis upon which, I think, an effective federal Cyber-Safety plan can be implemented, with of course, I hope, more refinement and possibly minor additions.

So all the focus should now be on one word – Delfin.
No, not that amusingly annoying ad.

Instead – Implementation.

“I sure wish I knew about all this when I was being bullied” – Alannah, 16

Cyber-Bullying affects at least 22% of Aussie kids*. It can be 24/7, relentless, compounded by an audience reading it over and over again. But cyber-bullying isn’t the problem. The lack of knowledge on how to prevent and resolve it is. I present that knowledge to you now…

For Kids: Keep in mind, it is never your fault, and sometimes people don’t really mean what they say. Don’t let the emotion of the moment guide your actions, step back, think for a while, work through the steps below to resolve the situation so you can use the computer happily again. Finally, if you see someone else being bullied online, don’t be a silent bystander, but report the abuse yourself (but don’t intervene in the argument!), and you may well save a life.

For Adults: Do not dare overreact or punish a child if they experience cyber-bullying. 78% of kids are worried if they tell an adult; they will be disconnected from the computer, thus prohibiting them from admitting it. Kids also worry that it’ll complicate the situation, by having worried adults adding to the trauma and kids often think adults mightn’t be able to help. So firstly, don’t appear to be bothered (even if you are), and don’t disconnect a child. Let them know this. Let them know they haven’t done anything wrong, and you’ll talk to them about it, and work through the steps below to peacefully resolve the issue so they can use the computer happily again.

For Schools: Make a cyber-safety policy, and endeavour to implement student involved education programs with a cyber-bullying component comprised of something like my guide below. If students are cyber-bullied, during school time or not, you have a duty to intervene, contact the authorities and do whatever necessary to punish the offender and resolve the situation. Also, the words ‘Cyber-Bullying’ have a humorous quality often exploited by teenagers, so use the words ‘Online Harassment’ instead.

To Prevent – Tips:
• Be extra sensitive about what you say online (what you project may be perceived differently)
• Don’t incite any bullying, by arguing, flaming or annoying someone
• Don’t Share Passwords with friends – they fight!
• Make hard-to-guess secret questions so people can’t get into your accounts
• Turn on comment moderation to stop offensive comments from ever being published
• Tell your friends if a joke goes too far
• Ask them to stop harassing you, and if they don’t, read on…

To Resolve – 5 Steps:
1. Don’t respond to the bully AT ALL (It will make it worse, trust me;)
2. Save the evidence, whether it is text, images or websites (Instructions Below)
3. Block and Delete the bully from the service (Instructions Below)
4. Report Abuse to the Admins of the service (Instructions Below)
5. Tell trusted people, which may be friends, adults, teachers, parents and police if necessary – as it is a criminal offence

Make a folder on your computer to save all the evidence in. To save text, highlight it (press Ctrl-A, or Apple-A on Macs to highlight it all), and copy it into a word document. To take a screenshot, (a picture of your computer screen) press the print screen button (above the arrow keys, top right of the keyboard), then go into the start menu, programs, accessories, paint, press Ctrl-V (copy), and click file and save. You can press apple-shift-3 to save a screenshot to the desktop on Macs. To save an image on a webpage right click on it (or control-click on Macs) and select ‘save image’. To save a YouTube video or other online video, visit this website – http://vixy.net/ post the ‘web address’ of the video into the ‘URL’ box, and then click start. It will convert the video into the .avi file type that can play on Windows & Macs, and then let you download the video onto your computer.


MSN – Log in, right click on contact in your contact list and select ‘delete’. When the dialogue box pops up, select ‘block’ as well and click ok. Click the ‘help’ menu, and click ‘report abuse’ – Type your name, email in – the bullies email – what type of abuse, and then paste the evidence in the box – they will take appropriate action, possibly delete the offenders account. You should also turn message history on to ensure the evidence is recorded. To do this, click ‘tools’, ‘options’, ‘messages’ and tick the box that says ‘automatically keep a history of my conversations’. If you want to, you can download messenger plus here – link – which has a function of recording your message history with password security.

MySpace – Log in, click ‘view friends’, click ‘edit friends’ – delete the bullies – then visit their profile – and click ‘block user’. Make your profile private by clicking ‘account settings’ and ‘privacy’, then select ‘my friends only’ and click save. Visit the bullies profile, scroll down to the bottom and click ‘report abuse’ and select the type of abuse. Put in your name, email, and list the offending evidence and provide links and click submit.

Facebook – Log in, click ‘friends’, and click on the friend, and the little cross at the top right to delete the bully. To report abuse, click on the ‘report’ link accompanying most content. If you can’t find that, click ‘help’ down the bottom, click ‘security’, and click ‘how do I report abuse’ then click to report it. Provide name and network of the offender, the evidence and provide links and send. For individual wall postings or message there will be a little ‘report abuse’ button on them for you to use.

