I Have the Right To Be Safe in Cyberspace

Hello everyone,

Today we're looking at something very interesting. It's an issue that's new to our generation, something that our parents and ancestors never had to worry about. Yes, I'm talking about your Right to be Safe in Cyberspace.

Our generation is internet savvy, and that means we use social networking sites like Facebook, My Space, Flickr and Twitter to name some. These are all websites where you can post personal information and photo's and other people can visit your webpage to communicate with you and leave messages and comments. Sounds like fun, and it can be, but sometimes people leave nasty comments, they may even use your webpage to bully or pick on you. There are also instant messaging systems like MSM and Skype where people type messages to eachother over the internet. Let's take a closer look at the world of cyberspace and what your rights are.

Here's a letter we received that describes what the problem can involve:

I am so glad you brought up social networking. A lot of kids at my school are obsessed with facebook and MSN. They are always talking about the latest pictures people have posted on their webpages or who said what on MSN. The other day someone in our school network sent out a message, which said “ Ugly and Fat. Vote for the Ugliest Fat Kid at our school by clicking here.” They had posted pictures of five kids at our school and I know some of them! I feel so upset that people can be so unkind to each other. Should I tell someone about this cyber-bullying? Danielle

As usual, Gugu and I did some research on the topic, and this is what we found out:

Cyber-bullying is using the internet, cell phone, or other electronic device to send or post text or images to try to hurt or embarrass someone.

Have you ever received a mean email or instant message? Have you ever sent one? Then you might be guilty of cyber-bullying.

Take this test to find out if you are a cyber-bully:

1. A friend sends you an SMS “I found a picture of Mary from last year. She looks so bad! I’m going to post it on my website so everyone can see it.”

You answer:
a. “Give me the address and I’ll send it to everyone I know. ” Or
b. “You shouldn’t do that. I bet she has some bad pictures of you too!”

2. A friend says to you. “Have you been to the Rate Me website? You can rate kids in our class, like prettiest and dumbest. I think you’re on there.
You answer:
a. “That’s not cool. I hope no one was mean to me!” or
b. “That’s great! I’m sure you’re ranked the prettiest!”

3. A friend e-mails you and says “You should text message Molly and tell her that no one likes her.”
You answer:
a. “No Way! That’s mean! I don’t want to get into trouble either!”
b. “No! My Mom would kill me but you should!”

If you answered (a) to all these questions you’re doing a really good job of fighting cyber-bullying. If your friends are cyber-bullying, even if you are not, you need to tell them that it’s not funny and that cyber-bullying hurts people. Like other kinds of bullying, you can help stop cyberbullying from happening to you and to others around you:

*Don’t forward emails or messages that are mean or that spread rumors about other people.
*Save or print all messages from bullies.
*Show the messages to an adult you trust—like a parent or a teacher—and ask for help. If the first adult you tell doesn't help you, keep telling until someone does.

Cyberbullying is not OK! You have the right not to be bullied, on the playground or in cyberspace! You also have the responsibility not to bully others. Remember Think Before You Click.

Cyberbullying is easier than the old fashioned type: it can be anonymous AND a lot more people can see of read the nasty things you say. You don’t have to have a lot of courage to mean in cyber-space if you won’t be found out. The problem is, how do you report it if you don’t know who the bully is?

Well, did you know that if you report the incident to your service provider, they can trace who the e-mails or the SMS messages are from. And if the messages are threatening, the police will investigate the matter with the service provider.

Our friend and mentor Loveday Constitutional sent us this fabulous story about kids and cyberspace:

My name is Lolo and I am 14 years old. I was so excited when my parents bought me a new computer and linked me up to the internet. I couldn’t wait to start visiting the chat room where my school friends hang out after school. Now I just had to choose a really cool username. We’d had internet safety lessons at school and I knew that I should not use my real name or give away any information about my age or where I live. I decided to call myself AquarianCat, because I’m an Aquarian and I love cats.
When I logged on to the chat room, I got sent a private message. It was a flame, a message meant to hurt me, from someone called Just4Kix. Just4kix said that my user name was stupid and I should leave the chat room. I couldn’t believe that someone could be so rude and I wondered who had sent me the flame. I ignored the message and looked for the usernames of my friends. When I didn’t see anyone I recognised in the chat room, I logged out.

After that, every time I logged into the chat room, I received flames from Just4Kix. I decided to keep ignoring the messages, which were really mean and all in capital letters which meant Just4Kix was shouting at me. It got so bad that I started to feel afraid to turn on my computer. I wondered why this person hated me so much and I still had no idea who they were. After a few weeks I decided that I’d had enough. I told my friends at school that I wasn’t going to visit the chat room anymore!

When I got home that day, I didn’t go on the website. But when I opened my e-mail, Just4Kix had sent me a really scary message. “Hey AquarianCat. I’m going to come to your school and hurt you - Just4fun - Just4Kix. “ I didn’t know what to do. At first I panicked and then I started to think. In our internet safety classes we were told us we shouldn’t delete messages that were threatening. We should save them in case we needed to report them. Now I wished I had kept all those flames that Just4Kix had been sending me all along.

I turned off my monitor without deleting the message and went to tell my Mom what had happened. She was really upset that I had not told her earlier. She was right to be upset. I shouldn’t have ignored them for so long. They made me feel really bad and I should have told her sooner. We decided we had to report this to the school principal, because most of the people in the chat room were from our school.

The principal called in an expert on cyber bullying to talk to our school at an Assembley. He told us that it’s illegal to communicate again and again with someone in a way that made them afraid. It’s also illegal to write things about people that are not true and that will damage their reputation. He told us that if anyone is being bullied on the internet or over their cellphones, they should let the police, their service provider and their school know what was going on. He reminded us about other ways to keep safe when we use the internet to talk to other people.

* Keep your password safe! You can tell your parents about it, but not anyone else — not even your best friend!
*Don’t share secrets, photos, or anything online that might be embarrassing if someone found out (like your entire school! Or even your Mom!!).
* Set up email and instant messenger accounts with your parents. Make sure not to put your name, age, address, or phone number in your profile or screen name.
*Never meet someone face-to-face that you know only from the Internet.


The internet expert told us that if we are being bullied on the internet we should Stop (don’t respond) Block (block that user name from your webpage) and Tell! My Mom and I agreed on some rules about going on the internet. I agreed not to talk to anyone I don’t know and NEVER to give out my personal information online. She asked me to move my computer into the family room so she can keep an eye on me while I am on-line.

At first I didn’t want to do this because I thought she was treading on my right to privacy. But when I thought about it some more and I agreed. Let’s face it, the internet can be a pretty scary place. The people you chat with online may not be who they say they are and I feel safer knowing my Mom is there to help me when I need her. I know that I have the right to be safe in cyberspace but I also have the responsibility to make sure I keep myself safe!

Remember, that Facebook and other social networking sites have privacy settings. Get to know how to use them so you can have control over who has access to your website.

Well, that's it for today. Don't forget to leave us a comment or send us an email.....and surf safely!



Bye for now
Sfiso.