What to do when ...
Cyber-bullying 1. Don’t respond AT ALL (It will make it worse) 2. Save the evidence for future reference (Instructions Right) 3. Block and Delete the perpetrator from the website or service (Instruction Below) 4. Report Abuse to the Admins of the website or service, to remove the content and punish the perpetrator (Instruction Below) 5. Tell People you Trust - friends, adults, teachers, parents to support you, and help you to resolve it, and police if necessary - especially if it's anonymous - as it can be a criminal offence. |
Saving the Evidence
Make a folder on your computer to save all the evidence in. The evidence may consist of text, images and or video. To save text, highlight it (press Ctrl-A, or Apple-A on Macs to highlight it all), and copy it into a notepad or word document. To take a screenshot (a picture of your computer screen), search for the ‘snipping’ application. On Windows XP and older press the print screen button (above the arrow keys, top right of the keyboard), then go into the start menu, programs, accessories, paint, press Ctrl-V (copy), and click file and save. On Macs you can press apple-shift-3 to save a screenshot to the desktop. To save an image on a webpage right click on it (or control-click on Macs) and select 'save image'. To save a YouTube video or other online video, visit - http://vixy.net/ - post the 'web address' of the video into the 'URL' box, and then click start. It will convert the video into the .avi file type that can play on Windows & Macs, and then let you download it onto your computer. |
Deleting, Blocking and Reporting Abuse to the Administrator
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Facebook
Log in, visit a profile and select ‘unfriend’ at the bottom left to remove a person. You can select ‘Report/Block This Person’ there too and follow the steps if you want to block them too. To report abuse, click ‘Report/Block This Person’, and follow the steps. Sometimes there are report links accompanying posts. MSN Log in, right click on contact in your contact list and select ‘Delete contact’. When the dialogue box pops up, select ‘Also block this contact’ as well and click ok. Click the 'Help' menu (Alt-H if it doesn’t appear), and click 'Report abuse' – Type your name, email in – the bully’s email – what type of abuse, and then paste the evidence in the box. You could also turn message history on to ensure the evidence is recorded. To do this, click ‘tools’, ‘options’, ‘messages’ and tick the box that says ‘automatically keep a history of my conversations’. If you want to, you can download Messenger Plus here – which has a function of recording your message history with password security. Right click on message or open the options menu and click 'view source' or ‘headers’, and copy and save that. Block the perpetrator's address in settings if you can. Notify your ISP, notify the perpetrator's ISP if you want. |
YouTube
You need an account. To get one click 'Create Account' up the top right, and register. If you have a Google account you can sign in with that too. Log in to your account. When watching any video click the flag icon. This will give you an option of selecting why you want to report it, probably ‘bullying’ under ‘Hateful and Abusive Content’, or otherwise if it’s something else, and click ‘Flag This Video’. MySpace Log in, select ‘Friends’, select who you want to delete, and click ‘Delete’. Visit their profile, click on the arrow next to the clog wheel icon, and select ‘Block User’. To report abuse visit the perpetrators profile, click on the arrow next to the clog wheel icon, and select ‘Report Abuse’. Put in your name, email, type of abuse, detail the relevant evidence, provide links and click ‘Report’. To make your profile private, hover over ‘My Stuff’ up the top, select ‘Privacy Settings’ and selection ‘My Friends only’ and save the changes. Random websites / forums Click contact admin button, send them an email or message and most likely they will take action against the perpetrator. For services/websites you’re not sure about visit abuse.net’s web lookup page to see if they have an email address, or try emailing it to abuse@thewebsite.com or admin@thewebsite.com etc. |
Bebo
Login, click 'Friends', click the cross icon on the perpetrator to delete the perpetrator. Now visit the perpetrator’s profile, and click 'Block' and click 'Report Abuse', then click 'Report Abuse Only'. Make your profile private by clicking on 'Profile', 'Edit profile', ‘Privacy Settings’, select ‘My friends only’ and ‘Update Privacy Settings’. Formspring To report people click ‘Help’ at the bottom, ‘Submit a Request’ at the top and fill in the details. To block a user select ‘Block Their Name’ at the bottom right of their profile. To make your Formspring private click ‘Settings’, ‘Privacy’, and select ‘Protect My Account’. In the same section you can disallow anonymous questions from people who aren’t logged in, or disallow anonymous questions completely. Mobiles Only some phones can block numbers, go into the settings and select block caller – put the perpetrators number in. Contact your service provider, report it to them. Contact the perpetrator's service provider (if known) and report it. Games Runescape, click the report abuse button down the bottom right. For others, Google search the games name and report abuse. E.g. Runescape report abuse. |