Cyberbullying

Civil Rights Groups including The Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, Common Sense Media, Free Press, the NAACP and Sleeping Giants, are launching a social media campaign, #StopHateForProfit, to urge large Facebook advertisers to boycott the platform unless it makes formal moves to curtail the proliferation of hate speech on its platform. The group is also requesting Facebook to take steps such as removing ads labeled as misinformation or hateful, and informing advertisers when their media buys appear near harmful content and grant refunds. The list of those companies taking part is growing by the day, although critics have questioned the effectiveness, pointing out these companies are not taking down their pages and will most likely buy more ads on Facebook after July.

These actions are one example of recent backlash against Facebook, which seemed to intensify when a flurry of misinformation appeared on the social platform amid worldwide protests against racism and police brutality. The company declined to take action against posts from President Trump — despite Twitter flagging that same content as misleading or glorifying violence. Facebook did remove ads from Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign that featured a symbol used by the Nazis during World War II. The company also announced that it would gradually allow users to opt out of seeing political ads, and has acknowledged in a blog post that its enforcement of content rules “isn’t perfect.”

A reminder for parents and kids that participating in a video meeting for school work, extracurriculars, or just socializing, provides a window into your homes. Parents should help kids think about their surroundings and what may be visible during an online class meeting. Both Zoom and Meet allow users to change the background image, a feature that addresses privacy and helps students who might feel insecure about their homes. Cyberbullies love to feed on any kind of personal information that might be revealed in what is hanging on your walls, interactions with family members while online, and other clues to your family’s life, so it is worth taking the time to creating the right background for an online class and reminding family members to give the online participant space.

It will be very interesting to see what effect the new Executive Order that President Trump signed recently targeting Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act has on cyberbullying and misinformation online. While you may have never heard of this section of the law, it was created almost 30 years ago to protect Internet platforms from liability for many of the things third parties say or do on them. But now it’s under threat by President Trump, who hopes to use this act to fight back against the social media platforms he believes are unfairly censoring him and other conservative voices. Some critics say he is trying to bully these platforms into letting him post anything he wants without correction or reprimand, even when he has broken a site’s rules about posting bullying comments or questionable information.

In a nutshell, Section 230 says that Internet platforms that host third-party content (for example, tweets on Twitter, posts on Facebook, photos on Instagram, reviews on Yelp, or a news outlet’s reader comments) are not liable for what those third parties post (with a few exceptions). For instance, if a Yelp reviewer were to post something defamatory about a business, the business could sue the reviewer for libel, but it couldn’t sue Yelp. Without Section 230’s protections, the Internet as we know it today would not exist. If the law were taken away, many websites driven by user-generated content would likely be shut down. As Senator Ron Wyden, one of the authors of the Section 230 says about it, the law is both a sword and a shield for platforms: They’re shielded from liability for user content, and they have a sword to moderate it as they see fit.

That doesn’t mean Section 230 is perfect. Some argue that it gives platforms too little accountability, allowing some of the worst parts of the internet — think cyberbullying that parents or schools struggle to have removed or misinformation that stays online for all to see with little recourse— to flourish along with the best. Simply put, Internet platforms have been happy to use the shield to protect themselves from lawsuits, but they’ve largely ignored the sword to moderate the bad stuff their users upload. It is also important to remember that the cyberbullying that occurs is less than one tenth of one percent of all the traffic online, but it still is important for these sites to acknowledge their role and do more about it.

All that said, this protection has allowed the Internet to thrive. Think about it: Websites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have millions and even billions of users. If these platforms had to monitor and approve every single thing every user posted, they simply wouldn’t be able to exist. No website or platform can moderate at such an incredible scale, and no one wants to open themselves up to the legal liability of doing so. But if that free flow of information and creativity goes away, our online world will be very different.

So where do we stand? While the executive order sounds strict ( and a little frightening with the government making “watch lists” of people who post or support “certain kinds” of content) , legal experts don’t seem to think much — or even any — of it can be backed up, citing First Amendment concerns. It’s also unclear whether or not the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to regulate Section 230 in this way, or if the president can change the scope of a law without any congressional approval.

Facebook is combating hate speech and misinformation by developing natural language processing models and a database of meme examples for training artificial intelligence moderators. The company, together with DrivenData, will also launch the Hateful Meme Challenge, which will award $100,000 to researchers who develop AI models that can detect hate speech in memes.

In its latest effort to improve content transparency leading up to the US election, Facebook is adding new location markers on individual business profile posts, on both Facebook and Instagram, which will highlight where the managers of that page or account are primarily located, helping to provide additional context. That’s another tool for you and your kids to use in combatting cyberbullying and misinformation. This new transparency feature will be particularly important with the election in the fall of 2020.

Just because kids aren’t in school does not mean that cyberbullying is taking a rest. With an increase in kids and teens using digital platforms for personal use and online learning, kids who are prone to being bullied in school are likely to now be cyberbullied. When kids are stressed out and bored the opportunity to cyberbully can be appealing. In normal times, according to STOMP Out Bullying, 5.4 million children are afraid to go to school every day for fear of being bullied. “Imagine all those children that are now being home schooled online and afraid to sign into their accounts due to the same reason,” said Ross Ellis, founder and CEO of STOMP Out Bullying. “Children who have more free time on their hands may find additional screen time attractive and cyberbullying can become one of their activities.”

