Category Archives: Cybersafety

It’s Time to Stop Prosecuting Kids for Sexting

North Carolina, I’m looking at you. Ten months after the state made national headlines for charging a 16-year-old high school quarterback and his 15-year-old girlfriend with two felonies each for exchanging nude cell phone photos, state officials have leveled four felony counts against a 16-year-old boy for disseminating obscenity (i.e., photos of his penis). At…

Interview with Good Morning America [Media]

On Thursday, May 26, Good Morning America aired the latest segment in a series that it has been doing on teens and technology. Entitled “What Your Kids Don’t Want You to Know: Teens Exploited Via Technology,” the piece “examines how some teens are coerced or blackmailed into sending explicit pictures or video to a predator.”…

Helping Students Be Responsible Digital Citizens [x-post]

[This blog post originally appeared on the Community Matters blog. I co-authored it with Dr. Glenn Lipson, a clinical and forensic psychologist based in San Diego, CA.] In a remarkably short time, social media has become the leading method by which teens connect, communicate, and share interests. It is crucially important for families and educators…

Little Swipers [Lecture]

2016-02-23 Little Swipers from Frederick Lane A 2-hour presentation on toddler tech use delivered at the 2016 Alaska Society for Technology in Education annual conference in Anchorage, AK on February 23, 2016. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me for information…

Your Digital Footprint [Lecture]

2016-02-17 Your Digital Footprint from Frederick Lane A 60-minute presentation delivered to grades 5-12 at the Cordova School District, Cordova, AK on February 17, 2016. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me for information regarding my rates and availability.

Cybertraps for the Young: Four Questions for Parents [Lecture]

2016-02-16 Cybertraps for the Young: Four Questions for Parents from Frederick Lane A 60-minute presentation delivered to the community of Cordova, Alaska on February 16, 2016. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me for information regarding my rates and availability.

Anonymous Alerts Announces New Member of Its Advisory Board

It gives me pleasure to announce that Anonymous Alerts, a leader in the mobile reporting sector for school technology, has asked me to join its advisory board. I look forward to assisting this innovative company with its efforts to improve school and student safety. You can read the company’s press release by clicking here. The…

Israel, Palestine, Twitter, and Bullying: NJ High School Gets Crash Course in Global Politics and Constitutional Law

The town of Fair Lawn, in northeastern New Jersey, lies just under 5,700 miles from Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel. The two communities have widely-differing histories: the former is a bedroom community created by the New Jersey Legislature just 92 years ago, in 1924, while the latter is one of the oldest cities in…

“Rethink The Conversation” Issues Holiday Charitable Appeal

In mid-October, I had the pleasure of presenting at the New York State School Boards Association with Joanne Harpel on the topic “Teens, Technology, and Suicide: Understanding Causes, Effects, and ‘Bullycide.’” In the coming year, we will be working to bring this presentation to school districts throughout the tri-state region and beyond. After fifteen years…

VA Music Teacher Will Spend 10 Years Behind Bars for Sexual Assault on Student

How much privacy should your child have? That’s a question that parents and children have been debating for quite some time, but with increasing intensity over the last few decades. As you might expect, parents vary widely in the amount of privacy they allow their children. (And the protestations of my younger son–at age 4(!)–notwithstanding,…