Cyberbullying in Ireland

Cyberbullying in Ireland

Since it was anti-bullying month this month I decided to do an article on Cyberbullying. Although I had never experienced it myself I had friends who did and unfortunately the number of cases are increasing especially in our own country Ireland.

Cyberbullying is the phenomenon of using cyber technologies and networked spaces to bully weaker individuals. From chat rooms, to social media and email it’s a new and more advanced form of just plain bullying and harassment except it makes it easier for the bully to hide. By using fake profiles or email addresses the bully can disguise him/herself and make it easier for them to attack without being found out. The most frightening thing is that because it takes place online most parents are unaware that their own child is being bullied or that their child is in fact a bully. Although this takes place mostly with children and teenagers it can be found between adults too particularly in the form of blackmail.In the link above is an article from last months The Irish Times with the headline Report shows sharp increase in cyberbullying over past year. Some of the statistics and numbers are quite shocking particularly the ones concerning the parents.

 ”The report found that while 16 per cent of students admitted to being cyberbullied, only 12 per cent of parents reported being aware their children had experienced online bullying.”

This information is quite worrying in the fact that parents are so unaware. This can also lead us to believe that most parents wouldn’t even realize their children have access to the internet. With all these new gadgets and games coming out every year how are parents suppose to keep track if a child can access the internet with the new PS4 or NintendoDS? Parents need to be more informed by schools and need to even do some more research themselves to keep on top of technology, because whether they like it or not this is the world their children are growing up in.

They need to be informed of parental control online and how to set it up but also of the dangers a child can run into online. I hate to say it but a lot of Irish parents are still clueless of how vast and dangerous the internet can be and have no clue of how they can help to protect their children from these dangers. Children themselves also need to be educated on this subject. Classes on online safety and explaining how the internet works can be helpful on teaching the child things such as like personal safety and not to reveal any personal information online. Follow the link to read more shocking statistics and leave your opinion in the comments section below!

 

Smile! Your being watched!

Another subject that caught my attention within my module was ethics and technology. Although the tools and services of media can be great and make our lives easier they can also be extremely dangerous, but you don’t need me to tell you that. Every one of us has had a great experiences with cyberspace and most of us have had a bad experience with it. I’m sure at some point in your life there was a time where you wish it had never existed.

When it comes to thinking like this for me it’s the thought of someone hacking into my webcam. I’m not a paranoid person at all but when I see an increase in online articles and news forums dealing with this issue it scares the hell out of me. When there’s people out there like Julian Assange and cases like the Leverson Inquiry that are capable of hacking into huge organizations and companies, what’s to stop a good hacker from spying on little old me?

When I typed ”how to hack into a webcam” in youtube 113,000 results came up. Endless videos on step by step guides and tutorials on how to hack into webcams and iphone camera’s and maybe 1 in 113,00 of those videos could actually work. I read an article by Kim Boatman which featured on the well known Norton Security and Anti-Virus webite. Her article expained the risks of webcams, actual incidents that had happened and ways to prevent hackers from accessing your camera such as not clicking on suspicious attachments, using firewall and anti-virus software and to look for you indicator light. An incident she had mentioned was one of Steven Fox an It security expert.

Here is what it said, ”Steven Fox, an IT security expert, was chatting with friends on his webcam one night when he started receiving some strange emails. Imagine his surprise when he opened one and found images of himself chatting. His webcam had been hacked by a “script kiddie,” a person who uses malware written by someone else to show off their skills at accessing other computer systems, says Fox. He quickly detached the webcam, but he had to re-install his operating system after he found malware installed on his computer. “It was painful, but it was a learning experience,” says Fox, who writes a column for the journal of the Information Systems Security Association.”

Boatmas article: http://us.norton.com/yoursecurityresource/detail.jsp?aid=webcam_hacking

There have been other cases like Stevens but differ in the outcome where some are not as lucky in some cases hackers used the information from their spying to extort their victims. To prevent this I personally think the best way of guaranteed privacy and security is to just cover your lens. To some it may seem like a an extreme measure but with online media there is no such thing as too careful. So get out that little piece of blue-tac and get covering!

(credit for photo: http://chmuzamil.blogspot.ie/ )