DontCyberbully.com

Walk away from Net nasties (Sunday Times 15 Aug)

Gilbert Goh — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 00:51:17 +0000

Aug 15, 2010

Walk away from Net nasties

By Sandra Leong - The Sunday Times

Life is good as a journalist - I get paid to surf the Web for hours on end.

There are the reputable news websites - The Straits Times, New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, Perez Hilton - that I visit in the morning over a cup of tea. Over lunch, I’m on YouTube, because nasi padang is paired best with re-runs of The Noose.

For the rest of the day, you’ll find me lurking on HardwareZone, SGForums, Just Talk Lah on Stomp to catch up on modernday coffee-shop chatter. Keeping my finger on the pulse, you know?

I love the Internet so much that if it suddenly keeled over and died, I’d be as upset as I was when Andy gave Woody, Buzz and company away in Toy Story 3. Sniff.

Through my extensive travels across the World Wide Web, I have navigated many minefields, such as malicious viruses disguised as freeware, pop-up ads that tell me I need breast enlargement/ab rollers/one hot night with Julio and Xiaxue’s blog.

But despite my self-proclaimed Internet savvy, there is one phenomenon I haven’t quite come to terms with - how to deal with trolls.

Not those mythical Norse creatures who, much like our Government, want you to pay a toll if you cross their bridge. No siree, those horned giants are Care Bears compared to Internet trolls, sociopathic netizens who get their kicks by posting bigoted and intentionally incendiary comments in online communities such as forums, chatrooms and social-networking sites.

A troll’s modus operandi is simple: Say something so ludicrously offensive or out of point that it ticks people off, then sit back and revel in the flood of anger that comes your way. The more irate the response, the better the troll.

In web-speak, these tiresome rabblerousers do it for the ‘lulz’, the schadenfreude-esque joy of disrupting and ruining another’s day, life or existence in general.

They’re not very imaginative, either. How to hurl a spanner into an otherwise measured discussion on world politics? Say something thoughtless about race and religion. If that fails to provoke, don’t forget 9/11, the go-to disaster to dredge up painful memories.

Sometimes the topic at hand is too complex for their brains to process, so they go into the vague ‘attack the system’ mode. The ’system’ is to blame for the world’s ills and we are all guilty of succumbing to it, they cry while sitting in their underpants in their bedrooms adorned with posters of Japanese AV girls.

Ah, the system. My question is, if you live in the system and are a product of it, how would you know there is a system? I watched the Matrix too. Did you take the blue pill or the red pill?

What a complete and utter waste of bandwidth.

I can bear real-life trolls, like that one person in a group who is always polemical but seldom rational. He or she can usually be silenced with a withering stare, a superior put-down or a smack over the head. Physical violence works the best.

But when it comes to these virtual incarnations who hide behind cloaks of anonymity or upper-lower cased NiCkNaMeS, it kills me that all I can do is to well, ignore them.

The accepted response to trolling these days is to leave them be. ‘PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS’ is a phrase commonly seen on Internet discussion boards. The idea is that if no one responds, the trolls disappear.

It is hard to take the high road, though. The temptation to craft a stinging response to make an offending troll see the light is always hard to fight off.

And because of where I work, I’ve come across examples of trolling targeting people I know, such as my colleagues and bosses. Criticism is fair play for journalists but surely a line has to be drawn when comments become overly personal and defamatory.

On some occasions, incensed by the things being said about people I care about, I have been a breath away from hitting ‘reply’. Do not engage, says the head. Rip them to bits, says the heart.

As a warning, Facebook announced this week that it is stepping up measures to curb abusive messages after a growing number of tribute pages on its site - some dedicated to soldiers who had died in Afghanistan - were attacked by trolls.

I suppose something to be thankful for is that trolling doesn’t always cross over into the realm of cyberbullying, which has far worse repercussions. Most of the time you get a few messages here and there on a public platform, rather than a concerted tirade against an individual that in some cases, has driven victims to suicide.

