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Target of Imposter Profile Sues For Defamation

9/27/2012

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The Supreme Court is about to rule on a Facebook Imposter Profile case of a Canadian teen.  "The case pits the media's right to report on court proceedings against the inherent vulnerability of young girls subject to online sexualized bullying and the risk of harm if they're required to reveal their identity and republish comments, according to court documents."
Full story below:

story originally from: The Montreal Gazette

Supreme Court to rule on Facebook cyberbullying case  
By Natalie Stechyson September 26, 2012


OTTAWA - A teenage girl who says she was a victim of cyberbullying will find out Thursday whether she'll be able to keep her name and what was written about her on a fake Facebook profile out of the public eye.

The Supreme Court of Canada will announce in a judgment Thursday whether the Nova Scotia girl known only as A.B. can keep her name and the alleged defamatory statements said about her online under a publication ban, while she tries to sue the person or persons responsible for defamation.

It's the first time the Supreme Court has taken on the topic of cyberbullying, and a number of interveners - including a national media coalition, the privacy commissioner of Canada and Kids Help Phone - have chimed in on both sides of the case, which was heard in May.

The case pits the media's right to report on court proceedings against the inherent vulnerability of young girls subject to online sexualized bullying and the risk of harm if they're required to reveal their identity and republish comments, according to court documents.

What's at stake is the open court principle, which is what lets the public understand and scrutinize what's happening in the courts, said Marko Vesely, a Vancouver lawyer who represented the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, who also acted as interveners in the case.

"Like the old saying goes, 'sunlight is the best disinfectant'. Having the courts open to scrutiny is what gives us all confidence in the court system," Vesely said.

Anytime a court declares something defamatory, it's a restriction on freedom of speech, Vesely said. And it's concerning if that's being done without being open to the public, he added.

But a child's safety should come before any discussion of openness, said Rob Frenette, the co-executive director of BullyingCanada.

Putting A.B.'s name and the details of what was written about her out into the public will likely just further victimize her, he said. And, if she does have to reveal these things, it could scare other cyberbullying victims from getting help, Frenette said.

"As students come forward to us about being bullied we need to ensure their identity is protected, simply because they feel that if they come forward...they could become more susceptible to bullying," Frenette said.

In 2010 A.B. found that someone had made a fake Facebook profile using her image and a slightly modified version of her name, according to court documents filed last year. The profile allegedly included "scandalous sexual commentary of a private and intimate nature," the documents say.

In pursuing a defamation case, A.B. has requested that the identity of the person behind the IP address linked to the profile be released by telecommunications company Bragg Communications - a request that has not been opposed.

But she also sought an order to allow her to proceed with a pseudonym and a partial publication ban. This order has been denied by the lower courts.

A.B.'s counsel has argued that the previous courts failed to take into account the special vulnerability of children, according to court documents.

According to UNICEF Canada, who also acted as interveners, some of the risks to victims of cyberbullying can include physical and emotional health problems, depression, eating disorders, nightmares, and acts of self-harm, including suicide.

Get all of the tactics in one book and prepare your child to recognize and defuse certain types of cyberbullying.  Sale: $12.50 Buy The Book


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Target of Two Tactics Fights Back And Inspires Others

9/21/2012

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A really interesting podcast from Flipswitch lets Kira, an Australian high schooler  with bipolar condition talk about what she suffered at the hands of cyberbullies and how she actually fought back.
At the 5:20 mark she recounts a situation where she was attacked on a Haters' Club made on a Facebook group, (which she was able to get taken down) and a Rating Site on Formspring, a social media site that allows anonymous opinions to be posted. She left Formspring's community at that point. At the 6:25 mark Kira tells teens these are several ways to fight back against cyberbullies. Her advice:

1. Print out copies of every cyberbullying comment or incident before it gets deleted. This is saved evidence for the police if need be.

2. Make your Facebook privacy settings only viewable to see your name, your country and your profile picture. Don't give cyberbullies access to information that can use against you.

3. Avoid social networking sites that don't protect your privacy --or--to echo another comment she made, avoid sites that only allow anonymous posters (like Formspring).

4. Be friends with your delete button. In other words, she says, delete any person from your social networking site who ever belittles you, insults you or is mean in any way, even if you consider them friends. Real friends don't behave this way online.

Interestingly, her comment on what schools are doing about bullying/cyberbullying echos a lot of what I've heard from American kids. That schools don't take it seriously; that consequences are rarely strong enough to deter a bully and that this does nothing to encourage bystanders to stand up for a target or report it.

Finally, her last comment about teaching kids resilience is more important than teaching prevention has a bit of a sad ring to it. In the real world, prevention won't stop them all. In the end, you have to be your own best friend and stick up for yourself. Never believe what they say about you is true.


