Archive for category School bullying

Teen Chat Rooms Peer Pressure Statistics

If you’ve seen the recent Frontline special on PBS, as a parent you understand the frustrations many parents go through when trying to raise a child who is growing up online.

Many of the shocking statics regarding teens and online chat reveal some very disturbing trends that parents should take to hart.

A parent’s internet monitoring study done in Canada found that:

• Over half (51%) of parents either do not have or do not know if they have software on their computer(s) that monitors where their teenager(s) go online and with whom they interact.

• 42% of parents do not review the content of what their teenager(s) read and/or type in chat rooms or via instant messaging.

• Teenagers who Instant Message use chat lingo to communicate and parents don’t know the meanings of some of the most commonly used phrases. 57% don’t know LOL (Laughing Out Loud), 68% don’t know BRB (Be Right Back), and 92% don’t know A/S/L (Age/Sex/Location).

• 95% of parents couldn’t identify common chat room lingo that teenagers use to warn people they’re chatting with that their parents are watching. Those phrases are POS (Parent Over Shoulder) and P911 (Parent Alert).

• Nearly three out of 10 (28%) of parents don’t know or are not sure if their teens talk to strangers online.

• 30% of parents allow their teenagers to use the computer in private areas of the house such as a bedroom or a home office. Parents say they are more vigilant about where their teen(s) go online if the computer is in a public area of the household.

• 58% of parents surveyed say they review the content of what their teenager(s) read and/or type in chat rooms or via Instant Messaging; 42% do not.

And more statistics on teen peer pressure, cyber bullying, and sexually explicit internet use:

• Approximately one in five received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet in the last year.

• One in thirty-three received an aggressive sexual solicitation – a solicitor who asked to meet them somewhere; called them on the telephone; sent them regular mail, money, or gifts.

• One in four had an unwanted exposure to pictures of naked people or people having sex in the last year.

• One in seventeen was threatened or harassed.

• Approximately one quarter of young people who reported these incidents were distressed by them.

• Less than 10 percent of sexual solicitations and only 3 percent of unwanted exposure episodes were reported to authorities such as a law-enforcement agency, an Internet Service Provider, or a hotline.

• About one quarter of the youth who encountered a sexual solicitation or approach told a parent. Almost 40 percent of those reporting an unwanted exposure to sexual material told a parent.

• Only 17 percent of youth and approximately 10 percent of parents could name a specific authority, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, CyberTipline, or an Internet Service Provider, to which they could make a report, although more said they had “heard of” such places.

• In households with home Internet access, one third of parents said they had filtering or blocking software on their computer at the time they were interviewed.

We hope that after taking a minute to read these statistics that you will re evaluate your teens use of the internet and chat rooms, and discuss these statistics with your teen.

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Internet Harassment – Fight Back With A Reverse Email Search

Do you ever wonder why the large Internet service providers, social networking sites and message board forums don’t do anything to stop cyber harassment and online stalking? It’s because the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (”CDA”) Section 230(c)(1) shields providers of interactive computer services from liability for the actions of the individuals using those services.

Since they have no liability for the actions of their members they make very little effort to identify them or even discourage the cyber harassment of other members.

Some Cyber Harassment Statistics (2002):

- 62% of Cyber Harassment Victims are Female, primarily ages 18-24.

- Groups most at risk for Cyber Harassment include:
- Women, particularly abused women
- Special Ability Groups
- Minors
- Members of Minority Groups
- New Internet Users

- 62% of all Cyber Stalking Victims are located in the United States

- Cyber Harassers are primarily male, but the number of female cyber harassment offenders is growing steadily.

- 25% of Offenders are personally known by their victims.

”The most surprising thing we’ve seen is the rise in female cyberstalkers – this increased from 27% in 2000 to 32.5% in 2001 to 35% in 2002,” says Jayne A. Hitchcock, president of WHOA. “We’ve also had more men come to us for help, jumping from 17% in both 2000 and 2001 to 35% in 2002.” http://WHOA.org

The reason so many people will use the Internet to stalk or harass people is because they think they can remain anonymous and their victim will not be able to identify them. Obviously most people would not behave that way if they knew they could be caught. One they are identified most return back under the rock they crawled out from under.

If you or someone you know are the target of a cyber stalker or online harassment you don’t need to take it lying down. Even though you will get little help from the ISP or social network you can hire a private investigator to perform a reverse email search to locate and identify the stalker. Document their investigation into a report and use that report in court to get justice against your stalker.