But you know what? On bad days when I’m not feeling so magnanimous, feeding the troll sounds like a bloody good idea. Now where’s my rat poison?

sandral@sph.com.sg

What is the best way to deal with trolls? Write to suntimes@sph.com.sg

Singapore pushes responsible Internet use among youth

Gilbert Goh — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:54:22 +0000

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 8/5/2010

Singapore pushes responsible Internet use among youth

Singapore has earmarked 10 million Singapore dollars (7.4 million US) for projects aimed at preventing “cyber-bullying” and promoting responsible Internet use among its technologically savvy youth.

The conservative city-state has recently been scandalised by Internet postings of videos of young couples engaging in sexual acts and “cyber-bullying” has been identified as a particular concern.

The fund will be disbursed over five years as part of government efforts to “encourage and support cyber wellness programmes for our youths”, a spokeswoman for the committee responsible for the scheme told AFP Thursday.

The initiative was launched in light of growing mobile connectivity among Singaporean youths.

In a recent survey by research firm Synovate, youngsters in Singapore ranked top in Asia in not being able to live without their mobile phone. They also had the highest ownership of smartphones in the region.

Man says online harassment triggered Tokyo knifing spree

Gilbert Goh — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:53:13 +0000

Tue, Jul 27, 2010
AFP

TOKYO - A man on trial for killing seven people in a 2008 stabbing frenzy in Tokyo’s

neon-lit electronics district said Tuesday he went on the rampage because he was

harassed on an Internet bulletin board.

Auto plant worker Tomohiro Kato told the Tokyo District Court he was “fully responsible”

for the attacks in which 10 others were wounded in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, the hub

of Japan’s comic-book and video-game subculture.

“By causing the incident, I wanted people to know that I seriously wanted to stop the

harassment on the Internet bulletin board that I used,” the 27-year-old Kato told the

court, according to Jiji Press.

“It was an environment where I was able to talk honestly and I could be who I was

supposed to be,” said Kato, who pleaded guilty to the killings on the first day of his trial in January.

Kato is charged with multiple cases of murder and attempted murder and, if convicted, could

face the death penalty for the attacks on June 8, 2008, which were Japan’s worst mass-

killing in seven years.

Kato was arrested on the spot shortly after the attacks, in which he rammed a rented

two-tonne truck into a crowd of pedestrians before getting out and randomly stabbing

people with a double-edged knife.

Japan has a low violent crime rate and had not seen such a deadly attack since a

former mental patient stabbed to death eight children at an elementary school almost

seven years to the day before the Akihabara attacks.

After the 2008 rampage, Japan banned possession of double-edged knives with blades

longer than 5.5 centimetres (about two inches), punishable by up to three years in prison

or a 500,000 yen (S$7,800) fine.

Dealing with cyber bullying (mediaexchange)

Gilbert Goh — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:03:09 +0000

Dealing with Cyber-bullying

Read about the trauma of one victim’s experience and the help she received

Protect your children from cyber-bullying:

Communicate regularly with your children so they are comfortable to come to you for help
Place the computer in an open area of your home, within view
Set rules and guidelines on who they “talk to”
Get to know their Internet friends

BEING a victim of cyber-bullying can make life incredibly difficult, as one girl recently found out when she was targeted by a cyber-bully.

One day, Lisa (not her real name) was alerted by a close friend that there were profiles of her on various social networking sites. These included unflattering pictures, disturbing and provocative comments, and her direct contact details, as well as those of her family and friends.

Despite having the site administrators remove the profiles, they continued to pop up. Soon after, Lisa began receiving online and phone invitations from strangers who viewed the profiles. Such harassment disrupted not just her personal life, but also that of her friends and family, causing her a great deal of emotional distress.

Young children can be victims of attacks on the Internet.

Eventually, she contacted a volunteer at TOUCH Cyber Wellness & Sports (TC&S), and with the support of friends and her parents, went to the police for help. Lisa was initially sceptical about whether the police would be willing or able to assist her, but they proved to be very helpful and launched an investigation. While the police were not able to confirm the source of the cyber-bullying attacks, they did bring in a suspect for questioning, and the cyber-bullying stopped soon after this.

Talk to your children regularly to find out what they are doing online.

Looking back at the experience, Lisa makes two key points: First, realise that you have friends who are always willing to help, whether they’re your personal friends, family or people like the volunteers and professionals at TC&S—they are all willing to listen and offer a helping hand. Second, there are things that can be done to deal with cyber-bullying, and it’s often better to approach people for help earlier rather than later in order to avoid unnecessary stress and emotional damage.

