Staci's Place: No More Bullies!
Cyberbullying Advice and Tips
What kind of cyberbullying attacks
should I be aware of? How do I stop them?
I have mixed feelings sharing these
attacks, because I don't want to give bullies any ideas. However, it is
important that potential targets be aware of these attacks so they can
recognize when they have been targeted. Unfortunately, in many cases it may
be all but impossible to stop the bully. Some of these attacks, especially
hoax emails, can take on a life of their own, continuing long after the
initial attack. The only way to deal with them may be to change your contact
information, email address, passwords, etc.
Hacking
Few bullies are capable of true hacking
skills. Breaking into another person's computer, email account or instant
messenger program isn't entirely that difficult for someone with good
puzzle-solving skills and knowledge of the victim, though. Throw in some
minimal knowledge of computers, and it is a snap for a motivated bully to
get into your accounts. Make sure that you regularly change your passwords.
Use passwords that are combinations of upper and lower case, numbers and
letters. Don't use a pet, child's or parent's name or birthday if it might
be guessable. Make sure that your spyware scanner and anti-virus software
are regularly up to date. Do not allow your children to share your home
computer with friends unless they are supervised and trusted.
Hoax Emails
Hoax Emails take advantage of the good will of kind people to make life
hellish for their targets. I do not know that was the case for this
particular hoax ... but they are so easy to check out, I implore you all to
do so before you forward them.
Just clip a few unique words from the warning, put them in quotes, then the
word "hoax" into Google like so:
"This is the warning I mentioned about XYZ.com" hoax
You will quickly get back what amounts to a detailed report on the warning
... in this case, obviously a hoax. It may be nothing more than someone's
idea of "awareness raising" (certainly there have been rapists and murderers
who have used the Internet this way). But it could also be a hoax-attack on
XYZ.com.
How can these be used for bullying?
Well, say I am miffed at someone because she disagreed with me ... what I do
is write up a "warning" ... she's a spammer, she's an axe murderer, she's
putting needles in people's theater seats. Then I send it to some people who
I know will send it around the net. I post it on the Usenet.
All of a sudden, my target's email is swamped with emails from angry people.
Everywhere she goes, she is attacked.
An even sneakier, nastier variant is to put the victim's phone number in the
email ... sometimes disguised as a phone number of the lawyer or senator or
authority figure you are supposed to contact if you see her on the street or
are contacted by her online. Within a few days her number will be unusable.
Please folks ... take the time to check these warnings. All of them. 99.999%
of the "warning" emails you see online are hoaxes. Same with some of the
"charitable appeals". Always check them on Google before you act on them. If
you don't have time to check them out - just delete them.
Porn-Bombing
The prevalence of pornography and its
association with spam makes for fertile ground for this kind of attack. The
bully may simply send a bunch of pornographic emails to the target, send
their email address to a known pornographic spammer, etc.
Spam Attacks
All the bully has to do is subscribe the
victim to every mailing list they can get their hands on. This attack has
gotten harder, because most legitimate lists have double-opt-in
requirements, where the subscriber has to confirm their membership. So what
most of these bullies do is go to spammers and give them the target's email
address.
Happy-Slapping
This is an unpleasant new
phenomena that comes out of the proliferation of cell phones and digital
video recorders. It's often a derivative of school-based bullying. A gang of
bullies jumps the victim, while an accomplice or bystander takes a video of
the attack. Later, the victim is humiliated again when the video is posted
on Google Video or You Tube.
There have been successful
prosecutions, of course. It's not the brightest thing to do, to put the
evidence of your criminal behavior on the Internet for all to see.
Some victims have attempted to
sue online video companies like YouTube and Google over these videos. I
don't support this approach. I don't think they are liable any more than the
cell phone companies for the way their services are abused. I fear for the
chilling effect on legitimate content if these lawsuits are successful. I do
think the big sites are often lax and slow to react though, and their abuse
departments are understaffed (when they are staffed at all). I believe the
answer is in tougher criminal prosecutions and lawsuits based on privacy
violations through existing laws.
If you are the target of a
"happy slapping" or an embarrassing video is posted without your permission,
contact the video hosting sites and ask for it to be removed. Keep in mind
the high volume of mail and complaints they manage - it may take some time
before they reply. If you are considering legal action against the
perpetrators, as uncomfortable as it may be, it may be best to leave the
video where it is to preserve the evidence (download a copy before the
bullies wise up and take it down themselves).
