Cyber Safety in the News

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TikTok Sued By 13 States And DC, Accused of Harming Younger Users

Reuters, October 8, 2024

TikTok faces new lawsuits filed by 13 U.S. states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, accusing the popular social media platform of harming and failing to protect young people. The lawsuits filed separately in New York, California, the District of Columbia and 11 other states, expand Chinese-owned TikTok’s legal fight with U.S. regulators, and seek new financial penalties against the company.

The states accuse TikTok of using intentionally addictive software designed to keep children watching as long and often as possible and misrepresenting its content moderation effectiveness. “TikTok cultivates social media addiction to boost corporate profits,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “TikTok intentionally targets children because they know kids do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.” TikTok seeks to maximize the amount of time users spend on the app to target them with ads, the states say. TikTok remains the #1 most popular social media app amongst youth.

 

A Godfather of AI Just Won A Nobel. He Has Been Warning the Machines Could Take Over the World

The Wall Street Journal, October 9, 2024

The newly minted Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton has a message about the artificial-intelligence systems he helped create – get more serious about safety or they could endanger humanity.

“I think we’re at a kind of bifurcation point in history where, in the next few years, we need to figure out if there’s a way to deal with that threat,” Hinton said in an interview with a Nobel Prize official that mixed pride in his life’s work with warnings about the growing danger it poses. Geoffrey Hinton hopes the prize will add credibility to his claims about the dangers of AI technology he pioneered. We are already seeing consequences from the misuse of Artificial Intelligence Technology amongst the students we educate.

 

Can A.I. Be Blamed for A Teen’s Suicide?

New York Times, October 23, 2024

The mother of a 14-year-old Florida boy says he became obsessed with a chatbot on Character.AI before his death. He had spent months talking to chatbots on Character.AI, a role-playing app that allows users to create their own A.I. characters or chat with characters created by others.

Sewell knew that “Dany,” as he called the chatbot, wasn’t a real person but he developed an emotional attachment anyway. He texted the bot constantly, updating it dozens of times a day on his life and engaging in long role-playing dialogues. Sewell’s parents and friends had no idea he’d fallen for a chatbot. They just saw him get sucked deeper into his phone. Eventually, they noticed that he was isolating himself and pulling away from the real world. His grades started to suffer, and he began getting into trouble at school. He lost interest in the things that used to excite him, like Formula 1 racing or playing Fortnite with his friends. At night, he’d come home and go straight to his room, where he’d talk to Dany for hours. On the night of Feb. 28, in the bathroom of his mother’s house, Sewell told Dany that he loved her, and that he would soon come home to her. As interactions with AI chatbots become more mainstream, students need to be reminded that responses from chatbots are just the outputs of an A.I. language model, and that there is no human on the other side of the screen typing back.

 

Roblox To Release New Parental Controls Following Damning Report

MSN, October 25, 2024

Roblox says it’s instituting some new safety features for children accounts next month after a shocking report claimed the platform was filled with child and sexual exploitation. Roblox sent an email out to the parents of kids with accounts explaining the changes. First up, parents can link up their accounts with a child’s, which they can then use to view their kid’s usage and their friends, along with update parental controls.

Roblox is also making changes to default settings for different children accounts. Users under the age of 13 will need a parent’s permission to access certain chat features, while those under 9 years old will need permission to access any content with a rating of “Moderate” and above. This might go along with the new Party feature that lets people in friend groups chat via text or voice, but only for users 13 and over. This change is long overdue because parental controls on Roblox have been lacking for some time, as too many children have been exposed to predatory behavior while on the platform.

 

Too Many People Want to Be Social-Media Influencers

The Economist, October 29, 2024

Ask a young person what they would like to do with their life and increasingly often the answer will be to find fame and fortune online. 57% of Generation Z in America would like to be a social-media influencer, according to Morning Consult, a pollster; 53% describe it as a “reputable career choice”.

Those dreams may be understandable: examples abound of social-media superstars, from fashionistas and comedians to gamers, making tens of thousands of dollars for a post promoting the wares of some brand. As consumers spend more of their lives on social media, the amount of money companies are paying influencers is rocketing. That is good for companies but bad for “creators” as the space is becoming overcrowded.

Cyber Safety in the News

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Smartphones In Schools

New York Times, September 6, 2024

Teachers are supposed to educate children, many of whom have still not caught up from Covid learning loss, while in a battle for attention with fantastically entertaining computers. A growing body of academic research suggests it isn’t going well. But school officials and policymakers have begun to fight back. It’s probably the most significant development of the 2024-25 school year.

At the schools that have recently restricted phones, many people say they already see benefits. For much of the smartphone era — which began with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 — Americans treated the rapid spread of digital technology as inevitable and positive. Now people view it as more mixed. Children’s mental health has deteriorated during the same years that smartphone use has grown. Loneliness has increased, and sleep hours have decreased. In surveys, both teenagers and adults express deep anxiety about their own phone use. “Smartphones have brought us a lot of benefits,” Dr. Vivek Murthy, the United States Surgeon General, has said. “But the harms are also considerable.”