Tips to help parents protect their children from cyber-bullying:

Talk to your children regularly to find out what they are doing on the Internet.
Keep communication lines open so that they can approach you for help.
Place the computer in an open area of your home so that you can observe your children while they are online.
For younger children, set rules and guidelines on who they can “talk to” on the Internet, just as you would in real life.
For older teens, get to know their Internet friends—be friendly and approachable.

Parents can pick up tips on cyberwellness from resources such as these.

But what do you do if your child does become a victim? You may:

Save evidence of the cyber-bullying activity.
File a complaint with the internet service provider.
Make a police report if your child is the victim of a criminal act (e.g. insulting his/her modesty; criminal intimidation).
Seek help from your child’s school.
Seek help from an agency such as TC&S, which can provide counselling.

Armed with these tips, parents will be able to take a better approach to preventing and dealing with cyber-bullying.

Content in this story comes courtesy of TOUCH Cyber Wellness & SPORTS. Please visit www.planetcrush.org for more information.

Victim of bullying at school speaks out (Today 12 May)

Gilbert Goh — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:26:26 +0000

Victim of bullying at school speaks out

05:55 AM May 12, 2010

Letter from Li Zhiwei

I REFER to “Schools must do their part to stop bullies: Expert” (May 10).

To me, these efforts seem to be too little, too late, especially if the culprits are able to send bullying messages anonymously through social networking sites.

The best example to illustrate this would be myself. I suffered from a mental illness known as brief reactive psychosis in 2003 due to the effects of long-term bullying that started in 1998.

At that time, secondary schools cared very little about such things. My secondary school had no programme or scheme at that time to tackle the problem and the disciplinary department could not do anything to face the problem itself.

If schools had been more aware about bullying back then, many cases like mine could have been avoided altogether.

Action should have been taken from the time Internet access was made widely accessible in schools.

Even now, I am still suffering the after-effects of this negligence and find it very difficult, if not impossible, to live a normal life and have a normal job like others.

But then again, it’s good that awareness has increased about bullying and steps are being taken to tackle it so that students do not end up like me and get left behind in society.

URL http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100512-0000101/Victim-of-bullying-at-school-speaks-out

HINGHAM COMMENTARY: Bolder steps needed to combat bullying

Gilbert Goh — Thu, 06 May 2010 23:29:29 +0000

Picture of Ryan Halligan (1989 - 2003)

www.wickedlocal.com

Posted May 06, 2010 @ 04:22 PM

Hingham —

“Bullying is alive and well and living in Swampscott. A sad statement, but true nonetheless. we are no different than any other community around us. There have always been bullies in our world and sadly…” So wrote Principal, Ralph Watson” of the Swampscott Middle School, in a letter posted to their website on April 13, 2010 as well as to the Swampscott Reporter.

The Boston Globe had coverage of bullying on their website last week, as well and as an article in the “Education Special” of The Globe Magazine this past Sunday.

Isn’t it tragic that it takes the loss of young lives, such as Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, and Phoebe Prince for government to stand up and take action?

We have been working with the Hingham Schools for the past three years to work towards developing strategies that would foster acknowledgement and promote action that the Hingham Schools need to take bolder and more visible steps to enlighten and educate the school community about bullying.

We hear stories almost daily from our kids and their classmates, as well as other parents about bullying and racism at the Middle School. Yes, the school administration addresses individual episodes, but has been unable to do anything at a global level to continually educate the students beyond programs such as Second Step, and Acts of Honor.

Many of us are familiar with the John Halligan presentation last fall, which captured the attention of students and parents alike. As John spoke to us about the tragic death of his son Ryan, we were broken hearted, and many people vowed not to let this happen again.

Shortly after Mr. Halligan’s heart-wrenching presentation; it was once again necessary to speak to one of the Middle School’s Assistant Principals regarding another bullying issue. When asked what the school was going to do to capitalize on the message that Mr. Halligan shared in an effort to continuously reinforce his message, the answer was that it was going to be added as topic in health class. Adding a section to the health education curriculum is just not enough. There has to be a cultural shift in how the school administration addresses bullying. Health Class isn’t enough of a commitment or strategic plan or effort to address a very serious issue. Mr. Halligan touched a spot in most of the kids’ hearts, and what the school needed to do was to proactively reinforce the message on continual basis.

