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Cyber Bullying
Text\Video Messaging
- Don't reply to text messaging (also known as SMS or
EMS) or video messaging (also known as MMS) that is abusive
or obscene. Your mobile service provider e.g. Orange, T-Mobile, Vodaphone
etc. should have a number that you can ring to report abusive messaging.
Try their web sites for details.
- Be careful who you give phone numbers to and don't leave your mobile
lying around when you are not there
Chatrooms or Instant Messaging (IM)
- Do not give out personal information
- Give yourself an alias that doesn't give out anything about your
age, gender or location
- Don't respond to abusive posting - ignore them or log off. If you
don't take time off and calm down you'll end up writing something you'll
regret which will only make the situation worse
- Think about what you write - it is very easy for people to get
the wrong idea about what you write or how you write it
Email
- If you receive a nasty or abusive email (known as being flamed),
don't reply. If it's from someone you think you know,
like someone at school, they'll want some kind of reaction, just like
they would if they were standing in front of you and bullying you. Don't
give them the satisfaction of replying, and they'll probably stop
- If they don't stop then you need to find out where the email is coming
from. Using an email client like Outlook or Outlook Express, clicking
the right mouse button over an email will reveal lots of details about
where and who the email came from. You can then get your parents to
contact the school or the service provider of the sender of the email
- The email can also come from people that you don't know, (known as
spamming) - email addresses are fairly easy for companies to
obtain on the internet, using software called email harvesters. They
are also surprisingly easy for specialist computer programs to guess.
Under no circumstances should you reply to these types of email, even
if they have a Click here and stop receiving this email link
- this will just confirm your email address as a real one. The individual
sending it can then sell or pass it on to other people and you'll be
flooded with even more junk and abusive emails
- You can delete the emails, but if the situation becomes serious,
you should save them or print them off so that, if you do need to take
action, you have some evidence
- Learn more about your email program from the Help menu - you should
be able to find details of how you can create folders, email filters
and folder routeing. This won't stop the emails but it can help to shield
you from them
Web
- If the cyberbullying is on a school or community website, do as you
would do if the bullying was face to face - tell someone like your parents
or teachers
- If it's on a site that you don't know about, you have to do a bit
of research to find out who hosts the website. There is a good article
at Bullying
Online about general online safety, with a section on how to get
more details on possible owners of the website
You can also get more information in our Cyber
Bullying section of
the web site