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Cumbria teens warned of ‘sexting’ dangers [North West Evening Mail, 05/08/2013]

TEENAGERS are being warned of the dangers of ‘sexting’ as part of a Cumbria police campaign.

‘Sexting’ is when someone takes an indecent photo of themselves and sends it to a partner or friend – via mobile phone or some other form of technology.

The campaign runs throughout the summer holidays and is aimed at educating parents and carers as well as highlighting some of the perils of online communication.

Detective Inspector Stephanie Brown, of the Public Protection Unit at Cumbria Constabulary, said: “Many young people see sexting as a bit of fun, that’s just between themselves and their partner.

“But the truth is once you have sent an image to others you have lost control of it and it can end up anywhere.

“These images could be then used to bully, harass or even locate the person who sent the image.

“My advice is if you wouldn’t like your parents or teachers to see an image – don’t send it.

“If anyone receives an indecent image or text do not send it on and report it to a responsible adult. Technically possessing an indecent image of another minor is a criminal offence and you could be breaking the law.”

Police and Crime Commissioner, Richard Rhodes said: “I welcome the Constabulary’s campaign especially aimed at keeping young people safe online.

“Sexting is not fun and can have significant consequences. It is really important that people use modern technology responsibly.”

Helen Smith, from Children’s Services at Cumbria County Council, said: “I would encourage all teenagers in Cumbria to follow Cumbria Police on Facebook and Twitter for the next two weeks for advice on the dangers of sexting.

“The risk of exposing intimate images of yourself for the world to see is too great a price to pay for a moment’s lapse in judgement.

“If you are concerned about an image you may have sent always tell an adult you trust – which could be your mum, dad, teacher, or a family friend.”

Visit www.cumbria.police.uk/advice-and-information/online-safety for more information.

Parental talks about sexting should start young: experts [ New York Daily News, by Tacy Miller, 02/08/2013 ]

Experts agreed parental talks about sexting should start young, even before middle school.

Just how early should you talk to your kids about the dangers of sexting?

As soon as you hand them a phone, experts say.

While there are no clear figures on the number of young teens and preteens who have swapped sexually explicit photos with cell phones and other technology, there’s no doubt that it happens.

In Pittsburgh last month, police were alerted to an 11-year-old girl who had been sending topless photos of herself to an older adult.

Months earlier in San Bernardino County, Calif., a 14-year-old girl was issued a misdemeanor citation for transmitting sexual photos on her cell phone.

These cases may be rare, but it often takes only one troubled child to start a dangerous trend among peers, said Dr. Susan Lipkins, a psychologist who specializes in school conflict.

“They’re acting out, needing attention, and there may be some reason,” Lipkins said. “There may be something in the child’s life where they have already been exposed to sex, either by seeing things or hearing things they shouldn’t, or perhaps being abused.

“One child who acts out will be the one with the problem, and the others who are watching may follow.”

Dr. Rebecca Bailey, a family psychologist, agrees.

“There’s a lot of double-daring going on,” said Bailey, author of “Safe Kids, Smart Parents: What Parents Need to Know to Keep Their Children Safe.” “I knew a boy [around 11 years old] who did it to make the other kids stop thinking he was nerdy – that’s a fit-in thing.”

That kids not yet in their teens would send sexually inappropriate text messages is no surprise, she added.

“With kids getting periods as young as 9 now, there may be some that are a little more aware of sexuality,” she says. “They’re also practicing intimacy on some level, too. Some of these kids are ‘going out’ with each other at 11, whatever that may mean. What we’re talking about is wanting to fit in, maybe being somewhat impulsive, and figuring out their identity.”

But even younger children who aren’t thinking about sex are aware what they’re doing is inappropriate, Lipkins said.

“I think people are apt to think ‘oh they didn’t know what they were doing is wrong,'” she said. “They knew; they just couldn’t predict the consequences.”

Experts agreed parental talks about sexting should start young, even before middle school.

Exactly what you say to your children depends on their age – and not necessarily the one that’s displayed on their birthday cake.

Parents need to “understand developmentally what age your child is at,” Bailey said. “Some 11-year-olds are still 9-year-olds. That can vary in a house. You can have twins with different developmental ages.”

Here’s how to start the conversation with your younger child.