The issue we have is that there is a systemic problem in all Hingham schools (both public and private) especially at our middle school. We have had numerous personal experiences and follow-up conversations with Dr. Galo, and Mr. Bodie as well as the assistant principals at the middle school, yet to a certain extent their hands have been tied by funding issues, a clear mandate and to be honest, parental denial.

Mr. Watson goes on to write in his plan of action: “We are training our teachers on school issues around bullying and the new arising issues around cyber-bullying and attending several Professional Development opportunities including the Safe Schools Conference on April 28. The district Crises Team will be trained on May 26 on making Schools Safe Requires Systematic & Systemic Change, four administrators are trained to leaders on cyber-bullying training offered through MARC and up six staff will attend a conference titled, ‘How Schools are Preventing Bullying, Building Respect and Engaging All Students..’”

Bravo to Mr. Watson for being pro-active and bravo to the state legislature for acting.

Now with Governor Patrick’s signing of the far-reaching anti-bullying legislation this past Monday, the school system now has legal teeth to educate and remediate.

The new law now mandates education of the students from and early age that is something we have been proponents of all along.

Mr. Watson concludes: “Now the question becomes what are we doing as a community? That is a question I cannot answer. Many community members have worked hard to make Swampscott a No Place for Hate Community. We need to recognize that the issues and dangers around bullying are no longer just child’s play or kids being kids, but is a matter of respect, hate and safety for our children and our community. What role will you take to help solve this problem?”

We now have this new law on the books and we would ask that we all work together as community to not only adhere to the law but to develop programs and initiatives that use the law as a foundation for learning and personal growth and not simply as a tool for retribution and example setting.

The requirements of the law need to be seriously looked at as the Hingham School System, as well as private schools, develop curriculum for the next school year. It won’t happen unless parents participate with educators and demand more from our school’s Administration, PTOs, and School Committee.

We encourage the town leadership to take this opportunity to bring various groups together from both private and public schools, sports, the arts, multicultural groups, etc. and create a task force to develop a comprehensive strategy to teach our children the lessons of tolerance, compassion, and respect.

Let’s take the mandate and be creative not merely compliant.

Mitch and Virginia Paine live at 74 Hobart St.

Don’t trivalise cyber bullying (talkback.stomp.com)

Gilbert Goh — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 01:00:08 +0000

Originally Posted by kengz

I’m just going to take a few points from the earlier posts.

What these cyber bullies are trying to do are basically hide their own imperfections by laughing at others’ flaws. Some of them are worst, failing to practice what they preach. I do not mean this in a literal sense, but when you’re talking about advocating certain kinds of behaviour (or rather, the implications perceived by others based on their previous posts), they are hypocrites in a true sense of the word, and bring nothing but shame to the causes they claim to stand for. Fortunately, their parents, who have done a splendid job raising them, probably have no head nor tail concerning their little online “crusades”. Just imagine how saddened they’d be if they do.

Sometimes, it not about learning to take criticism, as Renzokuken has mentioned. If it’s constructive criticism, fair enough. Even if we’re not talking about constructive criticism, there’s a difference between what’s not and abuse. I’m not saying Alekxii91 (in this case) does not deserve to be told off. He does, but is there really a need to hound the poor chap like that? It’s bad enough when 2-3 people here are ruthlessly pursuing him to the ends of the cyber world, what more when a handful of others join in with their non-constructive criticism? We tend to over-estimate our abilities in dealing with negative, non-constructive criticism/abuse and end up being more affected than we’d anticipate.

DO NOT trivialise cyber bullying. Singapore has the second highest occurrences of cyber bullying in the world other than the United States and f.y.i., anyone can be prosecuted for cyber bullying. I’m not sure about the penalties (in Singapore), and I’m not sure if the Police are the relevant authorities. Then again, I’m sure they’d be more than willing to help if you made a formal inquiry.