If you are ready to fight back and stop being a victim you can begin by searching online for a PI that specialized in Internet investigations and cyber stalking intervention. Be sure the one you choose is considered an expert in email tracing and locating and identifying people online.

They should also offer other types of services like skip tracing and background reports. That way if the investigation expands into other areas you can save time and money by staying with one group of professional investigators until the end of the case . If you decide to take this route you want to be sure it’s done right the first time.

Also check out pricing and estimated length of time for the results of the investigation. Too cheap or too quick is a good sign of a possible scam to take your money and run .

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Texting and Chatting No big deal? Think again?

Many have expressed alarm at a growing trend called “sexting”, where young people send explicit and indecent photos to each other using their cell phones. Not to mention what they are doing on their home computers. Are your sure you chSexting, cyberbullying, online predators, pedophiles, cybercrimes, stop sexting, texting and driving, stop online predators, stop cyberbulling, web safety, cell phone safety. safety cellphone, danger cell phone, safe cell phone, safe cell phone softwareldren are just harmlessly textSexting, cyberbullying, online predators, pedophiles, cybercrimes, stop sexting, texting and driving, stop online predators, stop cyberbulling, web safety, cell phone safety. safety cellphone, danger cell phone, safe cell phone, safe cell phone softwareng?

Many people think that sexting is simply a modern day version of love letters or the way “kids act these days”. True, our children are exposed to a lot more at a lot earlier these days through the media, movies, and the internet. But, does that make it right? Kids who have been asked and interviewed about this new behavior frequently brush it off as just fun. Parents do too or contend that THEIR children would never. But, what started out as risqué fun among adolescents has spread quickly and with serious consequences. Parents and adolescents alike should pay attention.

A couple serious considerations to think about:

Police have said that pedophiles are increasingly trawling social networking sites to find explicit pictures taken by teenagers of each other. They then contact the young people involved, using the photos to blackmail them into committing indecent acts. In the past year, investigators said that there had been a huge rise in the number of pictures being stored on hard drives by pedophiles that have been taken by teenagers in relationships. Often the photographs are taken by teenagers in relationships who then split up and place them on social networking sites such as Bebo or Facebook. The pictures also get passed around friends at school, leading to bullying. New research shows that a quarter of all youngsters between 11 and 18 have received a “sext” by phone or e-mail. Teenagers across America have been arrested on child pornography charges and there have been reports of high-school students losing jobs or college scholarships as a result of being identified in sexually suggestive pictures on the internet or cell phones.

Real Stories – Don’t let them happen to your child

Cyberbullying

Last year, a woman aged 18 from Cincinnati, Ohio, killed herself after being bullied by fellow pupils who had seen photos of her naked. Jessica Logan had originally sent the pictures to her boyfriend, but they had ended up in the hands of hundreds of her schoolmates. She endured months of insults online and in person, describing her as a “whore” and a “porn queen”.

Cases of bullying as a result of sexting are now beginning to emerge in Britain. Saskia, 15,  had a female friend took a photo of her while she was changing.

She tried to take the phone off her but it turned into an argument and she left. Saskia later found the picture on MySpace Her phone number was also posted, with a note telling men to call “for a good time”. She was distressed after receiving a number of messages from boys.

Prosecution

6 high-school students in Pennsylvania were arrested on child pornography charges. Three were girls who allegedly took pictures of themselves, and were charged with manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography. Three were boys from the same school who were found with explicit photos on their mobile phones by police, and were charged with possession of child pornography.

In Goshen, Ohio a 19-year-old cheerleading coach was convicted of indecency charges after taking a topless photo of herself and a 15-year-old girl.

While in Texas, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on child pornography charges in October, after receiving a nude photo of a fellow student on his mobile phone.

Happens Easier than you think

1. Jen, 14, takes sexual photo of herself on her camera-phone and sends it to her boyfriend, Colin, 15. Jen is now potentially guilty of distributing child pornography. Colin is potentially guilty of possession of child pornography.

2. Jen dumps Colin. Out for revenge, Colin sends photo to his friends at school. Colin is now also guilty of distributing — and his friends of possession — of child pornography. Jen is embarrassed as sexual photo of herself circulates school.

