Cyber Safety in Schools
Presented by:
Margie Daniels – Executive Director, Middlesex Partnerships for Youth, Inc.
Onyen Yong – Director of IT/Assistant District Attorney
Middlesex Partnerships for Youth, Inc.
Office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.
Cyberspace
Risky Technologies OR Risky
Behaviors?
What Are Kids Doing Online?
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Instant messaging (IM)
Facebook and other social networking sites.
You Tube
Chat rooms
Webcams
Cell Phones: Texting, Sexting, Video
Interactive Games
Virtual Worlds: Second Life
Webkinz
 35% of adults have a profile on a social
networking site
 65% of teens have a profile on a social
networking site
 49% adults and teens said they used social
networking site to make new friends
Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2008
Search
Username
User Names
Watching but not
playing
Chat
Webcams
 Often
 Can
built into computers
be disabled
 Inappropriate
doors
use possible behind closed
Cell Phones
 Texting
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Issues
Over Texting
Use during school hours, despite regulations
Cyber Bullying
Sexting
• “High Tec Way to Flirt”
• Serious legal implications (distribution of child
porn)
Holliston Police Department
 Response
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to “Sexting” & hurtful “Texting”
Prevention Strategies
• Education for children
• Education for families and community
Online RPGs: World of Warcraft
 "They build it in such a
way that you have to keep
putting more and more
time into it to maintain your
status. I remember thinking
when I was married that it
was downright exploitative
to people who couldn't
control themselves in that
way. It's set up like a drug."
http://us.i1.yimg.com/videogames.yahoo.com/feature/wedding-woes-the-dark-side-of-warcraft/1186366
Online RPGs: World of Warcraft
 News
story: “Wedding Woes: The Dark
Side of Warcraft”
"He would get home from work at 6:00, start
playing at 6:30, and he'd play until three a.m.
Weekends were worse -- it was from morning
straight through until the middle of the night,"
she told Yahoo! Games in an interview. "It took
away all of our time that we spent together. I
ceased to exist in his life."
http://us.i1.yimg.com/videogames.yahoo.com/feature/wedding-woes-the-dark-side-of-warcraft/1186366
Second Life
What is Second Life?
 Developed by Linden Lab
 MUVE - Multi-User Virtual Environment
“Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely
built and owned by its residents.”
 Second Life is NOT a game
 Main grid is for adults only (18+)
Teen Second Life
Requires valid cell
phone with SMS
13 to 17 y.o.
Started early 2005
17
Revealing Too Much
Predators
Cyber Bullying
You Can’t Take It Back
 Words
and photos published online are
there for the world to see - once out there,
they can’t be taken back.
 Any photo or video posted online can be
saved, accessed and altered by anyone.
 This applies even if your page is private.
 Private conversations can be saved.
www.facebook.com
Name
Age
Home
How He Knows
These Friends
Friends
Interests
Why Should You Care?
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Family, friends, parents, teachers, and others
will likely check your online life.
College admissions officials often check to see
what online information they can find on
candidates.
The same applies to employers you might want
to work for in the future.
Interested in a career with a public life? Beware
what you post!
Profiles & blogs may be viewed by online
predators.
How Much is Too Much?
 Information
that could lead a predator to
your door:
Name age
birthday phone number
School schedule location
 Photos
or video should never be posted
online if they show:
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Backgrounds that reveal identifying
information
Sexually provocative poses
Too much skin
• Some Web sites such as
www.freevote.com, offer users
the opportunity to create online
polling/voting booths.
• Cyberbullies can use these
Web sites to create Web pages
that allow others to vote online
for "The Ugliest , Fattest,
Dumbest etc. Boy/Girl at *****
School".
Why Victims Don’t Report!
 They
do NOT want to be blamed.
 They do NOT want the computer to be
taken away!
 They are worried that their report will NOT
be taken seriously.
What won’t work
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Avoiding the internet
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Using blocking,
monitoring and filtering
software as a standalone strategy
Monitoring is more effective than
blocking in preventing youth
from communicating online with
unknown people
(Pew Internet and American Life Project)