Instagram Imposes New Restrictions for Teens. Will They Work?

ABC News, September 18, 2024

Instagram has unveiled mandatory accounts for teens that bolster privacy protections, enable parental supervision, and restrict notifications during overnight hours.

New and existing users under the age of 18 will be automatically enrolled in what Instagram is calling “Teen Accounts,” the company said. The move comes 16 months after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in an advisory that excessive social media could pose a “profound risk” to the mental health of children. Instagram also has faced pressure from some federal and state lawmakers seeking to regulate social media use among children and teens.

While this is a step in the right direction, the new guardrails will be an insufficient step towards preventing teen harm. The absence of robust age verification still allows young users to circumvent the rules, rendering the new settings largely pointless.

Screen Use and Teen Mental Health — How Parents Can Play A Vital Role

Forbes, September 24, 2024

One of the biggest predictors of how much time adolescents spend on screens and if that use is problematic is how much their own parents use screens, according to a recent study published in Pediatric Research.

The study examined three-year survey data from over 10,000 adolescents in the United States to assess the prevalence of media parenting practices to identify their association with adolescent screen time, social media use and mobile phone use. Researchers in the study also examined whether screen use was problematic, which meant being unable to quit screen use despite wanting to, or if it was interfering with the adolescent’s schoolwork.

The topic of social media and mental health has recently become a popular source of discourse in American culture. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned the American public about an epidemic of loneliness and isolation just last year.

We advise parents to take an honest look at their own screen time before they ask their children to do the same.

 High School Is Becoming a Cesspool of Sexually Explicit Deepfakes

The Atlantic, September 26, 2024

For years now, generative AI has been used to conjure all sorts of realities—dazzling paintings and startling animations of worlds and people, both real and imagined. This power has brought with it a tremendous dark side that many experts are only now beginning to contend with: AI is being used to create nonconsensual, sexually explicit images and videos of children. And not just in a handful of cases—perhaps millions of kids nationwide have been affected in some way by the emergence of this technology, either directly victimized themselves or made aware of other students who have been.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that advocates for digital rights and privacy, released a report on the alarming prevalence of nonconsensual intimate imagery (or NCII) in American schools. In the past school year, the center’s polling found, 15 percent of high schoolers reported hearing about a “deepfake”—or AI-generated image—that depicted someone associated with their school in a sexually explicit or intimate manner.

Generative-AI tools have increased the surface area for students to become victims and for students to become perpetrators. In other words, whatever else generative AI is good for like streamlining rote tasks or discovering new drugs, the technology has made violating children much easier. We will continue to see an increase in these offenses against our children until laws catch up with AI Technology.

 Big Tech Taps Ties to Republican Lawmakers to Stall Child Safety Bill

Yahoo Finance, September 26, 2024

Top House Republicans are stalling landmark US legislation that would protect children from online exploitation and bullying, bowing to criticisms from Big Tech and exposing a rift within the party due to regulating social media.

The legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, passed the Senate on a 91-3 vote in July and President Joe Biden has vowed to sign it into law. But House GOP leaders, as well as several other Republican lawmakers, have raised concerns that it’s too heavy handed and could sideline some conservative content online.

The emotionally charged debate over the legislation has laid bare the resilience of tech companies’ political power in the face of growing public concerns about social media’s harmful effects on young people. The legislation also threatens to bring down tech companies’ ad revenue by weakening design features that hook young users and keep them active on online platforms. We will continue to monitor what happens with this bill, as it could impact the safety of millions of American children.

 

Cyber Safety in the News

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5 Charged with Laundering Money for Sextortion Scheme That Led to Michigan Teen’s Suicide

Channel 4 News, August 2, 2024

17-year-old Jordan DeMay died from suicide after being blackmailed online. DeMay, 17, was a student at Marquette High School when Nigerian men contacted him on Instagram, pretending to be a girl. They convinced DeMay to send nude pictures of himself, and then extorted him for money, threatening to send those photos to everyone in his life. DeMay sent $300, but the men continued to pressure him for more.

He killed himself inside his home hours later, officials said. It was the first time that someone from Nigeria has been extradited to the U.S. to be held accountable for sextortion crimes, according to FBI, and this August, five people in the U.S. have been charged with money laundering in connection with the sextortion scheme. At least $178,658 was taken from more than one hundred victims during this particular scheme, officials said. It is exceedingly rare for perpetrators of sextortion schemes to be caught and face justice.

 

Trolls Used Her Face to Make Fake Porn. There Was Nothing She Could Do

The New York Times, August 3, 2024

“I felt like I didn’t have a choice in what happened to me or what happened to my body,” Sabrina Javellana, who in 2018, at age 21, won a seat on the city commission in Hallandale Beach, Fla., said. “I didn’t have any control over the one thing I’m in every day.”

