• Home
  • Buy the Book
  • More ebooks
  • Reviews
  • Ethel Is Hot LOL
  • Free resources
    • For Educators
  • Hot Topics blog
  • News & Press
  • About Us
  • Contact

New cyberbullying app 'After School' rates teens' sexuality, posts nudes

2/16/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Photo courtesy Post Register.com
Fitting that on Valentine's Day, an Idaho newspaper Post Register reporting on a Times-News story revealed a new app teens are downloading to their phones called 'After School.'

As we always say: same tactics: different technology. After School is an anonymous Rating Site, which allows users to make lewd sexual comparisons about their classmates with zero consequences. According to the story, the "...widespread use of the After School app has left a vicious mark of bullying in its wake — along with a lot of sex talk that includes the names of students and educators."

Posts on After School message boards tied to other south-central Idaho schools have included nude photos of students, derogatory comments about appearance, name calling and comments about students’ body parts."

If you are a parent, you should already be having a conversation about what apps are unacceptable to download with your teen, especially if you own their phone. Click here on expert advice on how to have The Conversation as well as smart tools to prevent cyberbullying on your teen's phone.

Schools and parents need to know if they try to download the app, they will find it requires student verification in the form of a student identification card or driver’s license. The app logs in the student through his or her Facebook account, which makes deleting it more difficult.

If you need to know how a Rating Site occurs (one of our six most common cyberbullying tactics, buy our Parent's Guide To A Rating Site on Kindle or purchase a softcover copy of Cyberslammed, our award-winning cyberbullying book.


0 Comments

High school revenge sexting rings: why girls need to STOP taking nude selfies

11/12/2014

0 Comments

 
Yet, it is astounding how many people argue that there is nothing wrong with sexting, that it is a natural way to express oneself in a relationship.

Sure. Until it ends up in the wrong hands.

Two cases this month show how much revenge sexting is being used as a blackmailing tool, and in another case, as literal currency to be bought and sold.

This month a group of Chicago boys from a Catholic high school are all under investigation for cyberbullying a female student through the tactic of revenge sexting. Because they are all underaged, the boys are referred for one count each of distribution of child pornography.

And in New Hampshire, another pack of football buddies are under investigation for reportedly selling naked pictures of female students at school. While the school is trying to downplay this as some sort of "social media incident" (as if it was technology gone haywire) it's pretty clear from the article that 13 members of the freshman and sophomore football teams had gotten ahold of sexting photos from girls in their school and were making a profit off of someone else's humiliation.

This isn't just "boys will be boys." Can't say this enough. Do your sons know that saving, sending and selling under-aged sexting photos can land them in court, in jail and even on sex offender registry lists?
Do they understand the ethical ramifications of completely ruining someone's online reputation? Jennifer Lawrence's sexting photos will eternally be available on the Internet. She knows this will be part of her legacy forever.

Do your daughters understand that they are also putting themselves in legal danger by sending  sexualized "selfies" to a significant other? And that in this digital age of use and misuse, they inevitably will be shared to others, or posted online?

"No, he would never do that to me."

Well guess what? His football buddy, who  stole his phone while he was in the bathroom, and forwarded it to himself-- just did.

Find out what to do step by step in a sexting or revenge sexting situation (when to alert the police-or not!) in our comprehensive
book Cyberslammed.
$12.50 Summer Sale. Buy The Book.



Jennifer Lawrence recently "quit the Internet" largely over the nude sexting photos she sent her boyfriend in private, which ended up hacked and stolen from the Cloud.

Girls under 18 do this every day, despite a decade of evidence to show them there is NO safeguard and NO guarantee that a nude sexting photo will ever stay private.
0 Comments

Stay away from The Snappening: Child porn in Snapchat leaks

10/14/2014

0 Comments

 

In this Digital Age, you're naive if you never thought this could happen.

There is no privacy on the Internet, despite what teens may think. Last month, a trend started with iCloud leaked nude photos of celebrities called "The Fappening" (a combination of the M. Night Shyamalan film titled ‘The Happening’ with the word fapping – Internet slang for masturbation.)  And just this week, the same 4Chan hackers are thought to be behind the release of nearly 200,000 images and videos from the photo messaging app Snapchat, a messaging service that claims that the photos sent on it “disappear” 10 seconds after the person receiving the picture opens it.

We have warned parents and educators about Snapchat for several years now. Snapchat provides a false sense of protection for teens that their photos will disappear, but almost immediately after the app's release, teens found a workaround to save the disappearing photos through several hacks, including another app, called SnapSave, which can save all the pictures and videos sent from Snapchat to the phone’s camera roll.

Last Friday, according to the news source RT.com, it was this third-party app, SnapSave and its servers that were hacked and pornographic content was definitely among the leaked material, some of it underaged.

Not great news for teens who thought they had a foolproof workaround to engage in Sexting.