Start with the basics. Elementary schoolers can be taught phone safety rules that will help prepare them for peer pressure later on. “Even a younger child can understand, don’t take pictures of anything that’s private, don’t expose your last name or any identifying info,” Lipkins said.

Give them a “dumb” phone, not a smartphone. “The phone you give your child should only have features that child is ready to handle,” Lipkins said. If a child can’t exercise good judgment with photos or texting, parents can and should disable those functions. Most elementary-aged kids only need a basic phone with mom and dad’s number programmed on it, Bailey said.

Have access to the phone – and use it. “Parents should be able to see texts and photos, and have the passwords” to any apps, Lipkins said. Privacy “can happen later during high school,” she added. “In middle school, kids still need supervision.”

Ask questions instead of lecturing. “Be a bit of a detective” to find out what’s really going on in your child’s life, Bailey said. “Allow them to teach you,” she said. “Use examples about other kids that you know. Often that will give you more information than hitting them head on.”

Don’t stop at one conversation. “It’s never a one-stop shop” for this kind of parental guidance, Lipkins said. Set down ground rules before you give them the phone, then check in periodically.

20% Of Teens Involved In ‘Sexting’ [ redorbit.com, 16/6/2012 ]

Approximately one out of every five teenagers, including some as young as fourteen years old, are sending or receiving sexually explicit photos, claims a new study published online earlier this month in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.

According to a HealthDay News report published Friday, researchers from the University of Utah interviewed more than 600 students attending a private high school in the southwestern U.S. and asked them about their “sexting” experiences.

Of those who participated in the study, nearly 20% said that they had sent a sexually explicit image of themselves using a cellphone, while almost twice that number report that they had received such a picture. Over one quarter of those who had been the recipient of a sexually explicit photo had forwarded it to someone else, and one-third of those who had sent one said they did so even

though they knew that they could face “serious legal and other consequences if they were caught,” the HealthDay News report added.

The study, which was spearheaded by Utah psychology professor Donald Strassberg, also discovered that students who had sent a picture using their mobile devices were more likely to believe that “sexting” was acceptable behavior, the university said in a press release.

Strassberg and his co-authors said that their findings illustrate the need for increase cell phone safety awareness programs, as well as increased efforts to help teach teens about the “potential consequences” of the behavior.

The Utah study comes one month after a similar report from UK officials, which discovered that teenage girls were under increasing pressure to text and/or email sexually explicit photos of themselves, the AFP reported on Friday.

That study said that more than one-third of teenagers under the age of 18 were affected by sexting.

“What is a concerned parent to do? Psychology Today magazine recommends talking to your teen about the negative consequences of sexting and outline your expectations by creating a computer/mobile phone contract. You can also opt to have your child take an Internet safety class,” the French news agency said.

“Also, randomly have your teen share with you the photos in their phone or computer, and make sure they understand that once a photo is out there on the internet, there is no

way of retrieving it, even if it’s deleted from the phone or computer,” they added.

Sexting: How to Talk to Your Kids [ wentzvillepatch.com, by Joe Smith, 15/4/2011]

I was late to the digital revolution. I resisted as long as I could. But as the famous movie quote goes, “Resistance is futile.”

As soon as I started Facebook, my eyes were opened to the wonders of social media. And don’t get me started on Twitter–I LOVE Twitter! I’m able to connect with so many people from all over the globe. The amount of information at my fingertips is staggering. The chance to reconnect with old high school friends has been fantastic. I really do love all this technology and how it’s increased my ability to connect and communicate with people.

But like anything, there are those who push the line and the envelope. With this influx of technology, there are dangers lurking for us and our kids. This week, we’ll look at “sexting.”

What is sexting?

Sexting is a new reality in youth culture. It occurs when a person takes a sexually revealing photo of themselves and send it to other people. It can also involve sending sexually explicit texts to others.

This is a problem that is more prevalent than you might think. According to surveys done by CosmoGirl and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen an Unplanned Pregnancy, 2009:

Twenty-two percent of teen girls and 20 percent of teen boys have sent nude or partially phones of themselves over the Internet on their phones.
Twenty-two percent of teens admit that technology makes them more forward and aggressive.
Thirty-eight percent of teens say exchanging sexy content makes dating or hooking up with others more likely.
Twenty-nine percent of teens believe those exchanging sexy content are “expected” to date or hook up.

And according to information from MTV and The Associated Press, 30 percent of teens sext.