She became one of the youngest elected officials in Florida’s history. Her progressive political positions had sometimes earned her enemies: She regularly received vitriolic and violent threats on social media; her condemnation of police brutality and calls for criminal-justice reform prompted aggressive rhetoric from members of local law enforcement. Disturbing messages were nothing new to her. Although in 2021, she noticed an unusual one. “Hi, just wanted to let you know that somebody is sharing pictures of you online and discussing you in quite a grotesque manner,” it began. “He claims that he is one of your ‘guy friends.’” This article tells the tale of how easy it is to manipulate images online and how the Internet is never truly private.

 

After Her 15-Year-Old Son Died Trying a Viral Choking Challenge, This Mom Is Fighting for A Safer Internet 

People Magazine, August 4, 2024

Just two weeks after having a talk with his parents about online dangers, Mason, then a 15-year-old freshman, hugged his dad good night, told his mom he loved her and went upstairs in their Evansville, Indiana, home.

After hearing a strange noise, his dad checked on him. “He found Mason unconscious, no heartbeat, with a belt around his neck,” his mom says. Looking at his phone later, they learned Mason had filmed himself trying a “choking challenge” that he had seen on YouTube. “But there was no search for the phrase in his history, an algorithm fed it to him unsolicited.” His mother told People.  He died three days later.

Mason’s parents are part of a growing number of parents who say social media is to blame for harming their kids, physically and mentally. We warn students to avoid risky and dangerous online challenges.

 

Why Schools Are Racing to Ban Student Phones

The New York Times, August 11, 2024

As the new school year starts, a wave of new laws that aim to curb distracted learning is taking effect in Indiana, Louisiana, and other states. More than 70 percent of high school teachers say student phone distraction is a “major problem,” according to a survey this year by Pew Research. That is why states are mounting a bipartisan effort to crack down on rampant student cellphone use. So far this year, at least eight states have passed laws, issued orders, or adopted rules to curb phone use among students during school hours.

The issue is not simply that some children and teenagers compulsively use apps like Snap, TikTok and Instagram during lessons, distracting themselves and their classmates. In many schools, students have also used their phones to bully, sexually exploit and share videos of physical attacks on their peers.

We are offering consulting to schools looking to cut down on their student smartphone usage during the school day, and we expect to see more and more schools following this trend as well.

 

Impact of Social Media and Personal Devices on Mental Health

National Education Association, August 12, 2024

A new survey of National Education Association members reveals that educators are genuinely concerned about student mental health and the role of electronic devices and social media in public schools.

The NEA survey’s findings underscore the importance of developing strong local policies on personal device usage in schools, continuing to bring attention to the harms of social media, advocating for actionable strategies to protect the health and safety of Pre-K-12 students, and bolstering learning environments. The full national report can be downloaded at the link above.

 

Parents Think Social Media and Tech Is School Kids’ Greatest Foe

US News and World Report, August 16, 2024

Parents are worried that social media and technology will get in the way of students building meaningful connections with classmates and teachers during the upcoming school year, a new poll finds. Within this article, there are great recommendations for parents.

It is recommended that parents can help a child fit in by finding mentors to model positive behavior, particularly friends or family who faced similar difficulties in school, seeking out settings where a child would better fit in, like clubs or cultural organizations, and checking in with a child regularly to determine how they’re feeling at school or in other social venues.

Parents also should keep an eye out for warning signs that their student is spending too much time on social media, video games or other technology. These can include when the child is losing track of time, or acting preoccupied, distracted, or irritable.

Cyber Safety in the News

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Students Target Teachers in Group TikTok Attack, Shaking Their School

The New York Times, July 6, 2024

Seventh and eighth graders in Malvern, Pa., impersonating their teachers posted disparaging, lewd, racist, and homophobic videos in the first known mass attack of its kind in the U.S.

A spokesperson for the Great Valley School District confirmed in a statement that twenty-two fictitious TikTok accounts were created impersonating their teachers back in February of this year. It was the first known group TikTok attack of its kind by middle school students on teachers in the United States.

Some teachers have stopped posing for and posting photographs, lest students misuse the images. Experts said this type of abuse could harm teachers’ mental health and contribute to the mass exit of teachers from their positions in the future. This is an attack that leaves many wondering whether parents should be held responsible for their children’s social media usage.

 

New Students at Eton, The Poshest of Britain’s Elite Private Schools, Will No Longer Be Allowed Smartphones

CBS News, July 9, 2024

Eton, located near the royal palace in Windsor, just west of London, is renowned for its academic excellence. Notable alumni include Princes William and Harry, as well as novelist George Orwell, James Bond creator Ian Fleming and an extensive list of former prime ministers, including recent leaders Boris Johnson and David Cameron.

The ban, which is due to take effect in September 2024, comes after the U.K. government issued guidance backing school principals who decide to ban the use of cellphones during the school day to minimize disruption and improve classroom behavior. We are starting to see an uptick of these smartphone bans in schools across the globe.

 

How To Tell If Your Online Accounts Have Been Hacked

Tech Crunch, July 14, 2024

More and more hackers are targeting regular people with the goal of stealing their crypto, perhaps getting into their bank accounts or simply stalking them. These types of attacks are still relatively rare, so there is no need for alarm. However, it is important to know what to do to protect yourself if you suspect someone got into your email or social media account.

