by Foo on May 11, 2013
Kids have always been bullied, from unkind words to stealing lunch money and chasing other kids home. Likely you knew the bully in your school and also knew who they were bullying.
Bullying may not be so clear cut in our electronic age so defining bullying is the first step.
unwanted, aggressive behavior … that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. -
Stopbullying.gov defination
Some people minimize bullying by calling it different names, including teasing, giving you a hard time, pulling your chain or brushing it off as a practical joke. A bully will frequently down play their behavior and blame the victim by saying things like “you can’t take a joke” or that “you’re a party pooper” or call you a “sorehead”. It is helpful to look at bullying as toxic behavior that tries to marginalize the victim in order to control, embarrass, make the other person feel less than and diminished. Physical abuse is not necessarily involved but it can be. Bullies often think they are funny or just playing a joke but real humor is funny to everyone and is not at someone else’s expense.
Cyber-bullying is somewhat new and involves the use of online or electronic technology to control, intimidate, diminish, embarrass and make the life of another person difficult. Adults can even be bullied by students as outlined in this article: GIGAOM reports about student bullying of teachers in North Carolina. If this is happening in one state, it is likely happening elsewhere. In this article, North Carolina is taking steps to prevent students from bullying their teachers. The students are signing teachers and other school employees up for online porn sites and then posting an image of the teacher or employee online. A few students have built websites to defame, insult, post cruel and derogatory information about school officials and teachers. This type of harassing behavior has been going on for a long time, things like putting a teacher’s car on the front steps of the school, putting mice in drawers and tacks on chairs. Using technology to abuse teachers and school officials is new and it is also much more harmful and widespread with permanent ramifications. Once the information is in cyberspace it is difficult, if not impossible, to get it back. It can permanently damage a teacher or school official’s reputation.
The action that North Carolina is proposing is to pass a cyber-bullying law to make it a misdemeanor and carry up to a $1000 fine if found guilty. This effort is pitching a battle between student rights for free speech and victim’s rights. Our technology has far outstripped our ability to deal with how the technology is used.
Author Bio: This article was written by Marcia Baker who writes about the uses and abuses of technology for
Sniper Spy cutting-edge remote monitoring software that can tell you if your kids are involved or victims of cyber-bullying.
by Foo on May 8, 2013
Most of the people don’t care about their personal computer security unless they are hit by serious computer viruses or spywares. These viruses infect the stored files and folders, often damage the file system and minimize the performance of your computer. Similarly, spywares track your personal data and information and then send it to the host. To prevent yourself from the viruses and spywares, antivirus software should be installed on your pc, which takes care of your computer security. However, installing an antivirus is not enough. Following steps should be taken to make sure your pc is protected and running smoothly.
- Always keep your antivirus services up-to-date. Download the latest definitions for your security software to ensure it has the latest patches and fixes to scan and fix all viruses and spywares on your computer.
- Try to scan your computer manually instead of quick or automatic scanning. Manual scanning provides the more detailed scanning, by scanning registries, files and sub folders. It scans all the potential Trojans, bugs and worms on your system and allows you to take the desired action.
- Change your password after every month to ensure better security and safety. Always generate a strong password by using alphabets, numbers and symbols. Although simple passwords like country name, birthday, are easy to remember, but can be easily cracked by the hackers.
- Install the softwares that are tested by the security testing service providers. These softwares have the immunity to subsist a virus or spyware attack. Hence, in case of any virus or spyware attack, stored data cannot be damaged or leaked to external sources.
- Use unique and different passwords for every account. Using same password for all the accounts (Gmail, Facebook, twitter) is not a good approach as hacker can dig in to all your accounts using the same password.
- Make sure you lock your computer before leaving the desk. Also set your computer to display a lock screen when it wakes up from sleep. Always use a strong password for your computer login account.
- Install a firewall to manage and control the traffic over the internet. The basic function of the firewall is to monitor the programs that are accessing and using the internet connection on your system. Firewall gives you the autonomy to allow or block access of the applications using internet connection. Firewalls can slow down your internet speed because of tight monitoring, but is a must tool for safe and secure browsing. It is advised to use the firewalls that are properly tested by the performance testing service providers, so that it can manage the web traffic load effectively.
I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image. Stephen Hawking
