HHS’ SAMHSA and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Collaborate with Facebook to Provide a First-of-a-Kind Service To Help Prevent Suicides: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) In partnership with the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, Facebook is announcing a new service that harnesses the power of social networking and crisis support to help prevent suicides across the Nation and Canada. The new service enables Facebook users to report a suicidal comment they see posted by a friend to Facebook using either the Report Suicidal Content link or the report links found throughout the site. The person who posted the suicidal comment will then immediately receive an email from Facebook encouraging them to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or to click on a link to begin a confidential chat session with a crisis worker. For further information please visit: http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/1112125820.aspx
Cyberbullying Prevention: www.klgreer.com
- Facebook changing all the time, each time you have to go into your privacy settings and recheck them
- Facebook is a public form and there is no “right to privacy” anything shared can be viewed, printed, copied and reposted by anyone-even someone that hacks in-and you can do nothing about it
- Facebook’s disclaimer and acceptance of use box that you have to check to start an account, states that you are 13 or older. If you lie on the date of birth to open the account and something happens, Facebook does not have to cooperate with you in requesting information (They are very cooperative with police and parents in dealing with, providing information, shutting down abusive users and improving their policies with appropriate users)
- Gaming- on line gaming has parental controls that you can set to allow in only know friends to game with. Predators have been known to find a busy group and get kids to answer personal questions while distracted by the fast game play.
- Bullying can bring serious charges and even if you delete the offensive material, it can still be extracted off the servers’ hard drive. It is mandatory for companies to keep this information for several years just so it is available to the authorities. It may not be accessible by you, but it is by request by the police.
- The other topic was “sexting” which is really child pornography, not only morally but also in the eyes of the law and can bring serious charges-even if you are the recipient (it is possession of child pornography). The important message here is, if you receive such a photo-bring it to the police immediately to make a report. The images are also available by the server/service provider for several years and can still be accessed by the police even after being deleted.
- She also promotes making it a requirement of using Facebook, etc. to have your child give you the user name and password so that you may check the account for any suspicious activity. Transparency between parents and children is the best protection. Just be careful not to “snoop” and but into their lives as a result of monitoring for safety or it can backfire on you.
- Computers should be in a family room-not in bedrooms-the potential for harm increases exponentially.
- Smart phones allow for 24/7 internet access-you can download an app (application) to the phones that allows for parental monitoring-what sites they visit, how much they are on line, etc…
- For home computers/laptops you can download a program for monitoring the internet that will send you messages if the use violates the parental limits you set.
- Also for cell phones with photo messaging capabilities-you can call your service provider to shut off that feature and they are bound to do so (they don’t like to because it reduces your bill as well in most cases) the phones can still take photos, they just can’t be sent OR received.
