South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conference and the festival held in Austin, Texas, which hosts a variety of platforms, such as emerging films, new music talents and advanced technology. With concerts and product demonstrations, group discussions are an important part of SXSW. Although each discussion group is different, they usually all relate to a subject trend through the news and media. The topic this year is social media and cyberbullying, one that is gaining more and more attention in the media and around the world.
What is cyberbullying?
Cyberbulling is any form of abuse or harassment that takes place using electronic devices, such as smartphones, PCs and tablets. Needless to threaten text messages and emails to rumors and bullying through social media platforms and other sites. What makes the different cyberbullying is that it can happen anywhere at any time, as almost everyone has access to the Internet now. According to the Research Center cyberbullying, the number of students in middle and high schools victims of cyberbullying has increased from about 18% in 2007 to almost 35% in 2014, and these are only the number of students feel comfortable the report. Children and adolescents are more often victims of cyberbulling, but it can happen to everyone online.
How do sites like Twitter and Facebook manage cyberbullying and online harassment?
Earlier this year, Twitter has admitted to handling poorly harassment reports, particularly behind and intimidation on its website. Since then, the company has taken several steps to address this longstanding problem. In December, it adopted an updated policy of harassment and abuse launched a new reporting tool, but not much is known about the extent of its effectiveness. Although Twitter has tripled its number of employees who handle abuse reports over the last six months and begins to track users' phone numbers were reported for harassment, so it is in the right direction.
On 17 March, the company took another step in the treatment of this issue. It is adding a feature that allows victims to report online abuse and harassment to those responsible for enforcement. Although he did not file the report directly to you, it gives you the opportunity to receive an electronic copy of your report of harassment. This email contains the threatening tweet URL and username on the account and a time stamp and date of the threat and the report presented to you to make the authorities if you feel threatened.
Facebook has its own set of guidelines for reporting and blocking of users on its site, including the ability to make reports on the various sections, such as user profiles, specific positions and / or photos, group pages, announcements, events and comments. Facebook also has very detailed privacy settings that let you control who sees what on your profile and even limit who can comment on your posts and photos. The social media company claims to work closely with those responsible for law enforcement to provide information in cases where security is a major concern, but it is still difficult to know exactly how it works, and more importantly again, the effectiveness of this function is.
What can you do to protect your children against online abuse
There are many services that offer advanced functionality in the parental control software to help protect your children against inappropriate and harmful online content ?; many have parameters that are specifically targeted to social media accounts, such as the block list and profile of characteristics reports NetNanny. It is important to remember that one of the most important things you can do is to talk with your children about the things that can meet online. Set up a line of communication open so that they feel comfortable coming to you if they come across any type of harassment on the web.