While teachers may be aware of conflicts during online learning sessions, they can only do so much to help children navigate the waters of cyberbullying. Parents need to also be vigilant to signs their children are being cyberbullied, but this can be hard in the present circumstances because some of the warning signs like depression, changes in eating habits and sleeping patterns, feelings of helplessness, and physical symptoms like headaches and upset stomach may also be reaction to being home for so long. Probably the clearest sign that something is wrong is when kids don’t want to go online, spend time on their usual social media apps, or check in with friends.

What can a parent do?

• If you don’t have one, now is the time to make a Family Internet Safety Agreement outlining the responsibilities that your kids must follow when using your home’s Internet service. Here is a sample you can use as an example to create one for your own household during the COVID-19 quarantine and beyond. And if you already have one, it is a good time to review it with your kids. The Center for Cyber Safety and Education has some free tip sheets on a variety of digital safety topics including cyberbullying
• This is a time when it is an essential to communicate with your kids and teens about their online life. Let them know that it’s okay to come to you if they are being cyberbullied. Encourage them to tell you immediately if they are being digitally harassed, cyberbullied, cyberstalked, or if they’ve been approached by a predator. Tell them you won’t be angry about anything. You just want to help them.
• Explain that cyberbullying is harmful and unacceptable. Discuss appropriate online behavior and make it clear that there will be consequences for inappropriate behavior.
• If your child does participate in cyberbullying, be willing to sit down and talk about why, and how owning up to their behavior and making an apology can go a long way in making things right again. Be prepared for the fact that your kids may tell you they thought they were only teasing or that “everyone was doing it,” but remind them that it is likely the person on the other end won’t take it that way. Ask your kids to talk to you if they feel tempted or somehow urged to do it again and search your own life and make sure you are not modeling that kind of behavior. Remind them that cyberbullying is a choice.
• If possible, try to be around when your kids are online on their phones, laptops and tablets. You don’t need to spy on them or stand over his or her shoulder, but just keep tabs on what they are doing online. This is also really good time to ban digital device use overnight and set up a charging station in the kitchen or other high traffic area where the devices will be left overnight.
• While it may not always be your favorite activity for them, allow and support your children when it comes to Skyping, Zooming and FaceTiming their friends, as well as livestreaming on their favorite apps (depending on their age, maturity, and your household rules, of course). Research has shown that socializing and connecting with their peers is essential for their continued healthy development and especially in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.

The basics of talking to your kids about staying safe on all the latest and greatest social media apps is not all that different then the general digital safety cautionary conversation you have probably had with them about the Internet in general. If you need a refresher, here is link to the basics of what should be part of that conversation. The most important thing to remember? Remind them that anything that is posted is permanent, even if you have deleted it or shared it on an app like Snapchat, where the message is supposed to disappear. There is always a chance someone could take a screen shot or can hack into your archive. Once it is up, you never know where it may pop up again.

For currently popular apps such as TikTok, Instagram and more, parents will need to spend a little time getting familiar with them in order to have any credibility in talking about them. There are lots of guides available for parents, complete with all the cautions you need to emphasize. Common Sense Media, for example, has a parent’s section complete with quick tip guides on Instagram and TikTok. They often do follow up articles on other problems that crop up with each app over time, so don’t just click on the first guide you see  - look for one that has been done more recently to make sure you have the latest information on how kids are using the app and what issues have surfaced. USA Today  also specializes in creating these kinds of parent guides. Take advantage of what others have discovered and keep your ears open for other issues and new apps that parents in your children’s social orbit may be talking about.

At first glance, this infographic from Social Media Today with statistics about online product reviews may not seem relevant to a discussion about cyberbullying, however one statistic stands out. The research indicates that it takes 40 positive reviews to undo damage done by just one negative review. That same kind of disproportional damage can be inflicted with bullying comments online. This kind of evidence can give your discussion with your kids of how to steer clear of cyberbullying a bit of real world perspective.

The FBI is alerting parents, teachers and caregivers to the increased risk of online child sexual exploitation as children spend more time on the Internet while schools are closed because of the coronavirus. The agency urges parents to discuss Internet safety with children and to review the apps, games and websites that are being used. They also suggest parents adjust online settings if they can’t physically watch their children’s online activity. Do an online search to find out how to adjust the privacy settings on the specific devices your children use. Some signs that your child may be in contact with an online predator include increased nightmares, withdrawn behaviors, angry outbursts, anxiety and depression. And in case you need it, here is a checklist of things you should be talking to your kids about Internet safety.

With school closures and COVID-19 lockdowns, kids are spending a lot more time online, increasing the risk of them stumbling into dark corners of the Web. Add to this the fact that many parents are also now working from home, and unable to supervise what their children are doing, and the problem grows exponentially. In order to help, Facebook has recently launched a new education resource for kids, parents and educators that aims to "provide lessons and resources to help young people develop the competencies and skills they need to more safely navigate the Internet". The new initiative - called simply 'Get Digital' - includes several dedicated education areas, each of which features a video overview, and links to a range of tools and resources to help improve digital literacy.