Not only do 20 to 30 percent of teens sext, but it can become life or death when that picture starts to circulate around the school and community. AMW’s Safety Center website tells the story of Ohio teen Jessica Logan. One snap of a camera phone changed her life forever: that one image—meant only for her boyfriend at the time—would have deadly ramifications. Jessica’s parents said she took her own life in her bedroom after the racy photo was leaked around her school, and she had been harassed for months.

In the March 30, 2009 issue of People magazine the article “The Dangers of Sexting” tells of two young boys who shared a sext photo and wound up in trouble with the law. Fortunately for these two students, no charges were filed. But because of child pornography laws, anyone that takes and sends a nude photo of a minor can be charged.

In 2009, a CBS news report on the dangers of sexting said that anyone (minors included) possessing nude pictures of underage kids is violating the letter of the law. They can be charged with felonies and must register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.

Eric Higgs, a deputy sheriff in Effingham County, IL said that in his county and surrounding counties 40 percent of teens with cellphones have received at least one sexually explicit photo from another teen.

I have personally dealt with the devastation and fallout that comes from sexting. It’s not easy sitting with parents and talking about images that their little girls have sent out to boys. It’s not easy counseling these young women that for one reason or another sent these pictures to one person, and “somehow” they ended up all over the school.

Imagine the shame you would feel, if you knew that most of the people you see on a daily basis had seen intimate pictures of you. The embarrassment would be almost too much to take. These feelings can fade with time, but the harassment that takes place can affect a person long after the picture is forgotten. It manifests itself in a low self image. Some of the teen girls have sought out the comfort of another teen boy who will tell them they love them, only to find out the only thing that boy loved was the physical encounter that came from the comforting words. Then the cycle repeats itself.

In my decade of working with teens and their families, this is not an extreme but the norm. Sex, in any form, is powerful. The teen psyche is not equipped to handle the fallout and responsibility that comes from sexting.

Thankfully there has been push back from networks with large teen audiences, such as MTV, using their large platforms to warn teens about the dangers of sexting. Hopefully this will help. But the first line of defense takes place in the home. We must be aware of the problem and then have solutions to the problem.

Here are some tips from Commonsense.org:

Don’t wait for an incident to happen to your child or your child’s friend before you talk about the consequences of sexting. Sure, talking about sex or dating with teens can be uncomfortable, but it’s better to have the talk before something happens.
Remind your kids that once an image is sent, it can never be retrieved, and they will lose control of it. Ask teens how they would feel if their teachers, parents or the entire school saw the picture, because that happens all the time.
Talk about pressures to send revealing photos. Let teens know that you understand how they can be pushed or dared into sending something. Tell them that no matter how big the social pressure is, the potential social humiliation can be hundreds of times worse.
Teach your children that the buck stops with them. If someone sends them a photo, they should delete it immediately. It’s better to be part of the solution than the problem. Besides, if they do send it on, they’re distributing pornography—and that’s against the law.
Check out ThatsNotCool.com. It’s a fabulous site that gives kids the language and support to take texting and cellphone power back into their own hands. It’s also a great resource for parents who are uncomfortable dealing directly with this issue.

Beyond just talking with your student there are ways to see if your student is caught up in sexting. Check your cell phone bills. If there a lot of data usage charges on your bill, it means there are some pictures being sent back and forth. Make sure you set limits on what times your teen is allowed to have the phone. Pick the phone up and look through it. If there are any sexually explicit pictures, delete them right away. And if you have to, there are resources online to help track and monitor what happens on your teen’s phone.

The world that I grew up in is vastly different than the world today. My children are and will face pressures once unheard of. Sexting is one such pressure.

As parents, we must be willing to do whatever it takes to guide our children to a point of mature adulthood. Doing so can and will lead to uncomfortable conversations and circumstances. I would encourage all parents to do a little digging on social media, both the positives and the negatives. Arm yourself with information and then use that information to help guide your child to responsibility.

Have you dealt with sexting? What advice would you give? The more conversation we have, the better we all become.

Portage Teen Arrested For ‘Sexting’ As Two Girls Apparently Sent Him Naked Pictures [ huffingtonpost.com, 14/4/2011]

Sexting

A 15-year-old in Portage, Indiana was arrested last week for having naked pictures of two girls on his phone.

The freshman at Portage High School is being charged with juvenile possession of child pornography, according to police.

