Cyber Bullying - Harassment

Tweet

Cyber Bullying - Harassment Internet Harassment or Cyber bullying. I used to work as a moderator at about.com's depression chat room in year 1999-2000. From that experience I learned how harassment can be as simple as refusing to drop a topic another is uncomfortable to discuss... I learned how hackers can get your personal information and trace your computer address to find out who you are and not only harass and threaten you online and via messages and emails.. but also start calling you and find out other ways to get personal information. Just Breaking the chat room rules or guidelines is enough to be considered harassment.... Posting indecent or adult only material information is harassment towards minors and can get you banned off the internet.. Many people underestimate internet harassment as at times its hard to tell the difference if the person is joking or serious.... With my other experiences in Yahoo chats.. which is unmoderated I ran into a lot of harassment... You have people who go onto yahoo voice, and Put frequency sounds or obnoxious noises.. or even flood the room with fonts and symbols... Which trigger Seizures in epileptics.. We had to ban fonts in the depression chat because it was making some of our regular chatters very sick as it triggered seizures... There has been serious cases of people going onto epileptic forums and posting graphics to purposely trigger seizures... in the same way.. through sounds, or sight visuals. Then there are people who do internet hypnosis or guided meditation, earn peoples trust and lure them into their group or cult.. I have witnessed people going so far with this as talking people out of taking meds for their mental health disorders and getting very ill and going into the hospital.... I have seen the peer pressure harassment issue if you do not do this we will ignore you.. .. then the other way around getting harassed and called a wimp for using the ignore button on someone who is harassing you, or annoying you. There are people who chat or cyber stalk they follow people from chat to chat or forum to forum slandering with false information or informing everyone about their criminal past, true or not... That is also harassment... People posting videos on youtube or other internet sites that the people claimed they were taping for something else, or they did not realise they were being recorded.. posted publicly to humiliate them too this is also a bad harassment. The most common one I see over on yahoo is people Stealing Yahoo accounts, user ids or chat names.... or locking their account out.. or booting them repetitively because they are jealous of something. When I was in the Free Psychic Readings Yahoo user room under religion the Community when I first went there was great... But then the boot gangs started and hackers stealing peoples ids, and booting non stop the psychics in the middle of a free reading.. or just having a conversation about their experiences trying to help a new psychic whose abilities are just opening... There is a lot of boot abuse on yahoo. The reason booting itself was not banned is to keep suspected minors out of the adult only rooms.. or harassers who are spamming or posting links to pictures claiming it is something else, and instead its an porn or indecent picture. What to do if you see cyber harassment? First step record transcripts and the time you saw it.. Email the transcripts and the time you saw it to the Host.. and point out it's against their TOS.. or guidelines.. if they ignore it as yahoo often has done.. Then if its death threats, admitting to illegal activity, or illegal hacking. (keep in mind all a hacker is is just a programmer not all of them are illegal or out to steal your identity or chat name, or cyber harass you) You can then report it to crime stoppers if you want to report it anonymously If it has happened before make sure you have a good friend go in with you next time you visit the chat or forum so you have a witness... Cyber bullying has a few examples www.cyberbullying.org/ For normal Internet Crime reporting you can either call your local police.. Or you can report it here... Internet Crime Complaint Center www.ic3.gov/default.aspx If you run into an FBI most wanted, or a sex offender with minors, or Terrorists online.. Report them to the FBI gov site. tips.fbi.gov/ It is really easy to accidentally step into the wrong chat, or forum, and find yourself surrounded by some serious cyber harassment... I recommend only using web mails for internet registrations and sites, Using disposable phone numbers if you think you met someone you can trust.. then you can discontinue the number..... google voice also has a phone number system but I think it costs 10$ to change the number.. but it allows you to block people. If you ever go to meet anyone you met online offline always meet at a public place where there are law enforcement and many people around who you know who will help you if an issue arrives. I have seen both good and bad come out of internet communities.Be careful of what you discuss, if you have money do not let on to people you have a lot of money... We had serious break ins in the area after someone who ran an internet business out our way told to much information... she was robbed 4 times.. it lead to everyone out our way getting robbed .. it was my family who lead to their arrest.. If you state your town state a really big next big general town as where you are from. Do not give out a school name, or work name or address.. to anyone until you know for sure they are safe... Internet is fun, but it also can be a very terrifying place I ran into good people and I ended up learning how easily it was to be friends with the wrong kind of people. I was shocked when I saw Internet harassment push my some of my friends over the edge...... All ended up later doing school shootings... and other crazy harmful actions do to bullying, harassment, and negative manipulation. An old community I used to hang with one of the first internet chat networks to come into play.. I saw many things....I seen death cults form, and I seen great healing groups from....I had also seen leaders of very successful internet companies come into being.. and got to be part of that behind the scenes... In the end everyone from the original internet communities all ended up doing something really big good or bad. Good one as Nurse, the major site operators I do not want to list their company names to draw bad attention to them.... It was a Spiritual/religious chat room we all studied all beliefs good and bad and even Atheist and Agnostic were welcome in an un moderated teen room... But we constantly had people invading and harassing the room... So cyber harassment is very very serious and underestimated.. Anyhow.. I went off topic a little there... I stand out as different, I am open, I love sharings, and I will speak about many things.. So I tend to attract unwanted attention and plenty of harassment from time to time... Sometimes we even harass others not deliberately knowing it.. Just purely by making a person you are talking to online becomes harassment after they notify you that they are uncomfortable with the conversation and you insist on going on... With certain exception like talking the suicidal or depressed.. or other person with mental issues you think may harm themselves or others.. into getting professional help.. but even then you have to be careful of your approach... so you are not badgering or harassing with it. Always guide them to some form of Trained professional.. A hotline, therapist, councilor, doctors, .. welfare checks.. etc.. It is to easy to think you are saying the right thing to help when you are not. I witnessed this plenty of times when helping people in that situation... Do not let others harass you out of reporting serious harassment. But also find out if the person is joking or not.. as many have very conflicting sense of humor, and many do not know.. not to joke about certain sensitive issues, and others just have a very dark twisted sense of humor.. which is nothing more than a stress release for them, and coping mechanism... But Jokes are no longer funny when it is at the expense of the safety and comfort of others. The Yahoo Chat references were from years ago. It is even worse on Paltalk... Another thing... Harassment and Hate Speech is not to be confused with Freedom of Speech. Hope that is enough info, - DNatureofDTrain