Get all of the tactics in one book and prepare your child to recognize and defuse certain types of cyberbullying. Sale: $12.50 Buy The Book

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Man Videojacks His Own Mother In Sleepwalking Video

9/9/2012

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Here's kind of a light-hearted example of a Videojacking and you can see why it's funny. A woman does a sleep walk dance; her son records it, puts it up on YouTube without her knowledge and then shows it to her.

The question is: if it were you, would you want the entire world to be watching this? It's gone viral on CNN. The mother looks amused about it and the son doesn't look as though he's doing this out of any malice--it's just funny to him. If she didn't want it up there, she could ask him to take it down. But once it goes viral, there is no "taking it down." It's endlessly shared online.

This is the problem with our technology trigger-finger culture. Putting up video without someone's knowledge or approval has become the common course of action, rather than the considerate choice, which would be to think first about how exposing someone so publicly might hurt his/her reputation - or provide fodder for more online ridicule. 

Ask your kids/students how they would feel if someone did this to them. Ask them if video like this could be used against them in any way? By their enemies? Ex-friends? Ex-relationships?

Any time you contribute anything to the Internet about someone else, it adds to their digital footprint. And some people do not wish to be so exposed at the expense of a joke.

Get all of the tactics in one book and prepare your child to recognize and defuse certain types of cyberbullying. Sale: $12.50 Buy The Book

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Disparaging Rating Website: '509 Hoes' Targets Teen Girls

9/7/2012

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Of course the perpetrator is anonymous. Why would anyone have the guts to put their name on this?

A cyberbully in Washington created a Rating Website called '509 Hoes Exposed' through a Facebook page posting pictures of girls without their permission. The purpose of a Rating Website is to denigrate someone's image online or unfavorably compare to another person's image. This perpetrator did just that, setting them up for critiques and suggesting they were promiscuous.

Though police got the first Rating Site taken down, the culprit set another one up just as fast--something police are now trying to get to the bottom of by getting a subpeona to find out the culprit's IP address.

Talk to your daughters about NOT posting any suggestive or sexy photos anywhere online--even privately to friends.  In this Internet age-everything can be used against them.

Get all of the tactics in one book and prepare your child to recognize and defuse certain types of cyberbullying. Sale: $12.50 Buy The Book

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Imposter Profiles on Facebook Target 8th Grader

9/6/2012

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Texas 8th grader Brianna Sosa, 13 decided to go to her local news channel and tell her story after a summer of vicious cyberbullying.
According to Valleycentral.com, "The teen said it’s been going on the entire summer and it all started over a boy.

Sosa claims several girls have been attacking her and even creating fake accounts on Facebook under her name.

'They are just saying a whole bunch of stuff about me, mean ugly mean stuff,” Sosa said. “And that same girl made a fake profile of herself telling everyone it's me.'"

The term is: Imposter Profile. It's one of several tactics that her cyberbullies used to denigrate her and break her down. They also participated in a Digital Pile On when they began bombing her Facebook page with mean and nasty comments.
"Brianna's mother tells Action 4 News she forced her daughter to delete her Facebook account when she found out about the alleged cyber bullying, and began documenting all the postings and alleged fake profiles."

The mother did the right thing, first by shutting down anything on Brianna that could be used against her and by starting a paper trail of evidence to show police or even attorneys, if necessary.

There is so much more one can do to prevent and combat these tactics before they happen to YOUR kid. Cyberslammed will show in depth how to do this, in a logical step-by-step fashion.

Get all of the tactics in one book and prepare your child to recognize and defuse certain types of cyberbullying.  Sale: $12.50 Buy The Book


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Sexting: "I thought it was going to make him love me." 

9/4/2012

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Picturephoto: 9news.com
A young woman in Denver learned what so many girls are learning the hard way. In her case, it's the classic scenario of what cyberbullying expert Nancy Willard calls "Experimental Sexting," which is completely different from "Cyberbullying Sexting." This is when teenagers are negotiating the terms of their relationship and both parties are willing to share Sexting photos.

This young woman, who was a teenager at the time, took nude photos of herself to cement the relationship with her then-boyfriend. As she said, "I thought it was going to make him love me." Then, when inevitably, the relationship ended and turned bitter, the ex-boyfriend showed the pics to everyone.

"I never thought they would get out," the unidentified woman said of the Sexting photos she sent to her boyfriend at the time. "I never thought anyone would see them."

The fall out was deeply painful. "I tried cutting myself. I tried [strangling] myself," she said. "I thought that was the easiest and best way for me to get away from everything. I never went to sporting events. I missed my junior and senior prom because I didn't want to be around everybody."


See more of the story here.

Get all of the tactics in one book and prepare your child to recognize and defuse certain types of cyberbullying. Sale: $12.50 Buy The Book

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