The hackers also claimed that the images had been indexed  by username, which you can see in the photo above.

Already, in Internet forums, many people are scrambling to try and find out who these usernames belong to and to view the nude photos.

HOWEVER, depending on national law and age of consent, anyone who  downloads underage nude content in The Snappening could be charged for violating child pornography laws.

So here are the essential talking points for your kids over this issue:

1. Do NOT Sext. Ever. Ever. Ever. It will come back to haunt you. Tell them to read Jennifer Lawrence's thoughts on this violation, after having her Sexting photos hacked. Sexting photos will always be currency to the public. And this hacked and leaked photo trend is not going away.

2. If your teen suspects he or she might have Sexting photos hacked from the The Snappening, do not try to access any photos and download them. As crazy as it sounds, the laws prohibit downloading underaged nude photos...even if your teen was the one who took the photo!

3. On that common sense note, if you have a discussion with your teen over this issue, be upfront and hard line about it. Tell him or her not to even go looking for underage nude photos out of curiosity. EVER. The FBI is currently investigating the fall out from The Snappening and can even detect  computers that are accessing child porn in real time.

Even looking at or possessing these photos or videos on your computer or cell phone is a very serious crime that can carry a minimum of five years in prison in the case of a Federal Child Pornography case.


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



0 Comments

Imposter Website victim puts the past behind her

3/26/2014

0 Comments

 
It's always a relief to hear a cyberbullying story with a positive outcome. In this Washington teen's case, she found the resilience to move on...something that doesn't always happen for teens.

According to the Issaquah Press, in 2011, "then 12-year-old Leslie Cote was the victim of cyberbullying, as two classmates hacked into her social media page and posted altered photos, including one with 'I’m a slut' superimposed on it."

For parents and educators wondering what this tactic is: it's called an Imposter Profile, when the cyberbully sets up a fake website or profile (or hacks into a real one as in this case) and gets the profile's followers to believe it is genuinely owned by the target. This kind of tactic has a lot of power and the cyberbully can do immense reputation damage in a very short time. Another subtactic the cyberbullies used was "slut-shaming"--to try and publicly make Leslie feel guilty or inferior for certain sexual behaviors (even when she didn't engage in them!)

The article further states the cyberbullies altered their attacks by using "the site’s instant messaging service to act as Leslie to proposition boys for sexual acts." Again, this is still using the Imposter Profile tactic, only now the cyberbullies were actively communicating through IM as though they were Leslie with the sole purpose to embarrass and defame her reputation. Subsequently, the girls were charged with cyberstalking and first-degree computer trespassing.

The summer after this incident, Leslie wouldn't even go outside all summer as one of her cyberbullies lived in the same building as her.

Now Leslie is in high school with some of the girls who cyberbullied her and even has to sit next to one of them in one class. But, luckily, the support of her family and her own strength and resilience has helped her gain perspective.

As the article quotes her mother Tara:  "Leslie said she’s not angry with the girls anymore, but it has taken her some time to get to that point. At first, you have anger, you’re upset and you have rage, but now I think she feels more sorry for them."

For anyone who has ever been cyberbullied, it's gratifying to know there are kids like Leslie out there who refuse to let the traumatic incident forever define them. Good for you, Leslie. Stay strong and thank you for helping other kids after what you've been through.

To read the full article: http://www.issaquahpress.com/2014/03/25/cyberbullying-victim-puts-past-behind-her/



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
0 Comments

Exposing 'Hos' on Instagram, the latest Rating Site trend

1/23/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
Over the last six months, experts have noticed a shift in the way teens are communicating. Tired of of the transparency and parental monitoring of Facebook, many are searching for more anonymous alternatives and are gravitating toward social networking sites like Whisper and Instagram.  New month, different app, that's the way it goes. Parents and teachers can't keep up. (Not surprisingly, by the time they do, that's the cue for the teens to move on.)  Instagram, a photo sharing app that can be registered under an anonymous screenname, is like an underground speakeasy. Adults aren't hip to all the hidden back rooms yet, making it a perfect app to be used as a cyberbullying tool.

Even though Instagram's Community Guidelines prohibit nudity and graphic sexual poses, within two minutes, I was able to find dozens and dozens of pages depicting drug use, slut-shaming women, and graphic, explicit nudity. (Some of these photos I don't doubt are underage, which would categorize it as child pornography).

Yes, this is where a lot of teens have found their new outlet. And to be fair, many teens simply use Instagram the way it was intended, to share photos with friends and be social. I'm not sure why Instagram allows the other photos to stay online given their Guidelines, but just earlier this month, a Napa California police department investigated an Instagram page after receiving multiple reports  that it contained “inappropriate” images of females.

