Online Harassment of Women Becoming "Established Norm"

Australian researchers have published a new study on cyber abuse—and the results are decidedly grim. 

• 

  Women under age 30 are most vulnerable to attack.
• Women believe online abuse is a growing problem, but feel powerless to act against it.
• 70% of women said online harassment is a serious problem in 2016 and a full 60% said that it's getting worse.
• More than half the women surveyed felt the police needed to start taking victims seriously.

Read the entire article at The Guardian...

Molak Family Seeks to Pass "David's Law" in Texas

On January 4, 2016, sixteen-year-old David Molak committed suicide after enduring years of online abuse, harassment & bullying. "David's Law is not made to get people in trouble for calling someone stupid," [his brother Cliff] Molak said. "There's a group of people who chronically and relentlessly bullied my brother and they need to be held accountable."

You can read the full story on Today...

Stephen Leather accused of cyberbullying

Hachette author Stephen Leather has been accused by two fellow thriller writers of cyber-abuse and bullying. One of the alleged victims, Jeremy Duns, has been dealing with anonymous sites and accounts set up to attack him. He wrote that the purpose of the sites are “to simply sling as much mud my way as possible and hope that something sticks, and to make it so that if anyone Googles me – readers, potential readers, publishers, producers, etc – they might be influenced by the fact that apparently lots of people hate me and I am a Terrible Person Who Has Done Lots of Terrible Things... The fact that the accusations are false and in most cases fairly obviously so doesn’t matter much."

Sounds like history repeating itself, though this time outside of the romance genre. One of NMCA founder Tina Engler's most blatant stalkers went so far as to brag online that she has google glutted with negative information about her (Engler). In other words, what Duns has described is fairly typical behavior of an abuser who needs their right to be online revoked for life. JK Rowling had this to say...

Teen Combats Cyber Bullies

Seventeen-year-old Lauren Brocious of Virginia came up with a pro-active way to combat cyberbullying. Read the story in People...

New Hampshire Parents Say More Needs Done to Combat Cyberbullying

More than 60 people attended a public forum on bullying at a Sunapee School Board meeting last month to discuss what they say is the district’s poor response to previous complaints. 

Read the full article here...

Wisconsin Introduces Cyberbullying Bill

State Rep. Robb Kahl (D-Monona) and state Sen. Janis Ringhand (D-Evansville) have introduced legislation that better defines cyberbullying in Wisconsin's existing anti-bullying laws. Kahl and Ringhand were careful to keep their bill's provisions specific in order to waylay First Amendment concerns regarding previous legislation. The bill addresses cyberbullying as it relates to minors or adults aged 18+ still attending high school. Get the full story here.

Informal Internet Study: Twitterverse is Populated by Sheeple

When software CMO Rurik Bradbury saw tweets suggesting the lights of the Eiffel Tower had been turned off in Paris at 1 am because of the terrorist attacks, Bradbury decided to perform a little social experiment. The lights to the Eiffel Tower are always shut off at 1 am, you see, but that didn't stop tens of thousands of people from retweeting misinformation he purposely put out there. Get the story here!

Duke & Duchess of Cambridge Take on Cyber-Bullying

Prince William & Kate Middleton have invited the heads of major social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to meet with them and discuss the measures that should be taken to bring an end to cyber-harassment. 

Get the full story here. 

NFL's Chris Long Takes on Cyber-bullying

Chris Long of the St. Louis Rams is a vocal campaigner against cyber-bullying. Despite a recently sustained injury, the defensive end met with enthusiastic students at Affton high school on Thursday to encourage them to kill cyber-bullying with kindness. Get the story here.

Karachi Student Arrested for Cyber Harassment

Abdul Moiz, a 21-year-old male university student, was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan Thursday night local time for using a fake Facebook account to harass and blackmail a female university student. According to the victim's father the two are former friends. Moiz allegedly began harassing the unnamed victim after she reportedly spurned his affections. Get the full story here.