It is important for people to do regular checkups to protect themselves and understand that most of the companies they have an account with already offer tools to take control of online accounts securely. This article breaks down what you can do to protect yourself and your online accounts.

 

Blocking Calls: Officials Increasingly Ban Students’ Cellphones In K-12 Schools, Reversing Trend

The Washington Times, July 16, 2024

Worried parents have been keen to send their children to school with cellphones ever since the 9/11 terror attacks and mass shootings ushered in the new millennium. Now public officials are pushing back with complaints that students are using smartphones more for cyberbullying, video games and pornography than for talking or texting with Mom.

Liz Repking was asked her thoughts on school cellphone bans. “My experience in the past school year is that the disruption to learning in the classroom is becoming insurmountable, especially for the most dedicated teachers,” Ms. Repking said. “Without question, the most effective approach is a complete ban on phones from entry to exit to the school. This also means that students will not have access during passing periods, lunch, and recess.”

Cyber Safety Consulting endorses a growing school trend of locking personal phones in pouches that can be accessed only before school, after dismissal or in emergencies requiring parental contact.

 

Senate To Push Forward with Child Online Safety Bills This Week

NBC News, July 23, 2024

The Kids Online Safety Act and the Teens Online Privacy Protection Act are likely to pass the Senate by next week. However, the House may take its time passing these bills.

“Nothing has galvanized me and so many others of us here in the Senate more to act on kids’ online safety than meeting with parents who’ve lost loved ones,” Schumer said. “Some of these kids were bullied, others were targeted by predators or had their personal, private information stolen — practically all of them suffered deep mental health anguish in some way and felt like they had nowhere to turn. And in far too many cases, their suffering ended in tragedy as they took their own lives,” he added.

If these safety bills pass, it will provide parents with additional tools they need to further protect their children online.

 

 

 

 

 

Cyber Safety in the News

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Worried About Your Tween’s Screen Time? Check Your Own, New Study Says.

The Washington Post, June 17, 2024

For families who want to keep their tween children from spending too much time in front of screens, a new study offers illuminating advice: Parents, you’ll need to put your phones down first.

The study, published this month in the journal Pediatric Research, examined the links between parenting strategies involving digital media and early adolescent screen use. Among the most striking findings: Parental screen use was strongly associated with higher adolescent screen time and problematic social media or video game use. Parents should be pleased to know that being present and available to their children, without a phone in their hand, can really make a difference.

We agree that the best approach is to have a clear family plan for media use, with understood guidelines and an open line of communication as both parents and children navigate our screen-saturated reality.

 

Surgeon General Wants Tobacco-Style Warning Applied To Social Media Platforms

NBC News, June 17, 2024

In a recent op-ed, Dr. Vivek Murthy said immediate action is needed to protect young people from the potential mental health harms of social media. He said his vision of the warning includes language that would alert users to the potential mental health harms of the websites and apps.

“When adolescents spend more than three hours a day on social media, we’re seeing an association with a doubling of risk of anxiety and depression symptoms,” he said.

The American Psychological Association says teenagers spend nearly five hours every day on top platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. In a 2019 study, the association found the proportion of young adults with suicidal thoughts or other suicide-related outcomes increased 47% from 2008 to 2017, when social media use among that age group soared.

We agree with Dr. Murthy that steps can be taken by parents, social media companies, and others to mitigate the risks, ensure a safer experience online and protect children from possible harm. Education really is key!

 

Los Angeles School District Bans Use Of Cellphones and Social Media By Students

USA Today, June 18, 2024

Over 429,000 students in the nation’s second-largest school district will be prohibited from using cellphones and social media platforms during the school day. The Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education voted 5-2, approving a resolution to develop within 120 days a policy that bans student use of cellphones and social media platforms during the entire school day. The policy, which will be implemented districtwide, will go into effect by January 2025.

The move is an attempt by educators to curb classroom distractions and protect students’ mental health. K-12 teachers in the U.S. have increasingly faced challenges over students’ cellphone use with one-third saying phone distraction is a “major problem in their classroom,” according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in fall 2023.

California Governor Gavin Newsom expressed his support for efforts to restrict cellphone use in schools across the state. Newsom previously signed legislation in 2019 that allowed, but did not require, districts to limit or ban smartphone use at schools. Many people think that this decision will benefit the students and it will be interesting to see if any other large school districts follow suit.

 

Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos To Accounts For 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

The Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2024

Instagram regularly recommends sexual videos to accounts for teenagers that appear interested in racy content and does so within minutes of when they first log in, according to tests by The Wall Street Journal and an academic researcher.

The tests, run over seven months ending in June, show that the social-media service has continued pushing adult-oriented content to minors after parent company Meta said in January that it was giving teens a more age-appropriate experience by restricting what it calls sensitive content including sexually suggestive material.

It is important for parents to check in on what their child is experiencing on social media sites like Instagram. We hear from parents who are shocked at the content that is found on their child’s device. More often than not, it is not what is shared amongst friends/followers that is concerning, but rather what the platform is feeding to minors.