The  images were posted on a page called “napahoezexxposed." Translation: Napa Hoez Exxposed-- an Instagram page dedicated to labeling certain girls and women as whores. This is a combined Sexting and Rating Site tactic where someone uploaded photos of females (allegedly without their consent) in various stages of undress (thus Sexting) with the motive to slut-shame these girls by allowing commenters to rate them (thus a Rating Site). I've seen multiple versions of the so-called "Exposing Hos" tactic on Facebook and Twitter, but, apparently Instagram is the new technological vehicle for the same type of behavior. 

Time Magazine's recent article "What Boys Want" by Rosalind  Wiseman recently featured a fascinating article on why today's teens engage in Sexting, even when they know of the steep risks. The takeway I got from this article is that with this digital generation so used to the casual release of Kim Kardashian-type of sex tapes, snapping a nude pic or photographing a sexually explicit pose isn't as a big deal to this generation as it should be.  Certain teens
(particularly those with low-self esteem) tend to have a careless regard for their own image and reputation and just don't think about the consequences to such actions.  When sending a nude photo to a someone is the only way you'll get his/her attention or keep his/her attraction, there are bigger issues here than the actual photo. The same goes for teens who request the photos as status symbols and insurance (in case of being rejected.)

Regardless, you can now see how the
stage has been set for using these photos as cyberbullying currency. With teenage girls, we must keep the conversation going about alternatives to Sexting, not from a prudish standpoint, but from a reputation-destroying-forever-online standpoint. No girl wants a private "for your eyes only" photo to go virally, embarrassingly public. But, as statistics show,  it inevitably will.  And today, when a lapse in judgment results in being branded a whore on the Internet for all to comment on and judge, this is the time to talk to that teen in your life about that secret photo on his/her phone they hope you'll never find out about.


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


1 Comment

This Valentine's Day, 36% of Americans will send Sexts-bad idea?

2/6/2013

1 Comment

 
If you're under 18, then yeah, it's a very bad idea. Worse, if you're over 18 and dating someone younger than 18.

Parents of teenagers who are in relationships with cellphones are you listening?

Any nude or semi-nude photos that are transmitted electronically (even just sent via cell phone) are considered in many states to be child pornography trafficking, even if the juvenile is sending a photo of himself or herself. The laws vary from state to state, but here in our home state of Maine, for example, the law is extremely harsh.

According to Mobile Media Guard "Under Maine law anyone - regardless of age - who creates, distributes or possesses an image of a minor engaged in a sexually explicit act may be prosecuted under the State’s child pornography laws and if convicted, may serve up to 10 years in jail and be required to register as a sex offender."

Most kids and adults I've spoken to at statewide presentations over the last few months know the term "sexting," but had no idea the stiff penalties associated with it. Furthermore, most adults and kids didn't realize that if they encountered a sext on a cell phone or via the Internet, they, themselves could possibly be arrested for forwarding that photo electronically in any way--even to the authorities!

The fact that 36% of Americans (I'm assuming they polled adults) are admitting to engaging in what is called "consensual sexting" is frankly not a surprise. Teens engage in this form of relationship currency all the time. They're calling them "Selfies" self-shot provocative photos, an absolutely beautifully narcissistic way to capture one's youth. Thanks Rihanna!

When it stops being "consensual" and begins being cyberbullying is the moment the relationship turns sour or ends. This is the kind of "what would you do" talk you should be having with your teenagers who own cell phones. For example:

Parent: "What happens when Joe or Mary decides to spread your image around to all 500 of his/her Facebook friends?"

Teen: "He/she would never do that!" i

When 1 in 5 sext recipients report they have passed the images along to someone else and more than half (55%) of those who have reported sending them to someone else say they shared them with more than one person--try saying that again with a straight face.

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

Disparaging Rating Website: '509 Hoes' Targets Teen Girls

9/7/2012

0 Comments

 
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
0 Comments
    Picture

    Cyberslammed
    Hot Topics

    Cyberbullying tactics in the news, expert advice from contributors and prevention tips for parents, educators and kids.

    RSS Feed


    Blog Comment Rules

    All comments are pre-screened before posting. Anonymous comments will not be allowed. Keep it civil and on topic. No harassing or personal attacks; even if you disagree with something, please do it respectfully.

    Categories

    All
    After School App
    Anonymous Apps
    Anxiety
    Ask.fm
    Bulletins
    Burn Book
    Cell Phones/smart Phones
    Cyberbullying Policies
    Deepfake
    Digital Pile On
    Ethel Is Hot (LOL)
    Expert Contributors
    Facebook
    Formspring
    Funstagram
    "Go Kill Yourself"
    Google+
    Hater's Club
    Homophobic Cyberbullying
    Identifying Cyberbullies
    Imposter Profile
    Instagram
    Kik Messenger
    Myspace
    Parent Contracts
    Rating Website
    Sexting
    Slut Shaming
    Slut-shaming
    Snapchat
    Streetchat
    Text Bombing
    Tween Novels
    Twitter
    Videojacking
    Whisper
    Yelp
    Youtube
    Zoom

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    February 2022
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    July 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012