1. “Hanging Out”
digital health and safety

2. What
We
Are
Doing
Now

3. Social media and information overload
Americans now consume three times the information they did in 1960.

4. The Societal Consequences
Protecting Your Digital Health
• Critical thinking
• Career and reputation
• Emotional & physical
health
• Personal safety

5. Critical Thinking – Digital Literacy

6. Professor Rheingold is a visiting lecturer in Stanford University’s Department
of Communication where he teaches two courses, "Digital Journalism" and
"Virtual Communities and Social Media".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbRYkria
JXM

7. Critical Thinking
Developing Healthy Internet Skepticism
Baloney Detection Kit
http://www.michaelshermer.com/2001/11/baloney-detection/

8. What does your Online
Reputation say about you?
http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/us/details/96179773-76fc-407f-b945-
ae828f872ba7

9. In December of 2009, Microsoft released statistics from
a survey that they commissioned which drastically
topped those numbers, stating that 79% of hiring
managers and job recruiters in the United States
reviewed online information about job applicants,
while 70% of those surveyed said that they’ve
rejected applicants based on their findings.

10. How Social Media ‘Mistakes’
Impact Getting Hired or Fired
Many employers use social networking sites along with personal blogs to look for
what they call “digital dirt” We wondered what types of online content would
actually affect an employer’s decision on either hiring or firing an
employee. Here’s a breakdown of what Microsoft found in the same
aforementioned study:
1. Concerns about the candidate’s lifestyle 58%
2. Inappropriate comments and text written by the candidate 56%
3. Unsuitable photos, videos and information 55%
4. Inappropriate comments or text written by friends and relatives 43%
5. Comments criticizing previous employers, coworkers or clients 40%
6. Inappropriate comments or text written by colleagues or work acquaintances 40%
7. Membership in certain groups and networks 35%
8. Discovered that information the candidate shared was false 30%
9. Poor communication skills displayed online 27%
10. Concern about the candidate’s financial background 16%
SOURCE:
http://www.safetyweb.com/online-reputation-guide-for-college-students#mistakes

11. Personal Safety
Visit these sites at your own risk!

12. A Gateway for Dangerous Behavior?

13. http://omegle.com/
http://www.chatroulette.com/

14. Chat Roulette

15. Cyber Bullying and Social Isolation

16. A Father’s Emotional Plea

17. How Social Media Is Helping
Defeat Cyber Bullying
With MTV launching Draw Your Line, a visualization tool that encourages
young people to take action against digital abuse and share these actions
and tips with others. The tool is part of A Thin Line, an organization
dedicated to decreasing digital abuse and bullying, and protecting children
and young adults from the dangers of an increasingly online world.
Visit: http://www.athinline.org/drawyourline

19. “It's important to note that blaming technology for horrendous, violent displays of homophobia
or racism or simple meanness lets adults like parents and teachers absolve themselves of the
responsibility to raise kids free from these evils. “ ~ Anil Dash
“There is a statistically significant weak positive relationship between home access to a computer
or time spent online and whether or not students tease others.”
Barbara Lacey, “Social aggression: A study of Internet harassment”
“The authors fail to adequately summarize and analyze the data from the various studies, many of
which appear on Internet web sites rather than in peer-reviewed journals. The few tables of data
are uninformative and presented without statistical analysis.”
The American Journal of Psychiatry Book Review of: Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age
“The results show that almost 54% of the students were victims of traditional bullying and over a
quarter of them had been cyber-bullied. Almost one in three students had bullied others in the
traditional form, and almost 15% had bullied others using electronic communication tools. ”
Qing L i, “New bottle but old wine: A research of cyberbullying in schools”
Does Social Media Cause Bullying?