 

New York Governor Hochul Signs Legislation Aimed At Protecting Kids Online

ABC News, June 20, 2024

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed legislation that would allow parents to block their children from getting social media posts suggested by a platform’s algorithm, a move to limit feeds that critics argue are addictive. Under the legislation, feeds on apps like TikTok and Instagram would be limited for people under age 18 to posts from accounts they follow, rather than content suggested by an automated algorithm. It would also block platforms from sending minors notifications on suggested posts between midnight and 6 a.m.

Both provisions could be turned off if a minor gets what the bill defines as “verifiable parental consent.” This bill would go a long way to protect New York minors from suggested content and links on their social media accounts and could be eventually adopted nationwide.

 

Chrissy Teigen Shares Why She’s ‘All For Technology’ As A Parenting Resource: ‘Wonderful Addition’

People, June 24, 2024

Between the family’s downtime at home and their jam-packed traveling schedule, Teigen, 38, and her husband John Legend, 45, explain in this article how they tap into tech to keep the kids busy. “We do a lot of learning apps for them that we think are great,” she tells PEOPLE, adding that her daughter Luna, 8, is learning Spanish on Duolingo on her iPad. “We’re finding it to be a really wonderful addition to the other things she gets to do. And yeah, it’s technology, but it’s really wonderful for her.”

Teigen also says that her son Miles’ current interest in the online game Roblox provides a way for the mother-son duo to connect. In a world where the news about online technology for kids can often be daunting, Tiegen shares the upsides of her children’s use and how it has benefited them as a family.

Cyber Safety in the News

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How A Connecticut Middle School Won The Battle Against Cellphones

The Washington Post, May 1, 2024

What unfolded at Illing Middle School in Manchester, Connecticut reflects a broader struggle underway in education as some administrators turn to increasingly drastic measures to limit the reach of a technology that is both ubiquitous and endlessly distracting.

Scores of schools across the country, from California to Indiana to Pennsylvania, have taken similar steps to remove cellphones altogether rather than rely on rules around their use.

Introducing Yondr pouches to the schools was a tough sell at first for both the students and parents. Although after a few months of using the pouches, the results have all been positive ones. We are hearing about more and more schools using options like these to curb smartphone addiction and distractions throughout the school day.

 

Gen Zers Are Snapping Up Flip Phones. They Might Be Onto Something.

Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2024

When Sammy Palazzolo goes out, people constantly ask to see her phone. The 18-year-old often obliges, flipping it open and handing it over.

In late 2022, Ms. Palazzolo and some of her dorm-mates at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were bemoaning their smartphone addictions. “We were talking about how we [felt] like slaves to our phones, like robots who keep scrolling and scrolling, even when we’re out at parties.” The group hatched a plan to do something about it. The next day, they went flip-phone shopping.

Students that are paying attention have noticed that their traditional smartphones are just too distracting, and they are looking for a solution. Many say they have found that solution in a flip phone.

 

Biden Signs Bill To Protect Children From Online Sexual Abuse And Exploitation

Techcrunch, May 7, 2024

President Biden officially signed the REPORT Act into law on Tuesday. This marks the first time that websites and social media platforms are legally obligated to report crimes related to federal trafficking, grooming, and enticement of children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) CyberTipline.

Under the new law, companies that intentionally neglect to report child sex abuse material on their site will suffer a hefty fine. Although the new law cannot solve the problem entirely, it is progress towards solutions to the online dangers students face every day on their devices.

 

A Teacher Did All He Could To Keep Kids Off Phones. He’s Quitting In Frustration.

The Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2024

Mitchell Rutherford has taught biology at a public high school for 11 years and has faced a crisis of confidence as smartphones took over his Arizona classroom and students lost the motivation to learn. He’s quitting after this semester because he’s tired of trying to engage students who are lost in their phones. Mr. Rutherford says phones in the classroom have made it too hard to teach.

Schools across the country are losing teachers for a variety of reasons, and sometimes, phones factor into decisions to leave. Dozens of teachers have indicated they spend more time policing kids’ phone use than they do teaching. For Rutherford, a 35-year-old teacher who once embraced technology, seeing kids checked out and, in his view, addicted, robbed him of the joy of teaching. A crisis of teacher loss on a grand scale across the country could lead schools to enforce stronger cell phone policies across campus.

 

The First Social Media Babies Are Adults Now. Some Are Pushing For Laws To Protect Kids From Their Parents’ Oversharing

CNN, May 29, 2024

There is a growing movement of young people who are urging lawmakers to protect children whose parents monetize their images, videos and private lives on social media. Many students say that their parent’s oversharing has taken a toll on their mental health, and that they live in a reality in which a digital footprint they didn’t create follows them around for the rest of their life.

The young advocates are calling for financial compensation for these children, and their right to delete unwanted content when they become adults.