Officials looked on the boy’s cell phone after receiving a phone call from the mother of one of the girls, age 15. She said that the boy had threatened to post pictures of her daughter on MySpace unless she lent him her saxophone, the Associated Press reports. The boy denies that claim.

The other girl, age 14, told police that she had sent nude photos of herself to several boys, including at Portage, Hobart, Chesterton and Lake Station High Schools. She also had photos of herself, and of another boy, in the buff on her iPod, which she showed police, according to the Northwest Indiana Times.

In both cases, the girls appear to have sent him the photos voluntarily, and it’s unclear whether he solicited them or not.

Portage Township Schools Superintendent Michael Berta said all the students in question will be suspended, and possibly expelled. “There’s guilt on both sides,” said Berta, according to NBC Chicago. “Parents must be very attentive to the children that you have, and to their interaction with the evolving technology.”

Sexting for ‘insurance’ [ heraldsun.com.au, by Rosemarie Lentini, 31/3/2011]

Texting — Teenagers are exchanging explicit photos of themselves as a form of “insurance” to stop their photos being circulated. Source: AFP

TEENAGERS are exchanging explicit photos of themselves as a form of “insurance” to stop their pictures being circulated via mobile phones.

A two-year research project into sexting – sending sexually explicit messages, photos or videos via text message – shows adolescents are blackmailing each other with nude photos to protect themselves from their own increasingly risky behaviour.

Researcher Nina Funnell has spoken to hundreds of youths aged between 15 and 18 about sexting habits.

Ms Funnell said “sexting” had become an accepted part of adolescent dating culture.

“The common idea is young people are doing this as a response to pressure or they’re brainwashed by popular culture,” she said.

“Young people don’t say this. What I hear is it’s about flirtation and pleasure and exploring their sexuality.”

Teen sexting experiences shared with Ms Funnell include:

A year 11 high school student who sent a nude photo of herself to her boyfriend on condition he send one of himself – an “insurance photo” – in case they broke up and he used it against her.

A 16-year-old boy who was shocked when a girl sent an explicit photo of herself to get his attention.

Year 10 private school boys were asked by a year 10 female student from another school to send nude photos for a “league table”.

Deakin University psychology professor Marita McCabe said teenagers had always “pushed the barriers” when exploring sexuality – now they were incorporating technology.

“We would need to be careful about criminalising something that is consensual and not exploitative,” Prof McCabe said.

“There’s no question that as adolescents, boys and girls go through a process of exploring their sexuality and it’s important that they feel comfortable with their sexuality and to explore in a consensual way how their body operates.”

Beyond ‘Sexting’: Teenagers Sending Racy Videos [ ABCNews.com, by Mary Pflum & Michael Milberger, 22/3/2011].

The proliferation of cell phones equipped with video cameras has made shooting and sending x-rated videos easier than ever for teenagers.

The world of “sexting” — sending sexually explicit text messages — amongst teens that was once limited to raunchy words and pictures is increasingly moving into the video domain — with devastating consequences.

Not a day goes by for 25 year-old Melanie Paradis that she doesn’t think about the events that unfolded during her junior year of high school after an explicit video she made for a high school crush earned her the nickname “porn star.”

“He asked me to send him a video using my webcam of me taking my clothes off.” Paradis said. “I did it after school one day and sent it to him.”

The video of then 15-year-old Paradis stripping was shared by her crush with another student, then uploaded to the school’s computer lab; where it was viewed by other students, teachers, and even the principal.

“I’d be at the movie theater on the weekend with friends and someone would shout ‘porn star’ at me,” Paradis said. “There was no escaping that I had made a mistake. I’d made a really big mistake.”

According to a 2008 study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, more than 1 in 5 teenage girls have sent or posted nude images of themselves.

“It’s a definite crisis,” said Sgt. Thomas Rich, an Internet safety expert. “It’s just modern day truth or dare with technology involved.

The pressure to send illicit material is also beginning at shockingly young ages.

“I was asked for a picture in seventh grade,” said 15-year-old High School student Jessica Pereira.

The explicit images are often made between teens in a relationship, but after the teens break-up the videos can go viral.

When 16-year-old Julia Kirouac broke up with her boyfriend last fall, she shared the sexy images she says he pressured her into making for him.