20. Can Anonymity Breed Irresponsibility
The problem, say Formspring's critics, is the site offers a perfect haven for
cyberbulllying.
The recent suicide of 15-year-old Pheobe Prince has drawn attention to the
problem of bullying in cyberspace because victims often have no idea who is
tormenting them. A Boycott Formspring Group on Facebook claims almost
7,300 members.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/media/do-you-know-who-your-children-
are-online-formsprings-raunchy-f/19452194/?a_dgi=aolshare_email
http://www.twloha.com/blog/some-thoughts-boycotting-formspring-in-1/

21. A Generational View of
FormSpring/Facebook Bullying

22. A Thoughtful Response
http://www.facebook.com/notes/to-write-love-on-her-arms/some-thoughts-on-boycotting-
formspring-in-response-to-the-suicide-of-alexis-pilk/373781774657

23. Cyberbullying
What the research is telling us…
Amanda Lenhart
Youth Online Safety Working Group
May 6, 2010
Washington, DC

24. May 2010 24
Teen internet use basics
• 93% of teens 12-17 go online
• 63% of online teens go online daily
• 89% of online teens go online from home, and most
of them go online from home most often
• 77% of teen go online at school
• 71% go online from friends or relatives house
• 60% go online from a library
• 27% go online on their mobile phone
• 76% of households with teens go online via
broadband, 10% via dial up, and 12% do not have
access at home.

25. May 2010 25
What are teens doing online?
• 94% go online to do research for school assignments; 48% do so on a
typical day.
• 81% go to websites about movies, TV shows, music groups, or sports
stars
• 64% of online teens have created some kind of content online
• 62% go online to get news
• 57% have watched a video on a video-sharing site like YouTube or
GoogleVideo
• 55% go online to get information about a college, university or other
school that they are thinking about attending.
• 48% have bought something online like books, clothes or music
• 31% have looked online for health, dieting or physical fitness
information; 17% have looked online for sensitive health information

26. May 2010 26
How else are teens connecting?
• 75% of teens have a cell phone
– No gender or race/ethnic differences in ownership
– 50% of teens with phones talk to friends daily
– 54% of teens send text messages daily
– 27% use their phone to go online
• 73% of teens use an online social network site
– 37% of SNS users send messages through social networks daily
• 80% of teens have a game console
• 51% of teens have a portable gaming device
– Teens connect and interact with others online through games

27. May 2010 27
Concerns in Online Safety Sphere
• Inappropriate contact
– Strangers
– Bullies
• Inappropriate content
– Accidental Exposure
– Deliberate Exposure

28. May 2010 28
Bullying
Olweus (1993)
“A person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to
negative actions on the part of one or more other persons, and he or she has
difficulty defending himself or herself."
This definition includes three important components:
1. Bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted, negative actions.
2. Bullying involves a pattern of behavior repeated over time
3. Bullying involves an imbalance of power or strength.”
Bullying
– Physical
– Relational/Verbal
-Internet

29. May 2010 29
Online Harassment &
Cyberbullying
• Online harassment: aggressive behavior,
“harm doing,” insults, denigration,
impersonation, exclusion, outing,
activities associated with hacking –
stealing information, breaking into
accounts, damaging websites, profiles
etc. (Willard, 2006)
• Cyberbullying: online harassment that is
– repeated over time

30. May 2010 30
What makes online harassment &
bullying different?
• Technology is vehicle
• Persistence of content
– Editable, alterable
• Distributability of content
– Speed
– Breadth
• Dis-inhibition over computer-mediated communication
• Invasive

31. May 2010 31
Pew Internet: Online Harassment
• 32% of online teens have experienced one of the
following forms of online harassment:
– 15% of teens reported having private material (IM,
txt, email) forwarded without permission
– 13% had received threatening messages
– 13% said someone had spread a rumor about them
online
– 6% had someone post an embarrassing picture of
them online without permission
(Lenhart,
2007)
• 26% of teens have been harassed via their cell phones
either by voice or text
(Lenhart,

32. 3/18/2022 32

33. May 2010 33
Cyberbullying
• Other research shows prevalence of cyberbullying or online harassment
between 9% and 33% of youth ages 10-18. (Wolak et al, 2007, Ybarra et al,
2007)
• Much of the difference is definitional and depends on how the question
was asked. Specific activities often yield higher levels of response than
blanket definitions.
• Mid-teens (ages 14-17) is the age of greatest prevalence of online
harassment & bullying (Pew, 2007, Hinduja & Patchin, 2008)
• Perpetrators of online bullying (similar to offline bullying) are generally the
same age as their victim. (Wolak, 2007)

