Cyber Safety in the News
Who Was the Cyberbully Harassing Her Teen Daughter?
New York Magazine, January 15, 2025
Owen and his girlfriend Ashley started receiving harassing text messages while they were dating. The cyberbullying they received continued for years, eventually causing their breakup. The cyberbully had an uncanny knowledge of mundane goings-on at school and within their friend group. Sometimes, they would fight back against the harassing text messages, and sometimes, school officials encouraged them to block the phone number.
This is the report on parents’ and school officials’ search for the person behind the vicious, relentless texts to Ashley Licari – and the culprit that was under their noses all along.
Fortune, January 19, 2025
After months of wondering if TikTok would actually go away, the app briefly went dark as the U.S ban took effect this month. But not all its devoted users lamented its short-lived disappearance from their lives. In January, TikTok suspended service in the U.S., and third-party platforms removed it from their app stores. However, TikTok restored service the following day.
TikTok had become a daily routine for many users, but for others, it was seeping into their lives too much. Juliet Weisfogel, a 17-year-old student at Trevor Day School in New York City, welcomed the TikTok ban. “I love TikTok so much that I cannot imagine a life without it,” she wrote. “And yet I desperately need a life without it.” “Given my love of TikTok, you might think the notion of losing it would horrify me, and yet, it fills me with hope,” she explained. “You see, I’m a 17-year-old TikTok junkie, and I wholeheartedly support a law that would sever me forever from my fix.”
Julie added that’s because TikTok has taken on an overwhelming role in the lives of her peers, determining their conversations, outfits, what to buy, and meals to eat. “My support for this ban has nothing to do with national security. I do not know whether my name, email address and phone number are stored in Washington, Texas or China. Perhaps, I should care more about that, but what worries me most right now is the future of my generation.” Julie is not the only one who is concerned. Many students (and their parents) have confessed their own unhealthy TikTok addictions as we teach them about cyber safety. The future of TikTok’s availability in the United States remains to be seen at this time.
New Michigan Law Will Increase Punishment for Sextortion
WSBT, January 23, 2025
“Jordan D’s Law,” which increases punishment against those who commit sextortion, was signed into law this month in Michigan. The law establishes greater protection against threats of online sextortion targeting minors and other vulnerable people in Michigan. The law is named in memory of Jordan DeMay, a 17-year-old from Marquette, Michigan who died by suicide in 2022 after becoming a victim of online sextortion.
“I am proud to see our state take significant steps to combat one of the fastest-growing crimes against our children and vulnerable Michiganders,” Democratic Floor Leader John Fitzgerald said. “This package honors Jordan’s life and ensures perpetrators of this heinous crime are brought to justice. The policy also empowers kids to ask their parents and teachers for help when they need it…”
Sextortion continues to be one of the fastest growing online crimes according to the FBI. It serves as a reminder that students should never share personal information or pictures with someone that they first encounter online.
New Vatican Document Offers AI Guidelines from Warfare to Health Care
AP News, January 28, 2025
A Vatican document released this month offers wide-ranging ethical guidelines for the application of artificial intelligence in sectors from warfare to health care, with an underlying call that the burgeoning technology must be used as a tool to complement, and not replace, human intelligence.
Pope Francis has issued several warnings about the risks associated with AI technology, and this new document by the Vatican’s doctrine and cultural offices expands on what the pontiff has already said. It comes as new Chinese AI chatbots have raised the stakes in the AI technology race, catching up with American generative AI leaders at a fraction of the cost.
The document underlines that human responsibility needs to grow in proportion to the new technology, and that the impact of AI’s uses in various sectors “may not always be predictable from their inception. AI should be used only as a tool to complement human intelligence, rather than replace its richness,” the document said in its conclusion. We agree that there are significant moral and ethical concerns to consider when using AI technology.