Many students share with us that they wish their parents didn’t post so much about them on social media, especially when they were younger and could not give consent. The term “sharenting” is a mashup of sharing and parenting involving the publicizing of kids’ personal information online, usually on social media. We encourage students to have conversation with their parents regarding how to manage their images online. Additionally, we remind parents that we cannot ask behavior of our children that we do not model for them.

Cyber Safety in the News

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A New Book Has Amplified Fierce Debate Around Teens, Mental Health And Smartphones

NBC News, April 3, 2024

“We have overprotected children in the real world and under protected them in the virtual world. “Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation,” argues that the smartphone-driven “great rewiring of childhood” is causing an “epidemic of mental illness.” Phones and social media have become a ubiquitous part of everyday life. But as much as researchers study their impact, there remains no easy answer to how exactly these technologies affect the mental health of kids and teens.

Jonathan suggests four ways to combat this problem: no smartphones before high school, no social media before age 16, no phones in schools; and prioritizing real-world play and independence. This has sparked a conversation and debate amongst parents and educators about the online dangers for children as well as their online/offline digital balance.

Teen Girls Confront An Epidemic Of Deepfake Nudes In Schools

The New York Times, April 8, 2024

Blindsided last year by the sudden popularity of A.I.-powered chatbots like ChatGPT, schools across the United States scurried to contain the text-generating bots to forestall student cheating. Now a more alarming A.I. image-generating phenomenon is shaking schools.

Boys in several states have used widely available “nudification” apps to pervert real, identifiable photos of their clothed female classmates, shown attending events like school proms, into graphic, convincing-looking images of the girls with exposed A.I.-generated breasts and genitalia. In some cases, boys shared the faked images in the school lunchroom, on the school bus or through group chats on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, according to school and police reports. We speak with administrators everyday across the county who are grappling with the challenges and impact of artificial intelligence and other technology available to students at anytime and anywhere.

 

The Real-Time Deepfake Romance Scams Have Arrived

Wired, April18, 2024

Digital con artists started using deepfakes as part of their romance scams around May 2022, says David Maimon, a professor at Georgia State. “What folks were doing was just posting videos of themselves, changing their appearance, and then sending them to the victim—trying to lure them to talk to them,” he says. Since then, they’ve moved on. To create their videos, digital con artists use a handful of different software and apps, using tools often advertised for entertainment purposes, such as allowing people to swap their faces with celebrities or influencers.

These deepfake calls can run in two different ways. Most often, the scammers use a setup of two phones and a face-swapping app. The scammer holds the phone they are calling their victim with—they’re mostly seen using Zoom, Maimon says, but it can work on any platform—and uses its rear camera to record the screen of a second phone. This second phone has its camera pointing at the scammer’s face and is running a face-swapping app. They often place the two phones on stands to ensure they don’t move and use ring lights to improve conditions for a real-time face-swap. Parents need to be aware of how absolutely realistic these scams can seem, and work to educate their students about the way these scams work in order to protect them.

TikTok Ban Signed Into Law By President Biden: How We Got Here And What Comes Next

Tech Crunch, April 24, 2024

The TikTok ban has cleared Congress and received White House approval, putting new pressure on Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, to divest. TikTok faces an uncertain fate in the United States and many people wonder why. A bill including a deadline for Bytedance to divest within nine months or face a ban on app stores to distribute the app in the U.S., was signed by President Joe Biden this month.

The White House’s approval comes swiftly after strong bipartisan approval in the House and a 79-18 Senate vote in favor of moving the bill forward. TikTok is one of the most popular apps for students and this article does a great job of explaining the possible upcoming ban in the United States due to the privacy concerns of app data.

 

What You Need To Know Now To Keep Your Kids Safe Online

She Knows, April 24, 2024

Reports of sextortion amongst students rose 82% from 2021 to 2022.  In 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received on average 100,000 cyber tips of child sexual abuse material every day- almost an 8,000% increase from 2013. Financial sextortion, where perpetrators ask for money, is the fastest growing crime against children in the United States. Tragically, children and teenagers have died by suicide in recent years after being targeted in a sextortion scheme.

We often reassure parents that we are the first generation raising kids with smartphones, and that it can be difficult to know what is best for your child. This article gives great advice for any parent navigating the digital world. It touches on not only sextortion, but the emergence of artificial intelligence online and social media overexposure.  As a reminder for our kids, the adage still stands: If you don’t want your grandma to see it, don’t send it, text it, or post it.

Cyber Safety In The News

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What Students Are Saying About the C.D.C. Report on Teen Sadness

New York Times, March 2, 2024

Teenagers reported record levels of sadness in the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the recently released survey, which was given to 17,000 adolescents at high schools across the United States, nearly three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness in 2021, double the rate of boys, and one in three girls seriously considered attempting suicide. The data also showed high levels of violence, depression and suicidal thoughts among lesbian, gay and bisexual youth.

While the collective response was a sad resignation to the persistence of this problem, many students also said they felt validated and hopeful that this crisis would be addressed. In this article, students share their experiences of struggling with their mental health, offer insight into what may be contributing to the decline among teenagers, and propose their own solutions.

