Read Caitlin Seida's story for a great example of resilience and how to be an upstander online. Caitlin had publicly posted an unflattering Halloween photo of herself, forgetting to make it private, and the photo – along with plenty of nasty comments – went viral. What started out to be a fun Halloween became a nightmare. "I don’t generally view my body size as positive or negative – it simply … [Read more...] about A courageous target turned upstander
resilience
The kids who are most at risk offline (& online)
In 2009, the Internet Safety Technical Task Force published a finding that the young people most at risk online are those most at risk offline, a clear indicator to me that online risk is not a unique new problem brought on by the Internet. In their thorough review of the online risk literature released right up through that year, the researchers on our task force shared some of the offline risks … [Read more...] about The kids who are most at risk offline (& online)
Minecraft & the shared, creative safety of gaming, social media
Reporters and reviewers write about Minecraft as if it's just like any other videogame. Even this highly readable piece about its creator (Markus Persson, aka "Notch") and its parent company (Mojang) by Harry McCracken in Time magazine doesn't cover what makes it different from other games specifically for its kid (and parent) players. But he does bring out this extraordinary differentiating … [Read more...] about Minecraft & the shared, creative safety of gaming, social media
Social cruelty on Ask.fm & the whack-a-mole tendency
Remember Formspring.me? Three years ago some terrible trolling that reportedly involved teens in New Jersey made the site, which announced it was shutting down* last month, a national news story in the US. Teens' viral adoption of Formspring and its format (ask a question, get an anonymous answer) reportedly took the site by surprise. Disturbing news coverage and letters sent home by school … [Read more...] about Social cruelty on Ask.fm & the whack-a-mole tendency
Bullying: How an ‘authoritative’ parenting style can help
When my friend and colleague Jason Brand, a Berkeley, Calif.-based family therapist, points an article out to me, I pay attention. He and I were discussing resilience as a protective factor in children's use of social media, and Jason pointed out an article in Scientific American by psychologist Abigail Baird at Vassar College. She wrote it in 2010, when emotions around the tragic case of … [Read more...] about Bullying: How an ‘authoritative’ parenting style can help