“I felt like my whole entire world just, like, crumbled,” Julia said. “I didn’t—understand anything because the person that I had trusted the most did that to me.”

The humiliation sent Julia into a deep depression and in early February Julia downed a bottle of pills — in an attempt to kill herself.

She spent a week in the hospital recovering. Now, she says, she’s learned a powerful lesson she wants to share with other teens.

“I just want them to know that they don’t have to do anything that they don’t want do,” Julia said fighting back tears. ” And if they think that they need to send pictures or videos, whatever it is, to a guy that they’re dating or that they like, it’s not worth it at all.

Experts Voice Fears Over Children ‘Sexting’ [skynews.com, by Tony Parmenter, 8/2/2011].

Child protection experts say unprecedented numbers of teenagers are sharing sexually explicit images with each other and then posting them online.

Ministers have called it a ‘worrying trend’ that 38% of children between the ages of 11 and 17 have received an inappropriate message either through text, email or internet messaging.

Research from Beatbullying found that among those youngsters, 70% admitted that they knew who had sent it.

Amber Slamaker, 16, once posted suggestive pictures of herself to a social networking site but it led to unwanted attention from strangers and approaches from men looking to ‘groom’ her for sex.

She eventually managed to get the pictures deleted but knows many friends who have done similar things, usually when they have low self-esteem and are looking for attention.

Amber, from Kingston-upon-Thames, told Sky News: “Some girls look up to celebrities and think ‘I want to be like that one day, I want to look like her’.

“So they change everything about themselves just to try and be something else, something that they are not just to impress other people and then put the pictures up.”

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) has found that teenagers often take pictures to share with a girlfriend or boyfriend.

Peter Davies, chief executive of Ceop, said: “We know that young people are increasingly using technology not only to stay in touch, but to explore their sexuality and to push the boundaries in what they send and to whom they send it.”

He added: “They often find out later that the image has been passed on to many others and as a result they can be the victims of bullying or harassment – in some rare instances we have seen these images end up in the collections of offenders.”

Professor Andy Phippen, an online safety expert at the University of Plymouth, told Sky News: “There is certainly a sub-population within the wider population that are incredibly blasé about this sort of thing.”

He has carried out detailed research with teenagers in the south-west of England which has produced striking statistics.

“Fiteen per cent of our respondents said that they do not see anything wrong with sending a naked photograph, that there is not anything inappropriate about that.

“Forty per cent of them said there is nothing wrong with a topless photograph.”

Ceop have produced a video for schools that graphically illustrates how youngsters lose control of any images as soon as they are sent or uploaded somewhere.

:: The video is available at www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers

Sorry, kids, no privacy for you. State gives teachers free access to student cell phones, laptops [WorldNetDaily.com, by Drew Zahn, 26/11/2010 ]

Concerned about “sexting” and “cyberbullying” in schools, Virginia’s attorney general says teachers have the legal authority to seize and search through students’ cell phones and laptops – without consent, warrant or parental permission.

In an advisory opinion addressed to State Delegate Robert Bell, Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II says teachers with “reasonable suspicion” of wrongdoing can confiscate students’ electronic devices to search stored messages for evidence.

“It is my opinion,” Cuccinelli writes, “that searches and seizures of students’ cellular phones and laptops are permitted when there is a reasonable suspicion that the student is violating the law or the rules of the school.”

The opinion states that though the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment normally preserves the right of the people “to be secure in their persons, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure,” nonetheless, “The supervision and operation of schools present ‘special needs’ beyond normal law enforcement and, therefore, a different framework is justified.”

John W. Whitehead, founder of the civil liberties group Rutherford Institute, however, warned Cuccinelli’s opinion could lead to violations of students’ civil rights.

“This is bad, bad thinking,” Whitehead told the Charlottesville, Va., Daily Progress. “It’s just appalling that people think like this in a country where we’re supposed to be teaching kids to value freedom and civil rights.”

“This teaches a really bad political science lesson,” he continued, “and that’s that the government can do whatever it wants with you.”

State Delegate Bell, a Republican who sits in Virginia’s “Thomas Jefferson seat” – since Jefferson represented the region in the state’s General Assembly from 1769 to 1774 – had originally asked Cuccinelli for the opinion so he could answer questions from school principals in his district.

The administrators were asking how far they could go to counter “sexting” – the practice of students sending explicit or nude photos to one another via cell phone – and cruel and demeaning messages via email and social networks commonly called “cyberbullying.”

