A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
It started in July 2009. I'd been on Twitter for over 2 years at that point having joined in May 2007, and I'd never had a problem. My account was followed by a fairly innocuous looking one which I followed back and within 10 minutes I had received a Direct Message (DM) calling me a [...]
A perfect storm of factors come together to engender the rudeness and aggression seen in the comments' sections of Web pages. First, commenters are often virtually anonymous, and thus, unaccountable for their rudeness. Second, they are at a distance from the target of their anger — be it the article they're commenting on or another [...]
The arrest and charging of a NSW teacher for engaging in sexually explicit conversations with a 14 year old girl in the USA has again brought to light the dangers of children ‘chatting’ to strangers online. Online predators are experts at internet grooming and luring young people into compromising situations that they are not able [...]
65% of year 4 students experienced covert bullying It seems ironic that a young student in the USA, Jessica Barba, was recently suspended for highlighting the dangers and traumas that many students struggle with when they become the targets of cyber bullying. What started out as a school assignment ended up as an online anti-bullying [...]
27% of 18 to 24 year olds suffer mental health issues* The transition of young people into adults is no doubt an awkward phase for most teenagers. It is a time when they are most vulnerable to mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and addictions. Their understanding of these states of being [...]
Here is a great Canadian website that features age specific tips and advice that parents or professionals can use to guide their supervision of young people online..... Cybertip.ca - Age Specific Tips. Seats are going fast at our inaugural "Kids in Cyberspace" seminar, Friday, March 16, 2012. We have all the leading experts in one [...]
In Australia one in six children are bullied at school each week. 90% of school children report witnessing others being bullied at school. Teachers rarely see bullying, and are often not told of what has happened. Produced by Wired Safety. Ken Rigby, author, research professor and a leading educational expert based at the University of [...]
Safer Internet Day: Tuesday 7 February 2012. The theme for the day is ‘Connecting generations and educating each other.’ Check out the Cybersmart / ACMA (Australian Communications & Media Authority) website for informative and fun resources that will get everyone from grandparents to teachers talking about the online world. There is a special section on [...]
Over the past few weeks many of us have watched with concern a snowballing campaign of vilification against Melinda Tankard Reist, her public work as an advocate for women and girls and for society as a whole. Much of this has occurred online using all manner of cyber harrassment perpetrated by trolls and pseudo-experts. Their gutless cyber threats [...]
The Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety tabled its report on the Inquiry into Cyber-Safety entitled High-Wire Act: Cyber-Safety and the Young via Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety - Report.