Bebo – Login, click ‘home’, click ‘friends’, click the cross button on the offender to delete the bully. Now visit the offender’s profile, and click ‘block’ and click ‘report abuse’, then click ‘report abuse only’. Make your profile private by click on ‘profile’, ‘edit profile’ and then untick the box that says ‘make my profile public’.

YouTube – you need an account, to get one visit http://youtube.com/ – and click ‘sign up’ up the top right, and register. Login to your account, when watching any video click the ‘flag’ button, which will give you an option of selecting why you want to report it, and for cases of cyber-bullying, hover over ‘hateful or abusive content’ and click on it, and then click flag. An alert will be sent to the YouTube admins and they will look into it.

Email – Right click on message, click ‘view source’ or ‘view headers’, and copy it into word document. Block the offender address. Notify your ISP, Notify the offenders ISP. For Hotmail, send this information to abuse@hotmail.com

Games – Runescape, click the report abuse button down the bottom right. For others, Google search the games name and report abuse. Eg. Runescape report abuse.

Mobiles – Go into the settings and select block caller – put the bully’s number in. Contact your service provider, report it to them. Contact the offender’s service provider (if known) and report it.

Random websites/forums - Click contact admin button, send them an email or message and most likely they will take action against the bully user. For services/website’s you’re not sure about, try emailing it to abuse@thewebsite.com or admin@thewebsite.com. Eg. For Facebook – abuse@facebook.com

Finally, call your local police if you need more help.

You can find your local police here:
New South Wales – link
Victoria – link
Queensland – link
South Australia – link
Western Australia – link
Tasmania – call 131 444
Northern Territory – link
Australian Capital Territory – link

* http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/05/09/1210131251440.html

Anyone may reproduce this guide as long as I am alerted and my name accompanies it:)

Christine Nixon – link. Glowing in the generous media attention to her inspirational role of a woman in power one day, dead beat the next. In the aftermath of a week of allegations about the diabolical state of the Victorian Police Force, it’s revealed she’s a cyber-delinquent as well.

As Stephen Drill reports in today’s Sunday Herald Sun – link

“A POLICE plan to combat cyber abuse is being ignored despite police receiving more than 20 complaints a week.

Police sources said there had been a significant increase in reports from parents and teens involving internet and mobile phone misuse, but results of a year-long probe into cyber safety was gathering dust.

The Cyber Safety Project’s report was delivered to the Violence Against Women steering committee in November. Police are yet to reveal the findings.

The Sunday Herald Sun understands the report recommends police at every Victorian station be trained to deal with complaints.

It also recommends more education for schoolchildren about internet traps.

..

Victoria police media spokeswoman Chloe Jones confirmed the Cyber Safety Project had been disbanded.

Ms Jones said the police force would release its policy later this year.”

And the report, in the possession of the Victorian Police for almost half a year now, cannot be released for reasons of … could it be national security ???

Nixon : Release it now.

Unless, Media : FOI.

The amount of time, resources and effort put into this report would surely deem it to be of very high quality. A level of quality that if unveiled, could help not just the Victorian Police, but many other police forces, schools, governments and organizations around the world in improving their Cyber-Safety systems.

Police involvement is essential for any society that wants to tackle cyber-bullying effectively.

Nixon : Release it now, and ACT.

link – “THE West Australian Government will spend $400,000 on a world-first five-year study into cyber-bullying, amid growing concern about the damaging effect on children being targeted by abusive text messages, emails and degrading digital photos.”

“The study, to be headed by child behavior expert Donna Cross from Edith Cowan University, will examine the extent of the problem and ways in which children, parents and teachers can deal with it and even prevent it.

About 4000 children from 40 schools will be involved in the study, and while WA will be the main focus, children from Queensland and South Australia will also be contacted to ensure the results were consistent with other states.”

Collaborative Cyber-Safety research involving kids. Exactly what we need.

Well done, WA Ed. Minister, Mark McGowan.

Lets see other states take up the challenge of funding some Cyber-Safety research projects, and not just on Cyber-Bullying, but on the other issues as well; Addiction, Privacy, Security, and a dynamic one that involves just listening to kids about whatever problems they are having with technology.

And the Federal Government? Well its Cyber-Safety policy states, “a Rudd Labor Government will support Australian research into the changing digital landscape, its effect on Australian children and the means to combat cyber-safety issues. Such research will help identify the scale of these issues in Australia and determine where to target future policy and funding in this area.”

With the budget soon to be announced, I hope to soon see these research promises acted upon.

We have a plentiful supply of universities, researchers, schools and kids out there ready to be test mice.

These things the corporate world and governments are doing will get us to big places. Keep it up.

Wow.

In less than a day since my last post below (appealing to the media to run stories on how education is much more important than filtering in the realm of Cyber-Safety), the headline ‘Education ‘as effective as internet filtering’ popped up on the front page of news.com.au

Cheers to the reporter, Andrew Ramadge. Read the report here – link

Now, would it be too much for me to ask for the News Limited network to get this in all there print papers in the next few days, and for Fairfax to do something similar? I think not. Lets build on the momentum.