“School administrators don’t want to violate anybody’s rights,” Bell told the Daily Progress. “And they don’t want to break the law. But they do want to be able to intervene if they can.”

In his opinion, Cuccinelli cites the 1985 U.S. Supreme Court case New Jersey v. T.L.O, which ruled that “the substantial need of teachers and administrators for freedom to maintain order in the schools does not require the strict adherence to the requirement that searches be based on probable cause.”

Therefore, Cuccinelli concludes, should a student report to a teacher a bullying or “sexting” text message from another student, for example, the teacher should have the authority to seize the alleged bully’s cell phone to investigate the claim.

“It is my general opinion that a search of a cellular phone by a school principal or teacher under these circumstances would be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment and the standard established in New Jersey v. T.L.O.,” Cuccinelli writes. “Moreover, under T.L.O., once a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing exists, a search of a student’s personal belongings does not require the student’s consent or the consent of his parents.”

The only caveat Cuccinelli includes concerns discovery of nude or explicit photos of a minor. Should a teacher discover such photos, the attorney general advises, the phone needs to be turned into the police rather than the school administration, or the teacher could face charges of distributing child pornography.

Whitehead, however, worries that teachers and administrators don’t have the expertise to judge probable cause for such searches and could abuse the power Cuccinelli is conceding them.

“They don’t know what reasonable suspicion is,” he said. “They have one job – teaching students. They’re not law enforcement.”

Cyber-bullying [Gothenburgtimes.com, by Elizabeth Barrett, 4/11/2010]

Parents receive wake-up call about kids’ use of social media

Lincoln attorney speaks out about potential dangers of Internet, cell phones

A sexting incident involving a 16-year-old Sidney girl has led to the arrest of 36-year-old man.

News accounts say the teen sexted nude photographs of herself and engaged in sexually-based conversations with 36-year-old Kenneth Steffens.

The Sidney man was formally charged Friday with possession of child pornography.

“It’s here, it’s happening in Nebraska,” said Lincoln attorney Karen Haase.

Haase, who deals with social media issues regularly, spoke to middle- and high-school students on Oct. 20 in Gothenburg and to parents during a special presentation that evening.

The attorney, who works for Harding & Schultz, spoke about cyber-bullying, sexting and the hidden dangers of social media networks.

“Social networking is an important part of kids’ lives and parents need to be part of that,” Haase said, adding that parents who are not on Facebook need to join.

Facebook is a social network service and website on the Internet which allows people to communicate with each other.

Sexting

She described sexting—a combination of sex and texting—as an act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between cell phones.

Although the sexting incident in Sidney happened after her presentation, Haase said in a phone interview Tuesday that it points to the fact that inappropriate use of cell phones and the Internet is on the increase.

In fact, national statistics reveal these percentages for who’s sending sexually suggestive photos:

39% of all teens

37% of girls

40% of boys

48% of teens say they have received sexting photos or messages

Haase shared an incident from Florida in which a girlfriend sent sexually suggestive photos to her boyfriend who forwarded the images to all of his contacts after he became angry with her.

The boy was convicted of distribution of child pornography and will remain on the sex offender registry until he’s 43 years old.

Cyber-bullying—or the use of technology such as a computer or cell phone to engage in deliberate, repeated and hostile behavior by an individual or group with intent to harm others—is also becoming widespread.

Haase shared an example of a conversation that took place through instant messaging.

Divagirl: “Hey loser, watch your back.”

tmt323: “What ru talking about?

Divagirl: “Why don’t you kill yourself while u r ahead?”

tmt323: “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

Divagirl: “Ugly girls like u need to be put in their place.”

According to a 2008 report from the U.S. National Crime Prevention Council, 43% of teens are exposed to cyber-bullying in one form or another.

Yet, only one in 10 kids told their parents.

Haase said students and parents can be sued for cyber-bullying which if often covered by homeowners insurance.

The suit can be for intentional infliction of emotional distress, tortuous interference or for slander.

Haase started giving presentations about the dangers of social media through her work as a school attorney.

“Kids got into trouble and parents didn’t have a clue,” she said. “They don’t realize it’s an area where they need to parent their kids.”

Bullying, Cyber Bullying & Digital Safety Workshops For Primary & Secondary Schools

Tag: sexting