34. May 2010 34
Frequency of bullying victimization among 11-16 year
olds
62%
27%
5%
3% 3%
Never
Less often than monthly
Once or twice a month
Once or twice a week
Everyday
(n=1,193)
(Ybarra, 2009)

35. May 2010 35
Online Harassment (2)
• Girls, particularly older girls, report more online
harassment; 38% of all online girls reported
experiencing some type of harassment (Pew, 2007)
• Social network users are also more likely to report
online harassment – 39% of SNS users have
experience it. (Pew, 2007)
• But most teens (67%) think bullying & harassment
happens more OFFLINE. (Pew, 2007)

36. May 2010 36
Frequency of bullying victimization among 11-
16 year olds by environment
(n=1,193)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
School Internet Cell phone text
messaging
To and from school Some other place
Everyday
Once or twice a week
Once or twice a month
Less often than monthly
Never
(Ybarra, 2009)

37. May 2010 37
Online (or not) Harassment
• School is by far the most common place youth report being
bullied (31%) versus elsewhere (e.g., 13% online)
• The prevalence rate of Internet harassment (both perpetration
and victimization) appears to be stable (2006-2008).
• The majority (59%) of Internet harassment comes from other
minors
• Youth who report being harassed online report a myriad of
concurrent psychosocial problems offline, too
Source: Michele Ybarra & colleagues work
on the 2005 Youth Internet Safety
Survey fielded by UNH CCRC & 2007-
2008 Growing up with Media research

38. May 2010 38
Why should we worry?
• Bullying is broadly associated with:
– School violence
– Delinquency
– Suicidal ideation
• Bullied teens (and often bullies
themselves) have higher levels of:
– Depression and other psychological
problems
– Substance abuse

39. May 2010 39
Why should we worry (2)?
• Some research suggests that significant portions of
teens aren’t bothered by online harassment or
bullying
• Research suggests that 1/3 of teens (34%) are
distressed by online harassment. (Wolak et al, 2007)
– Distressed = “Extremely or very upset or afraid”
• Teens who are high internet users are more likely to
be distressed (Wolak, 2007)

40. Draw Your Line – MTV
http://www.athinline.org/drawyourline

41. May 2010 41
Overlap of cyberbullying & internet
victimization
(Ybarra, 2010)

42. May 2010 42
Differences between cyberbullying
& internet harassment
Cyberbullying is not more common than Internet
harassment
• On average (between 2007-2008): 37% were harassed,
14% were bullied online in the past year
Cyberbullying is not more damaging than Internet
harassment
• Among those cyberbullied, 15% report being very /
extremely upset
• Among those harassed, between 17-34% report being
very / extremely upset

43. May 2010 43
Cell phone-based harassment
• 75% of teens have cell phones
• 54% of all teens text message daily
• 26% have been harassed through their cell phone by voice
calls or text messages
• 47% have sent a text message they regretted sending
• And then there’s sexting – which is
generally not a form of harassment
itself, but when the images are shared,
can lead to harassment and bullying.

44. 3/18/2022 44

45. May 2010 45
Sending Sexts
• No difference by gender
• Oldest teens most likely to have sent
– 8% of 17 year olds
– 4% of 12 year olds
• 17% who pay for all the costs of the phone send
sexts vs. 3% of others

46. May 2010 46
Receiving Sexts
• Again, no gender differences and increases by age
– 4% of 12 year olds
– 20% of 16 year olds
– 30% of 17 year olds

47. May 2010 47
Sexting Scenarios
1. Between two romantic partners, as a part of,
instead of, or as a prelude to sex – never
leaves couple
2. Between two romantic partners – but shared
with others
3. Between two people where at least one would
like to be in a relationship – shows interest

48. May 2010 48
Element of coercion for some sexting
“When I was about 14-15 years old, I received/sent these types
of pictures. Boys usually ask for them or start that type of
conversation. My boyfriend, or someone I really liked asked
for them. And I felt like if I didn’t do it, they wouldn’t continue
to talk to me. At the time, it was no big deal. But now looking
back it was definitely inappropriate and over the line.”
17 year old girl