Teacher mocks ‘poor’ essays by pupils in blog (Asiaone)

Gilbert Goh — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:57:33 +0000

A TEACHER has come under fire after his blog entry mocking his Primary 3 pupils

was discovered and its URL passed to other netizens.

The relief teacher had posted online four excerpts from different compositions written

by his pupils and accompanying them, he had commented: “I have three terribly ridiculous

compositions… a source of entertainment, I should say… I will type it out… no corrections

or whatsoever… enjoy!”

He later added a fourth composition.

A primary school teacher who only wanted to be known as Ms Wong, 28, felt the blogger

was not professional.

“If he puts it on his blog such that the children can improve, it’s okay. If it’s to amuse

himself, then it’s not,” she said.

Parents my paper spoke to also had harsh words for the teacher.

Madam Jearina Champion, a 36-year-old homemaker whose son is in Primary 6, said:

“As a teacher, he has forgotten his role. If he thinks the compositions are bad, he

should keep it within the boundaries of the classroom. As a teacher, he should care

for the emotional well-being of the child.”

If her son had been one of the pupils whose compositions were criticised on the

blog, she would “have a word quietly with him”, if she is close to and respects

the teacher.

If not, she would “write to the teacher and send a copy (the e-mail) to

the principal”.

Madam Pee Hian Hwe, a 48-year-old mother of a Primary 5 pupil, agreed.

“It’s not up to me to say whether teachers have a right to do this on their

personal blogs, but I guess the school should have rules as to what teachers

can or cannot put online,” she said.

Embracing cyberworld (enlighteneducation.edublogs.org)

Gilbert Goh — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:48:36 +0000

Embracing cyber world

Feb 13th, 2009 by Danni Miller

Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph ran a disturbing story on the rise of cyber related sexual harassment in our schools recently.

This story serves as a reminder that we need to equip girls to use technology safely and wisely, and educate all young people on just what is, and is not, acceptable behaviour on line and indeed within our society as a whole. There are a number of sites that offer advice on on-line safety: www.cybersmart.org, www.wiredkids.org, www.wiredsafety.org, www.cyberbully.org, www.besafeonline.org.

Whilst we should exercise caution, what we must not do is get so panicked by stories of cyber-evil that we ban our girls from on-line participation. A recent study by the Australian Clearinghouse for Youthstudies showed that one of the main reasons young people who have been harassed on-line do not report their negative experiences is due to a fear of having their access to technology removed. They want to stay connected and worry that adults who do not fully understand the technology will think banning it is the solution.

Make no mistake, in our rapidly changing world, connection is vital. All young people need to not only be able to read and write in print media, but to be ‘multi-literate’, to be competent in the manipulation of a range of media. There is considerable evidence that whilst girls are more successful at reading and writing than boys, more girls than boys are in trouble in relation to ICT literacy. NSW Department of Education and Training research tells us that:

..girls (In Australia) were more inclined than boys to see IT as boring (36% compared to 16%) or difficult (23% to 11%). These factors result in more boys than girls studying technology related subjects. Analysis of NSW High School Certificate (HSC) 2002 computer programming student population revealed that only 17% of the total entrants were female. The trend is also demonstrated in the TAFE sector with women comprising approximately 40% of all Information Technology enrolments for 2001. This indicates a decrease in enrolment share from 1996 when women accounted for 50% of IT enrolments.”

This trend is evident right across Australia and in New Zealand. If it continues, young women are at risk of becoming part of the information-poor and of being excluded from the new and emerging jobs of the future. Let’s not let our own fears drive us to further isolating and limiting our girls. Rather, let’s inspire girls to get savvy and to use IT as a tool to meet their own needs.

Educator Bronwyn T Williams offered a refreshing approach towards connecting girls who may be reluctant users of IT in her 2006 article for the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy:

Rather than trying to find ways to help girls use computers in the same ways boys do, how do we help them build on their strengths to find new, creative, and feminist ways of designing and using computers? For example, if girls have been less interested in learning computer programming and software design, including literacy-connected software, perhaps this can be traced to a perception that such work is not relevant to their interests. But when interests such as the desire to build relationships or engage in more character-driven narratives are foregrounded as the goal, girls may be more intrigued…”

If your girls seem uninterested in learning IT skills, use some of the mediums they do enjoy, such as social networking sites, blogging etc as the hook to connect them to the wider possibilities the on-line world allows.

