The ThinkUKnow website is a partnership between the Federal Police and Microsoft Australia - who do actually do good deeds if its not about a Microsoft product. Overall, this is a really good site. Its split into sections, with the good ones being "How do kids have fun?", "How to stay in control" and "How to report". The first section is aimed at parents and it explains several different types of online communication technologies where children can interact with each other - and mobile phones.
"How to stay in control" is about proactive prevention of incidents (bullying, stalking or otherwise) for the technologies identified. Its aimed at children and parents (and educators) and briefly discusses the risk and preventative measures that can be taken for "staying in control". The advice given for the latter is useful, such as
Think before you post pictures or videos on your profile. If you aren't happy for the photo to be passed around your dinner table, or shown at your school assembly, it shouldn't be posted online.
You should only add people to your buddy list if you know them in the real world - forget the popularity contest, your safety is more important!
Do not post cruel or threatening messages on your blog or someone else's. Cyber-bullying is never acceptable.There are more, but these are the ones that I personally found interesting. The last ties in nicely with this topic. The first one is interesting as it ties in with this article I read this morning (that unfortunately is only marginally related to cyber bullying) about young people not knowing how much damage online activities could do to them in the future. Of course, a bad photo in the short term could lead to teasing or bullying either online or at school, or be an act of bullying. The middle on is about safety in general, but its also about bullying. If someone is bullying you, why are they on your buddy list?
The "How to Report" section gives details on what to do for inappropriate internet content, scams, spam, viruses, child sexual exploitation (which tells you to contact the police) and cyber-bullying. After an overview of what cyber bullying is, it gives this advice
Both of which are very important, its good to see them specifying it like this. It gives an overview of the reaction mechanisms of investigating, communicating with your child, using filters (eww), researching school/ISP/application cyber-bullying policies, reporting it to the school and ISP and the police if you feel appropriate, with blocking communication with the bully coming in at the end. Its sums up with the phone nubmers for the Kids Help Line, Lifeline and the Reachout and Bullying No Way website. As part of the discussion of blocking bully communication, it has a page devoted to the privacy settings and contact removal for a wide range of IM and social networking sites and tells you that some phone companies can block contact from some phone numbers. It also gives the advice to contact non-mentioned sites about how to restrict access.
It is vital to talk to young people about behaving appropriately online and with their mobile phone. They need to be aware that there are real world consequences for their virtual world actions.
Young people also need to know that they can tell someone if they are being cyber-bullied. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away, and there are steps that they can take to address the cyber-bullying. What is most important is that they tell someone.
In other content, the site has the usual Microsoft stuff on protecting you computer, a login restricted resources page (so I haven't looked at it), a links page and a kid's corner. The kid's corner is lacking in content with the main page containing links to thinkuknow UK. The content it does have is about "protecting your reputation" - considering the purpose behind the online content you are about to create and how it may impact you in the short and long term. It then gives advice on how to protect you reputation and what do to if something does something that impinges upon it.
thinkuknow
So this page is the UK version of the previous page, and its name makes me think "think uk now". The information on the site is divided into age groups: 5-7, 8-10, 11-16, parents/carers and teachers/trainer. Its interesting that the first age group starts at 5; is it because that they think younger children are not on the internet, are not on the internet alone, or unable to make an connections about their or other peoples actions?
The 5-7 age group page is really good, its pitched at the right level and it is the first page I've found which does discuss cyber bullying with the young child age group. It discusses cyber bullying in terms of "being nice", being nice to the people you are talking to as you may say something that might upset them. It also says to talk to your parents if someone says something that makes you upset. Talking to parents is the main thrust of the Know who to talk to page, which also suggests teachers or Childline (I'm assuming a UK equivalent of Kids Help Line), ending with
The most important thing is to remember is to tell a grown up you like and trust if you are unhappy or scared about anything.
The 8-10 age group is set out similar to ThinkUKnow and discusses cyber-bullying as cyber-bullying. The advice it gives is don't respond to the bully, record the nasty messages and emails, talk to a trusted adult and show them the messages and emails. It turns out that Childline offers email, web chat and sms as well as phone calls as counselling services - good on them for making the services available.
The 11-16 age group has a front page which made it really hard to tell where the information was, although once found they do have an interesting page on cyber-bullying. Its suggested course of action if bullying is occurring is essentially the same as that given on the 8-10 page, with the additional suggestion of blocking the bully and providing contact numbers for the anti-harassment sections at various mobile phone service providers. It also discusses where bullying actions can be breaking the law, specifying the acts. In a first, it also discusses what to do if someone you know is being bullied. Its advice is to report it, don't forward it on as that would be making it worse and don't stand back and let it happen, because that makes it worse too.
The parents page has information about various online services and internet safety stuff. The safety tips mostly fall under education of the parent and child about the internet and communication between the parent and child. The teachers page contains lots of downloads of presentations, videos and quizes about internet safety.
Both of these sites contain a lot of useful information.
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