 

Parents Have A Problem With Screen Time, Too, Teens Say

The Washington Post, March 11, 2024

One topic that seems to vex most modern families is technology and the use of smartphones. It’s not just teens struggling with too much screen time — their parents are also attached to their devices.

Almost half of teenagers say their parents, at least sometimes, get distracted by their phones during conversations, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. The disconnect is just one of the many complicated issues parents and teens are navigating when it comes to phones. When we are educating students in schools, we often bring up the topic of technology addiction. When we ask the students if they can think of someone who is addicted to their phone, students often respond with the answer that their parents are.

 

End The Phone-Based Childhood Now

The Atlantic, March 13, 2024

Something went suddenly and horribly wrong for adolescents in the early 2010s. By now you’ve likely seen the statistics: rates of depression and anxiety in the United States—fairly stable in the 2000s—rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent.

By a variety of measures and in a variety of countries, the members of Generation Z (born in and after 1996) are suffering from anxiety, depression, self-harm, and related disorders at levels higher than any other generation for which we have data. We see these statistics play out when we speak to students in schools and see that more and more parents are taking notice of their children’s screen time.

 

On Popular Online Platforms, Predatory Groups Coerce Children Into Self-Harm

The Washington Post, March 13, 2024

“You just don’t realize how quickly it can happen,” says a mother whose child was preyed upon by predators on social media. The abusers were part of an emerging international network of online groups that have targeted thousands of children with a sadistic form of social media terror that authorities and technology companies have struggled to control.  The perpetrators – identified by authorities as boys and men as old as mid-40s – seek out children with mental health issues and blackmail them into hurting themselves on camera. They belong to a set of evolving online groups, some of which have thousands of members, that often splinter and take on new names but have overlapping membership and use the same tactics.

Our goal as Cyber Safety Consulting is to reduce student’s vulnerability to predators by sharing very specific predator tactics they could encounter online and suggestions to prevent contact with predators.

 

Leading Adviser Quits Over Instagram’s Failure To Remove Self-Harm Content

The Guardian, March 16, 2024

A leading psychologist who advises Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) on suicide prevention and self-harm has quit her role, accusing the tech giant of “turning a blind eye” to harmful content on Instagram, repeatedly ignoring expert advice and prioritizing profit over lives.

Lotte Rubæk had concerns that the tech giant’s ongoing failure to remove images of self-harm from its platforms is “triggering” vulnerable young women and girls to further harm themselves and contributing to rising suicide figures. Such is her disillusionment with the company and its apparent lack of desire to change, the Danish psychologist has resigned from the group, claiming Meta does not care about its users’ wellbeing and safety. She said the company is using harmful content to keep vulnerable young people hooked to their screens in the interest of company profit. Similar statements and accusations were made at a Senate hearing earlier this year.

 

Why Gen Z Won’t Be Raising ‘iPad Kids’

The Daily Beast, March 19, 2024

As Gen Z become parents, they’re planning on de-introducing things that Millennial and Gen X parents led with—one of the biggest is not raising an “iPad Kid.” The term itself refers to a generation of children born into the boom of smartphones, growing up reliant on technology like touchscreens and constant internet access.

Age restrictions are among the biggest ways that the generation plans to regulate screen time. It is interesting that this will be the first generation that was raised on screens becoming parents themselves. For Gen Z who will soon take the reins of parenthood, shifting away from the iPad trope is the goal—especially considering the overwhelming evidence of harm to children.

 

 

 

 

Using Parental Controls Effectively: Apple Screen Time & Google Family Link

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The goal of monitoring kids’ technology use is to both ensure their safety AND build their skills toward self-protection and self-regulation when they are online. To this end, the goal is not to ‘catch’ them doing something wrong. Rather, we want them to learn what poor online behavior is while encouraging and discussing what positive online behavior looks like. When you talk about time limits, web filtering, and settings, this can lead to productive conversations while you are in a position of educating and ensuring safety. This is why we HIGHLY recommend being open and transparent with how and why you are using parental controls. When the monitoring is done covertly, the opportunity to engage in positive conversation is greatly diminished or possibly eliminated completely. Obviously, the primary goal is to ensure safety, but a close secondary goal is to provide your child with the knowledge and skills they need to eventually be able to SELF REGULATE. 

Depending on what device you and your child have, these tools are a great start to monitoring what your child is doing on their smartphone and good news – they are most likely already installed on your device! 

Family Link: Can be used on Android devices and Google Chromebooks  

Screen Time: Can be used on Apple devices running iOS, like iPhone and iPad devices. 

The idea behind both monitoring tools is that you can manage your child’s device remotely, or you can simply set screen limits directly on the child’s device. If you set it on their device, you will be asked to establish a passcode specifically for these settings. The specific settings you establish can only be changed or overridden with the code. This code acts as an ‘Administrator’ setting for the device. Both monitoring tools allow parents to manage and restrict app downloads and set content restrictions. They also allow location tracking. Both Family Link and Screen Time serve similar purposes but are just tailored to different platforms, whether you use Apple or Android products.   