3. Colin’s friend uploads photo to his social networking profile, where his photos are visible to the public. Colin is in breach of website terms and guilty of distributing child pornography.

4. Pedophiles browse profiles with loose privacy settings and find image of Sarah. Sarah unwittingly becomes subject of child pornography for distribution among strangers and pedophiles who may contact her and try to meet her.

.

Please consider that any child could be victim to cyberbullying, sexting, online predators, or prosecuted and labeled as a sex offender. As much as we try to educate and protect them, it’s often beyond our control. Luckily, there is new technology that can help parents be better informed and stop these stories from becoming their own. New technology stops inappropriate cell and computer contact AND sends you an instant alert right to your cell or email. A small investment in new technology can save your child humiliation, prosecution, and labeling for life. Sometimes when technology harms us we are able to innovate and protect ourselves again. Wonder what the next thing will be?

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The Dark Side

 

Many times on the news you hear a report about a shooting, killing or violent incident and the person at the heart of the incident is passed off as mentally ill, and the society reacts by creating additional laws to protect themselves from the mentally ill.

What many in society still do not understand or realize is that there is a dark side to many of those shootings and violent incidents, there is a dark side that society would rather not have you know about. A dark side that happens masked just below the public’s eye and awareness, but that is often very real and traumatizing for the Targeted Individual.

In many of these cases if you look deeper into these incidents you will often discover that there was more to the story. Before the target had a history of “mental illness”, the target often had complaints of mobbing, bullying, or harassment of some kind. Often times the Target might not even have a term to go with the form of harassment that is happening to them. They often describe individuals around them, or even complete strangers as being mean, taunting, doing little incidents to provoke them. Many of these targets have complained for years about the targeting, but with each successive complaint their actions are often passed off as mental illness. Their very real concerns that some type of organized or systemic harassment, is happening around them often goes unheeded, unheard, and the target might even be forcefully committed by concerned family. When the reality is that the target has been exposed continually overtime to a psychological operation of harassment and provocations, that would be capable of breaking down most of the sane of individuals.

Recently society has become more familiar with terms such as mobbing and bullying.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing

Mobbing in the context of human beings either means bullying of an individual by a group in any context, or specifically any workplace bullying.

Though the English word mob denotes a crowd, often in a destructive or hostile mood, German, Polish, Italian and several other European languages have adopted mobbing as a loanword to describe all forms of bullying including that by single persons. The resultant German verb mobben can also be used for physical attacks, calumny against teachers on the internet and intimidation by superiors, with an emphasis on the victims’ continuous fear rather than the perpetrators’ will to exclude them. The word may thus be a false friend in translation back into English, where mobbing in its primary sense denotes a disorderly gathering by a crowd and in workplace psychology narrowly refers to “ganging up” by others to harass and intimidate an individual.

Research into the phenomenon was pioneered in the 1980s by German-born Swedish scientist Heinz Leymann, who borrowed the term from animal behaviour due to it describing perfectly how a group can attack an individual based only on the negative covert communications from the group”.[3]

Mobbing is also found in school systems and this too was discovered by Dr. Heinz Leymann. Although he preferred the term bullying in the context of school children, some have come to regard mobbing as a form of group bullying. As professor and practising psychologist, Dr. Leymann also noted one of the side-effects of Mobbing is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is frequently misdiagnosed. After making this discovery he successfully treated thousands of mobbing victims at his clinic in Sweden.

In the book MOBBING: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace, the authors say that mobbing is typically found in work environments that have poorly organized production and/or working methods and incapable or inattentive management and that mobbing victims are usually “exceptional individuals who demonstrated intelligence, competence, creativity, integrity, accomplishment and dedication”.[4]

UK Anti-bully pioneers Andrea Adams and Tim Field used the expression workplace bullying instead of what Leymann called “mobbing” although workplace bullying nearly always involves mobbing in its other meaning of group bullying.

In the following article some stories of workplace mobbing are shared.

Mobbing

members.shaw.ca/mobbing/mobbingCA/workplaceviolence.htm

Workplace Violence:

Why it happens. Why it will continue.

“The tiny percentage of mobbing victims – like Pierre Lebrun – who lash back in violent attack would probably have lived out their lives peaceably and productively had they been spared the excruciating pain of relentless humiliation.”

