Betty teaches you the importance of keeping your OFFLINE identity separate from your ONLINE identity

Betty

Betty
Cyber Defender & Clubhouse Supervisor

Betty learned the hard way about sharing too much information online when rumors she had spread through her online blog upset some of her friends. Since then she has made it her goal to educate everyone about what information is inappropriate or unsafe to share online to prevent others from getting hurt.

As a Cyber Defender, Betty focuses on the most important information you should never share online, your offline identity.

Favorite Quote:

A stumble may prevent a fall
- English Proverb

Favorite Food:

Tea and crumpets

Interests:

Chatting, macrame, collecting teacups

July 23 2009

Netiquette: Respecting the Terms of Use

"Terms of Use" are a list of guidelines given by a service provider, such as a social networking site. These guidelines are meant to inform you of what behaviors will get you kicked off the site. Using the example of a social networking site, let's say that the Terms of Use state that the provider does not tolerate the use of racial slurs. If you use racial slurs while you are on that site, they will ban your account.

The Terms of Use can also be used to protect the service provider from lawsuits. An example this would be if someone used a social networking site to stalk someone. Hopefully, the service provider's Terms of Use made it clear that harassing or stalking a user would not be tolerated. If this was stated, then the weirdo stalker broke the Terms of Use for the service provider and the site would not be held responsible.

It is very important that you understand what you are agreeing to before you click the "I Agree" button for a Web site. If you are going to play the game, so to speak, make sure you know the rules, cadets!

posted by Betty
topics: Netiquette

July 22 2009

Case Studies: Suicide over Internet Relationships

A few years ago in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, a young teen named Megan Meier committed suicide due to an online friendship that ended badly. As tragic as this is, it takes an even sadder turn when one discovers that the boy Megan befriended never existed. The boy was just a mean trick thought up by someone cyberbullying Megan.

According to police records, Megan had been fighting with a female classmate. Her classmate's mother, Lori Drew, pretended to be a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans in order to gain Megan's trust and friendship. After several weeks of friendly conversation, Lori Drew, posing as the young boy, turned on Megan and ended their friendship nastily. Megan, who was already struggling with depression, killed herself on the night their friendship ended.

Megan's parents, friends, and neighbors waited for the police to bring the cyberbully to justice. Unfortunately, there were no laws yet that made cyberbullying a crime. This sad situation happens more and more often as technology develops faster than our legal system can handle.

Not willing to accept that Lori Drew would get away with her cyberbullying, Megan's friends and neighbors decided to do what they could to get justice. They flooded the Internet with posts containing the Drew's home address, home phone number, cell phone numbers, and photos, which resulted in innumerable harassing phone calls and visits. One person went so far as to make a false 911 call which caused the local police to surround the Drew's house.

My fellow cadets, although we may see such acts of vigilante justice as reasonable responses, it is important to note that this is not the right response to such awful situations. Though the friends and neighbors of Megan deserve justice, perhaps they would have done the world a bigger service by working with law makers to create statutes to protect future victims of cyber crime. Better yet, they could have started programs to educate local youth on the dangers of meeting weirdo strangers online (and, apparently, weirdo neighbors) to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again.

posted by Betty
topics: Case Studies