These are some of our favorite features of Family Link and Screen Time smartphone monitoring: 

  • Weekly Activity Reports – This reporting feature displays daily and weekly screen time amounts. Total usage time for the device is tracked as well as time by app category (social, games, etc.). Additionally, you can also see the amount of time by specific app (Snapchat, YouTube, etc.) Family suggestion: Have a month-long contest with your child. Turn on your screen tracking and compare weekly totals. Talk about how you can reduce or set simply reduction goals, i.e. if the weekly average for Mom was 35 hours, set next week’s goal at 30 hours and do the same for your child. 
  • App Limits – This feature allows for time limits to be set for category of apps as well as specific apps. For example, if your child is struggling to manage their use of social media, you can set a time limit for all social apps. More specifically, if your child is struggling to manage their use of Snapchat, you can set a time limit for only that app. These limits reset at midnight each day. Family suggestion: Let your child set a time limit for the app you use most😊 and then Mom sets a limit for the app that your child uses most.
  • Content & Privacy – This feature allows for content filtering, managing the installation and deletion of apps, purchases, and downloads. This is where you can set age limits for content for music, TV shows, apps, movies, web content, multiplayer games, etc. The default settings are the most inclusive like Unrestricted and Explicit. If content is a concern, be sure to look through these settings.

Consider walking through all the settings with your child. This can be the beginning of a great conversation about healthy technology habits. We believe that overt monitoring is better than covert monitoring. Talk through what reasonable limits might be. As always, you, as the parent, are the ultimate decision maker. However, it can be a smoother transition if your child feels that they have a voice in the limits and monitoring that’s being established. It also opens the communication lines to deeper conversations around technology use.  

Another suggestion would be to engage in the limits as a family. For example, perhaps you agree to limit your total screen time or have a shared app time limit. Take some time to familiarize yourself with these features. Even if you choose not to utilize it from a parental controls’ perspective, it can be fun to track your weekly use, and be mindful of your own screen habits. Remember – Monitoring tools do not replace parenting. Monitoring tools simply helps you do your job of parenting around technology. 

 

Cyber Safety in the News

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High School Students Walk Out Over Cellphone Ban

Newsweek, Feb 9, 2024

Students at a high school in Texas are protesting a new cellphone ban. Hundreds of students gathered outside James Madison High School in South Houston. Some held signs that read “We are high school kids not cellmates!!!” and “You are not here to imprison us or confine us,”. In the letter, the students also demanded they be treated like students, saying the school “currently operates like a prison.”. Students went on to say that “Our personal property is confiscated as we enter the building and returned once we are released, as if we are serving a prison sentence and released after completing our punishment.” As schools attempt to create and redefine their cell phone policies, we wonder if we will see more backlash like this from students in the future.

‘God, What If I Was 15?’: Julia Roberts Responds To Being Shamed In A Photo With Her Niece

Upworthy, February 13, 2024

A recent photo shared online opened Julia Robert’s eyes to the world of cyberbullying and its effect on teenage mental health. Reports show that online bullying is pervasive among teenagers and looks are a common target. Nearly half of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online, with physical appearance being seen as a relatively common reason why. Older teen girls are especially likely to report being targeted by online abuse overall and mostly because of their appearance.

Senate Poised To Pass Biggest Piece Of Tech Regulation In Decades

Washington Post, February 15, 2024

With more than 60 backers, an updated Kids Online Safety Act finally has a path to passage in the Senate but faces uncertainty in the House. KOSA, first introduced in 2022, would impose sweeping new obligations on an array of digital platforms, including requiring that companies “exercise reasonable care” to prevent their products from endangering kids. The safeguards would extend to their use of design features that could exacerbate depression, sexual exploitation, bullying, harassment, and other harm. If passed, it would become the first major consumer privacy or child online safety measure to clear a chamber of Congress in decades.

A Marketplace Of Girl Influencers Managed By Moms And Stalked By Men

New York Times, February 22, 2024

What often starts as a parent’s effort to jump-start a child’s modeling career, or win favors from clothing brands, can quickly descend into a dark underworld dominated by adult men, many of whom openly admit on other platforms to being sexually attracted to children. The troubling interactions on Instagram come as social media companies increasingly dominate the cultural landscape and the internet is seen as a career path of its own. Pedophiles have frequently praised the advent of Instagram as a golden age for child exploitation. This article gives insight into the world of influencers who get younger and younger every year.

Texas Sues Pornhub Parent Company For Allegedly Failing To Block Access To Minors

New York Post, February 27, 2024

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Pornhub’s parent company for allegedly violating state law by failing to implement age verification measures to ensure that children can’t access the adults-only site. “Texas has a right to protect its children from the detrimental effects of pornographic content,” Paxton said in a news release. Texas is one of several states that have pushed forward legislation aimed at cracking down on minors’ access to porn. Similar laws were put in place in Louisiana, Virginia and Mississippi. Pornhub has retaliated by blocking access to its site for users based in Virginia, Mississippi and Utah. The availability of online pornography has long been a problem for minors, with the average age of first access at 11 years old.