Cyber Safety

Cyber Safety for teenagers

Cyber bullying

Cyber bullying is when the bully post negative or threatening material to or about the victim online. Bullying is repetitive abuse, not one time incidents.

Different people react to cyber bullying differently, some would find the bully and beat them half to death, some would ignore it, others will be heavily affected by it or somewhere in between.
While the first option may be tempting, violent action could get you in more trouble than the bully. The recommended approach is…

Do not retaliate to such things as they may use it against you.

Record the evidence, photograph emails, sms messages, facebook messages, anything that is nasty to the victim.

Report the abuse if possible.

It is also helpful to ask the agressor to stop and delete what is done. Mentioning that legal action could be used if they continue.

Block the facebook user, phone number, or email address.

Talk to a trusted friend or relative.

Should they continue then legal action is recommended after the bully has been warned. Contact a free legal service in your area before you do anything.
Cyber bullying is a crime and can be punished in criminal court with up to 3 years jail. If there is a threat to kill the victim, the agressor could face up to 21 years inprisonment.
If they have caused provable harm to you (depression, sleeping difficulties, etc) then you could look to take them to the peoples court to sue them.

This site will help with different ways to approach such issues.
http://www.acma.gov.au/
If help or advice is needed with cyber bullying the Kids Help Line is there to help young people, free of charge and anonymous.

Whats posted online

Information posted online is permanent and far spread. This internet activity can be monitored or tracked, the government or potential employers for example. These posts might seem funny now but in 10-15 years time in a job interview might not be so funny.

With internet posts, no one can know for sure what kind of emotion you might put behind it, sarcasm could be seen otherwise, a simple comment might make you seem angry, a joke may be seen as more than a joke. It is wise to keep in mind that a simple joke posted online may seem otherwise by those who are not in on whats going on.

When posting on social media or the internet keep in mind:

…… Think before you post, remember these posts can be shared to friends of your friends, even someone liking or commenting on the post makes it visible to their friends.
…… Check your saftey settings to make sure your information is private.
…… Make sure to check what you are tagged in.
…… Don't post photos of people unless they are ok with it as it might end very badly for you.
…… Not to post abusive things about people. Treat others as you want to be treated.

Cyber Predators

Not every profile on the internet is real. When it comes to talking to profiles that are suspicous, using common sence is key. For example meeting someone you haven't met before in a private area where there are few people around, say a forrest for example, not very smart. Getting tricked into thinking a profile is real isn't a bad thing, however continuing to talk to this fake person is bad. As teenagers it is our responsibility to be aware of such risks, and on who we talk to.

Identity Theft and Scams

Online scams affect not just teenagers but adults to. Online scamming is a huge thing.
Identity theft is where the criminal gathers information on their victim to adopt their identity, which they would use for financial gain, the criminals with enough information can take out loans from their victims accounts. Though crimes could be committed using the victims name. Such information can be gathered online posts by the victim themselves, from spam emails, or from spyware infecting a computer with such information.

To avoid such things using a strong password is important including upper/lower case letters and symbols. Try to keep passwords different for each site you have. Use secure websites when making online transactions, don't respond to emails asking for personal or bank details, and what has been said through this whole page, be careful what you post online.

Story that involves identity theft…
This story begins with a girl named Stephanie. She and her family went on a 4 week holiday and when they came back they found their house had been completely robbed. Stephanie was addicted to social media and posted stuff without thinking. She even said about her holiday and personal life. It turns out the neighbours saw a truck outside their house 3 and a half weeks before they came back. When the neighbours questioned the removalist guys they gave a story about the family moving houses, the neighbours would be suspisious though the removalists knew so much about the family that it seemed as if they were friends, the removalists even knew their dogs name and the familys favourite sports. Turns out they got these details on facebook.
Lucky for the family they had insurance for burglaries. Though they couldn't claim as the terms and conditions state if someone in the family or close to them posts online that the residents of the house are going to be away from home, it is their fault and they will not be insured for such incidents. Lesson of the story, it is a really bad idea to post such details over the internet.

Scams

Scams are a huge threat over the internet for those who are unaware of them. There are different kinds of scams. Some of them are…

Lottery

The victim will receive an email or message of some kind claiming that the victim has won lots of money and to receive this money they need to pay a bit of money to receive it, there will constantly be unexpected costs showing up afterwards without the victim receiving little if any money in the process.

Phishing

Emails are sent from false or hacked email adresses, the sender will claim to be someone working for a certain financial institute. The sender will send a link in the email directing the victim to a mimiced website. There will usually be a prompt for username, passwords, etc. The sender will use these to get the details for credit cards, bank details and similair thing. Dont use links in emails to get to a specific site.

Advance fee, a.k.a Nigerian 419

These scams offer lots of money to the victim if they help them in transfering these funds the scammer claims to have. These people claim to have financial reasons as to why they are transfering these funds into or from foreign currency. As with the lottery scam unexpected fees will pop up before this fake amount of money can be transfered.

Mule

This scam shows the victim that there is a job vacancy offering high amounts of money for little work. The job usually involves the victim transfering funds from one account to another. This is laundering which is a crime, the victim could face criminal charges for such acts.

General info

Sexting under the age of 18 is a crime. Sending, receiving, or sharing such photos is against the child protection act. If someone under the age of 18 sends photos, receives them and doesnt delete them immediately, or shares them to other people, is caught (which isnt hard as the police can get records for such things relatively easy), the offenders will usually go to criminal court with possible jail time. Such offenders will be placed on the sex offenders list, such people are not allowed within a certain distance of children or schools, are not allowed outside their state, and must report to a police station regularly as they have to be heavily monitored.

Smartphones and most mobile devices have whats called a geolocator which pinpoints your exact position on earth. It is wise to turn off location based services on your phone via phone settings unless you really need it. You wouldnt want random people knowing where you live.

With having a phone there are lots of risks, one of these risks is being added to a premium service which charges large fees, or numbers that spam you with messages, you can get more info to avoid these threats by talking to your mobile provider or looking on the website.

If you happen to have either a webcam or a microphone attached to your device (computer, phone, table) you should make sure the webcam is unplugged and preferably turned facing a wall and within 30cm of the wall at most (or faced towards an object that gives the camera no vision). The microphone should also be unplugged. Some of these devices cannot be unplugged, covering the webcam will do. Why should you do this? People could give your device a virus which will give them control of these devices. If they can get control of the webcam and turn it on, they could record you.

There is way too much info to put all of it on this wiki, however just about everything you could possibly need to know is on this website about to be shown. http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/Teens.aspx it could help in many different ways, so have a look should you have spare time.

Relevant Videos

This video goes into more detail about the subject of predators on the internet.

This video is another warning as to what you should and shouldnt put on the internet.

Buying stuff on the internet is not always safe. Trust before you buy.

Resources:
http://edict.wikidot.com/wiki:cyber-safety Main resource.
http://www.acma.gov.au/
http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/Teens.aspx
Youtube. Channels ACMAcybersmart, fbi.

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