Cyber Bullying? Nothing to worry about?

Online safety is more than like the biggest concern for parents and others when it comes to this digital era that we're all living in today, Cyber bullying being one of the most common. You may ask yourself, "Is Cyber Bullying really that serious? Do I need to worry about it?” I'll let you be the one to judge whether or not you should be concerned with your child becoming a victim of Cyber Bullying after sharing this story with you.

Phobe prince, an Irish immigrant and also a freshman in high school became a victim of cyber bullying. There were 9 teenagers of various genders and ages that tormented her from text messaging and Facebook. The bullying even lead to some physical harassment that involved her being attacked with a soft drink can. The older girls that were harassing her did so because they resented the fact that she dated an older football player. The harassment initially just became humiliating and too much for her to handle so she ended up taking her own life by hanging herself as a result of such behavior. Take a look at a 15 year old girl who never really got the chance to completely live her life. Think about the harm it did to her and her family. It's sad what others will do to people they don't like.

Of course, not all cases in Cyber Bullying end up being this tragic. However, the fact still remains that this can happen due to a direct result from it. I think Cyber bullying should be taking very seriously. It's something that is happening more and more in our generation. Teens abusing others teens through social networking cites like Facebook and Twitter have got to be taken more seriously by parents and teachers. Teachers should educate their students to respect one another and parents should be a part of their child's online life as much as they are in their physical life. So I ask you again, Is Cyber bullying something we as a society should be worried about? Or is it just not that serious of a problem?

Social networks are serious about privacy...right?

We as people use the internet in numerous ways to communicate with other people just about every day. We use them so much that we become comfortable with putting more and more information about ourselves on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr without fearing or considering the consequences of doing such things. Most people today put their full trust in these sites thinking that they will keep them protected.

This illustration I found at http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/2/U/3/Facebook-Privacy-Issues.jpg targets those who use Facebook and provides a good example on just how private Facebook really can be. It is intended to caution those who use Facebook to think about what they choose to put on Facebook because you never know who could be reading that information. It's comical, in showing that the man to left of the image thinks Facebook is taking privacy seriously and that no one could know anything he didn't want them to know when in all actuality the Facebook CEO in the middle is making fun of him for thinking such things and letting his information leak to others. The users are pretty much being criticized like the person in the left of the image. The illustrator of this image uses it in a pathos type of appeal, scaring readers to think about what they're doing. It's saying you never know or can see what about you when you put your information out there. Maybe, Facebook just doesn't take privacy as serious as users think and don't intend to.

At the end of the day, we as digital natives and or settlers need to be cautious about the information we choose to put online. There doesn't need to be anything on social networking sites that we wouldn't want others to know even if you think only your friends can see it. The truth is networking sites have the right to change their terms at any given time which may include changing your privacy setting to a more public view. Who's to say that only a certain group of people can see stuff on your profile? You never know who could be watching or what could be done with your information.

Identity theft...a joke?

About a year ago, me and my friend Tim would talk about what we hear on tv about identity theft and how the chances of it happening to one of us were really low. I remember when we every time we used to talk about it Tim would say, " I'm never going to be dumb enough to let that happen to me and I guarantee it never will". We just assumed the people that it happened to must have just done something dumb and that the news put cases of identity theft on the news often just to scare people.

Unfortunately, we soon found out just how wrong we actually were. One day, me and Tim decided to go to the store to buy some food and stuff for our apartment. When we went to the register to pay for it Tim's credit card ended up getting declined. He didn't understand how seeing as to how his parents had just put money in his account and he hadn't spent any since they did. So he ended up calling the bank to find out exactly what was going on with his account. To our surprise, the bank told Tim he had recently made purchases in three other states. They explained to him that the person that got his information got it from an online site that he ordered from and warned him to be aware of some online sites that aren't well know and used. He had to go through a pretty lengthy process that involved getting his money back, shredding his current credit card, and having to wait about two weeks just to get another one sent to him. Tim had officially become a victim of what we call "Identity Theft".

Some people think Identity theft to be a joke and don't think that it can happen to just anyone. I share this story with you today in hoping you realize we are all at risk of Identity theft at any point in time in our lives no matter how careful you may think you are. It's always good to acknowledge the dangers out there in the world. Be careful, protect yourself, be aware of the dangers, and be prepared for the worst to happen. After all, it's always better to be safe than sorry.

Identity, Privacy, Saftey Intoduction

As you can see the area I’ve chosen to discuss deals with Identity, Privacy, and Safety, I believe this to be a major problem not only in the United States, but around the world. It's interesting to know how your privacy can be invaded, your identity stolen, and just how unsafe certain things can actually be.

You always tend to hear about someone identity getting stolen or someone’s privacy getting invaded in some way in the news. Either someone’s credit card number has been stolen or someone's identity is being used in another state or country. It's amazing how long these problems have existed without there being a straight up complete way to put it to an end. An effective way on how to protect yourself, your family, and your friends should be available to the public.

The topics in this area vary from watching what you put on Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr and other social networks to being careful on where you decide to shop online or website you have to give out any information you wouldn't want others to know or have. Being able to give examples like real life stories and provide information on how to avoid it is what inspires to me write about this.