Finally, let’s not lose perspective. Although there are perils in cyber world, there are also some excellent sites (see my “Links”, column right, for some of my favourites) and invaluable opportunities for on-line collaboration. The good far outweighs the bad.

I hope the sites below will inspire you to encourage your girls to be multi-literate. Thanks to Judy O’Connell from blog Hey Jude for the great resources:

Girls go tech booklet http://www.girlsgotech.org/girlsgotech_booklet.pdf
Girls and ICTs http://www.learningplace.com.au/defaulteqa.asp?orgid=48&suborgid=286
Nerd Girls http://www.nerdgirls.com/page/about-the-nerd-girls

I particularly love the Nerd Girls “About” statement:

Nerd Girls are everywhere, from Tina Fey to Ugly Betty. The celebrity culture of vapid, shallow girls with little to offer is rapidly losing its allure – and the media, from Newsweek to Vanity Fair, has picked up on the emergence of a new type of female role model. Nearly all the tech companies are now offering gadgets designed specifically for girls. Our mantras “Smart is Sexy” and “Brains are Beautiful” have begun to resonate with women across the world. And, as more women seek higher education in technology and engineering fields, Nerd Girls hopes to encourage and empower them make a difference in our world.”

Go nerd girls!

Reader’s Mail: Victim of family cyber bullying

Gilbert Goh — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:35:51 +0000

I am a victim of a cyber bully who is also one of my sisters. I am not a teenager but an adult and so is she. My sister has posted horrible, nasty, hate-filled blogs about me and our other sisters for three years and is still at it. I tried to fight back by engaging in the “flame war” with her but it didn’t work in fact, it only made matters worse. I then ignored her but that didn’t stop her either. We don’t live in the same state and haven’t seen each other in over twenty five years but because of our elderly mother that I take care of in my home, my crazy sister decided to post hundreds of blogs accusing me of stealing from our mom, abusing her and neglecting her which is completely untrue. We aren’t kids. We are in our fifties and the blogging is outrageous. She threatens me, she puts my name and address in her blogs, she even went so far as to create ‘montages’ using my own photos that she copied from my Photobucket account before I deleted it. She even stooped so low as to copy one of my own videos and posted a nasty lie under it and put it on YouTube. I found these videos and had them removed.
I have been trying to shut my sister’s back yard dog breeding operation down for a couple of years and this is one reason why she continues to bully me and harass me on the Internet. I got so sick of finding it that I configured my router so everything and anything that relates to her is blocked and I am unable to see it. I can still type in my own name and find some blogs she continues to post.
As for cyber bullying and harassment ‘laws’, I know they are there but they are not usually enforced. What is so ridiculous about my sister is, she writes articles about how much she hates to be cyber bullied and harassed and yet, she does it to me constantly. I can’t understand what part of that she doesn’t get. You cannot gripe about being harassed if you are doing it yourself.
Her name is xxxxx and she is operating a back yard dog breeding business at xxxxx. Her website is called xxxxxx. If you want to see what a real cyber bully is, just type her name in Google and see for yourself.

DontCyberbully.com

Walk away from Net nasties (Sunday Times 15 Aug)

Aug 15, 2010

Walk away from Net nasties

Singapore pushes responsible Internet use among youth

Singapore pushes responsible Internet use among youth

Man says online harassment triggered Tokyo knifing spree

Dealing with cyber bullying (mediaexchange)

Victim of bullying at school speaks out (Today 12 May)

HINGHAM COMMENTARY: Bolder steps needed to combat bullying

Don’t trivalise cyber bullying (talkback.stomp.com)

Teacher mocks ‘poor’ essays by pupils in blog (Asiaone)

Embracing cyberworld (enlighteneducation.edublogs.org)

Embracing cyber world

Girls go tech booklet http://www.girlsgotech.org/girlsgotech_booklet.pdf

Girls and ICTs http://www.learningplace.com.au/defaulteqa.asp?orgid=48&suborgid=286

Nerd Girls http://www.nerdgirls.com/page/about-the-nerd-girls

Reader’s Mail: Victim of family cyber bullying