~ Prof. Kenneth Westhues,
At the Mercy of the Mob: A summary of research on workplace mobbing

We’ve all seen the news reports. A lone gunman returns to his workplace or former workplace to exact revenge for harassment that has gone on sometimes for years. We learn that the gunman has lashed back in the past at those he considered to be abusing him, albeit in non-lethal ways. We are told the gunman has been disciplined in the past for his behavior (reacting to the abuse) and has been ordered to go to counselling or anger management courses. Even though the precipitating abuse may have gone on for years any response in kind gives the bullies and management the opportunity to turn the tables and claim that the victim of abuse is the real problem after all.

Of couse what we don’t hear is that the bullies provoking this reaction are almost never disciplined or required to attend counselling themselves. At this point targets of mobbing are often further humiliated by being forced to sign so-called ‘last chance agreements’ which threaten the target with termination if they dare to challenge the bullies again. So once the target of harassment returns to work after “counselling” they are greeted by cynical bullies who simply renew their attack with added vigor now that they know management will do nothing to stop them and will even join in the persecution. This tacit approval and participation by management guarantees the situation will only get worse.

The societies reaction is too often to pass the individual off as problematic, sick, disturbed, mentally ill, a violent individual. The real causes behind their violent and extreme outbursts often remain hidden. It’s easier to think that we have a few individuals in society that are sick and disturbed vs the fact that we have a society that is doing sick and disturbing things to these individuals and their lives, which in turn leads to these violent outbursts and incidents.

Once educated it is easy to tell what is really happening, who the real victim is. Once it is named and brought out into the light for all to see bullies can no longer operate in the grey area. Only once everyone sees mobbing for what it is, brutal systematic psychological torture, will it become unacceptable. Only when co-workers, supervisors, department heads, HR managers, EAP providers, corporate executives, doctors, lawyers, judges and politicians understand what is being done and comprehend the staggering toll it takes on individuals, companies and society as a whole will laws proscribing mobbing become effective.

In the meantime, the body count will continue to rise.

~ Anton Hout

The body count has indeed continued to rise, but where workplace mobbing and school bullying have become more widely recognized, the issue of community mobbing and Gang Stalking are often less well known, and when violent incidents happen, society does not often readily link these incidents of violence to something more dark and insidious that might be just be happening in the community.

The mobbing community over the years has done a fantastic job of documenting the link between workplace mobbing and violent shootings. They were able to establish that in the case of many workplace shootings if you looked a little deeper there was workplace mobbing ongoing. Workplace mobbing that had gone on for years. The Target of the mobbing had often been singled out as the problem and their cries for help often lead to measures which left them unable to complain any further, take any extra internal actions, and left them at the mercy of the mob.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting

Bullying

School shooting
Main article: School shooting

School shootings have focused attention on student bullying, with shooters in several of the worst shootings reporting they were bullied.

School shootings are a bullying-related phenomenon that receive an enormous amount of media attention. [b]An investigation undertaken by the United States Secret Service found that in over 2/3 of cases, attackers in school shooting incidents “felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured by others prior to the incident” and discredits the idea that school shooters are “loners” who “just snap”.[/b] Though observing that, “clearly, not every child who is bullied in school presents a risk for targeted violence in school”, the investigation report states that, “a number of attackers had experienced bullying and harassment that was longstanding and severe. In those cases, the experience of bullying appeared to play a major role in motivating the attack at school”. The report also observes “in a number of cases, attackers described experienced of being bullied in terms that approached torment”. The report concluded that, “(t)hat bullying played a major role in a number of these school shootings should strongly support ongoing efforts to combat bullying in American schools”.[4]

Studies prompted by the shootings have shown long-lasting emotional harm to victims. The studies also revealed that bullies themselves are likely to suffer problems as children and adults.[5]

Many in the bullying feild such as the lateTim Fieldalso did a wonderful job with connecting violent school shootings with the concept that the students at the heart of many of those incidents had been bullied. He would also term the phrase bullycide to describe a young persons suicide due to bullying.

Years before bullying became well known, targets of bullying were persecuted, they suffered in silence while their cries for help were ignored. Many were made out to be disturbed or problematic individuals. The reality is that they were enduring months if not years of psychological torture and torment. The shootings gained a lot of attention, and measures were implemented to address school bullying, but years later this is still a very big problem in the school system as seen by the suicide of Phoebe Prince.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Phoebe_Prince

Phoebe Nora Mary Prince[1] (November 24, 1994[2] – January 14, 2010) was a teenager from South Hadley, Massachusetts. She became known throughout the United States and internationally when she committed suicide after suffering months of constant bullying from school classmates. Her death brought calls for more stringent, specific anti-bullying laws in Massachusetts. In March 2010, a state anti-bullying task force was set up as a result of her death.

