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  • Megan Meier was a 13 year old from Missouri who struck up an online friendship on the popular social networking site MySpace with a person she believed was a new boy in her hometown. In actuality, the “friend” was a group of individuals, including adults, who were intent on humiliating the poor girl because of a friendship with another child that had gone awry. Megan was very upset when she found out the truth, then later committed suicide once the friendship had terminated. The horrifying case stunned the community and caused state government officials to pass some of the harshest cyber bullying laws in the country.
  • Soccer star Alexis Pilkington, 17, took her own life March 21 following vicious taunts on social networking sites -- which persisted postmortem on Internet tribute pages, worsening the grief of her family and friends. Alexis' parents downplayed the role the Internet played in her suicide, saying their daughter was in counseling before she ever signed up with FormSpringMe.com, a new social networking site, where many of the attacks appeared.
  • In South Korea, a female college student was riding the train with her dog when it defecated on the floor of the subway car. After the girl refused to clean up the mess, another passenger on the train took her picture using her cell phone and posted it online. In the months to follow, it became an Internet sensation in South Korea and “Dog Poop” girl became the target of extreme harassment. Individuals found out her name and address and soon she was forced to withdraw from school and move to another part of the country.
  • This year in Clinton Missouri, charges were filed against a teenager who allegedly created a fake Facebook account to serve as a competition against a young girl who was interested romantically in a male student. The account was created by another girl who wanted the boy all to herself, the suit claims. As a result, the targeted individual underwent significant levels of stress which affected her studies and her ability to attend school regularly. The case is one of many that feature phony accounts on Facebook or MySpace that are used to harass young people or stir up trouble among friends.
  • After years of bullying, Vermont eighth-grader Ryan Halligan took his own life in 2003 when a rumor about him spread across the Web. His father, John Halligan, says it was “like a feeding frenzy. Kids who normally didn't bully got in on the fun, both at school and online.”
  • While making the transition to a new town and a new country, Phoebe Prince, officials believe, became the target of intense cyber-bullying, which may have contributed to her apparent suicide. A friend who did not want to be identified told CBS News, “She was being bullied because she was pretty and people were just jealous.” Her friend said she was called an “Irish slut” and a whore. According to a letter from the high school principal, what began as “mean-spirited comments” at school soon found their way online, something experts say is far more dangerous.
  • Eleven-year-old Jessi Slaughter is now under police protection after receiving death threats from several cyberbullies. It all started when Slaughter encountered several “haters” in a live, online video chat room using a site called Stickam which hosts real-time, streaming videos. Slaughter subsequently recorded a response video to the bullies from her bedroom webcam and posted it on YouTube. The video has been dubbed an “emotional breakdown” and features her angry father threatening the cyberbullies with criminal charges. To date, the video has been seen by over 1 million viewers.
  • Megan Gillan, 15, took a fatal overdose of painkillers after bullies waged a hate campaign against her on Bebo. She swallowed the tablets after classmates posted spiteful messages on the social networking site. In the run-up to her death, Megan had been taken out of class to keep her away from her tormentors and studied alone in a “support room.” But her father Mark said: “This is not a support room - it is an exclusion room where pupils are taken out of mainstream rooms because they are disruptive. My daughter, who was being bullied, was put in the same room as people who caused problems at school.”

ABOUT THIS CONFERENCE

Youth cyber-safety has become one of the most critical issues facing youth today. For better and worse, the digital world continues to expand at an amazing rate. Consequently, it is alarming how quickly new dangers are emerging and spreading that can directly or indirectly bring harm to young people. Children and adolescents, in particular, are vulnerable to being exposed to many of these dangers. They need guidance from adults who are equipped with up-to-date insights and prevention/intervention strategies.

The risks that young people are exposed to in the digital world are compounded by the increasing ways that young people can access cyber-space using tools such as cell phones, digital pads & pods, laptops, & game consuls, It is not uncommon today for a young person to have several of these gadgets at his or her disposal and to use them daily.

While these tools have brought many new and exciting ways for young people to access more information and learning opportunities, their use has been accompanied with increased personal risks. It is alarming that youth are being victimized in a growing number of ways through the digital world, sometimes resulting in severe and long-lasting social, emotional and academic harm. The extreme usage of digital devices by some young people has led to severe isolation, self-neglect, depression and academic failure. In some cases, involvement in the digital world has sometimes led to acute addiction and tragically, even to death.

This conference will provide attendees with insights, practical strategies, best-practices, model prevention/intervention programs, information on legal issues, and resource related to youth cyber-safety. We do not endorse merely one particular program or approach to address this topic. Instead, we actively seek presentations that, collectively, will offer conference attendees a wide-variety of current best-practices, research findings, and practical resources of the highest quality.

 Learn what the experts are saying about:

  • Best Practices for Prevention of Digital Drama
  • Recommended Interventions
  • New Federal Youth Cyber-Safety Initiatives & Free Resources
  • Current Legal Issues Affecting School Personnel
  • Establishing/Updating Digital Guidelines/Policies for Schools
  • Social Networking & Texting Risks/Dangers
  • Outreach to Parents
  • Recent Research Findings
  • Future View: Coming Cyber-Risks and Dangers
  • Critical Insights for “Non-Tec-Savy” Adults
  • The Devistating Effects of Cyberbullying: Case Studies
  • Empowering Youth Cyber-Bystanders to Take Action
  • Bullycide: Trends and Prevention
  • And More!

Also, become more cyber-savvy by learning about current dangerous digital practices such as:

  • Flaming
  • Cyber-Harassment
  • Cyberbullying
  • Denigration
  • Impersonation
  • Outing & Trickery
  • Exclusion & Ostracism
  • Cyber-Stalking
  • Sexting
  • Sextortion
  • Cyberstalking
  • Phishing
  • Malware
  • Filtering & Blocking
  • And more!
  • Developmental Resources Inc.
  • PO Box 615
  • Chapin, SC 29036
  • 800.251.6805
  • fax: 803.345.0888
  • dr@sc.rr.com
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