In the case of workplace mobbing and bullying, the suicides don’t often get the same degree of attention that the shootings do, but they are just as important. They show the darkside of what society is capable of doing. They show a real failure of this system. They also are a striking reminder that even with all the education, lectures, documentation, there is still a long way to go towards getting this type of behaviour resolved. They show a dark side of society, and it’s consistent need to feed off of their members, societies need to demean, psychologically degrade, and belittle those it perceives as weaker, deserving of punishment, or who fail to fall in line with the status quo.

Gang Stalking

GangstalkingWorld.com

What is Gang Stalking?

Gang Stalking is a systemic form of control, which seeks to destroy every aspect of a Targeted Individuals life. A target will be flagged by the community for various reasons, their information is sent out to the community at large, and they are followed around 24/7 by the members of the various communities that they are in.

The warning will go out to various places including stores, apartment rentals, future employers, communities that the target is visiting, doctors, fire departments, police, etc. A covert investigation might also be opened, and electronic, means used by the civilian spies/snitches as part of the overt and covert monitoring and surveillance process.

Individuals can be flagged designating them as having a history of aggressive or inappropriate behavior. This flagging system will follow the target if they move, change jobs, visit other areas. It let’s the community believe that they are persons who need to be watched or monitored.

“In the service sector this may require identifying to employees persons who have a history of aggressive or inappropriate behavior in the store, bar, mall or taxi.

The identity of the person and the nature of the risk must be given to staff likely to come into contact with that person. While workers have the right to know the risks, it is important to remember that this information cannot be indiscriminately distributed.

Community health and safety

A woman named Jane Clift in the U.K. went through a very similar type of flagging system. A warning marker was placed against her name designating her as potentially violent.

“She sensed that, everywhere she went, there was “whispering, collaboration, people scurrying about”. “Everywhere I went – hospitals, GPs, libraries – anywhere at all, even if I phoned the fire service, as soon as my name went on to that system, it flagged up ‘violent person marker, only to be seen in twos, medium risk’.”

Violent Persons Registry

Jane Clift was targeted this way and spent four year clearing her name.

Individuals are being flagged without their knowledge. In many countries these flags might fall under community safety and health laws. It seems that employers, educational facilities, and community centers are in some cases flagging innocent individuals as a means of retaliation, silencing, or controlling members of society.

Being Bullied or Mobbed out of a job can be a devastating experience for anyone. For those who do survive it can lead to post traumatic stress disorder, or even psychiatric injury. The Target can spend years if not the rest of their lives recovering from an attack, unable to work or even attend school.

bullyonline.org/stress/ptsd.htm#Differences

Differences between mental illness and psychiatric injury

The person who is being bullied will eventually say something like “I think I’m being paranoid…”; however they are correctly identifying hypervigilance, a symptom of PTSD, but using the popular but misunderstood word paranoia. The differences between hypervigilance and paranoia make a good starting point for identifying the differences between mental illness and psychiatric injury.

These symptoms that the target exhibits can also go ignored or misdiagnosed for years by a society that continually fails to understand the emotional and psychologically damaging effects of such practices.

GangstalkingWorld.com

Gang Stalking is experienced by the Targeted Individual as psychological attack, that is capable of immobilizing and destroying them over time. The covert methods used to harass, persecute, and falsely defame the targets often leave no evidence to incriminate the civilian spies.

It’s similar to workplace mobbing, but takes place outside in the community. It called Gang Stalking, because groups of organized community members stalk and monitor the targets 24/7.

Many Targeted Individuals are flagged, harassed and placed under surveillance in this way for months or even years before they realize that they are being targeted by an organized protocol of harassment.

The Targeted Individual community has spent the last few years playing catch up, and trying to firmly establish a coloration between incidents of violence in the community, and the very real fact that many of these individuals might just have been targets of a practice that has become known as Gang Stalking.

In the book Bridging The Gap By :GmB Bailey, there is a whole chapter demonstrating just how easily conspiracies can happen, often right under the public’s scoop of visibility and awareness. With Gang Stalking the community goes into hypervigilance or vigilante mode, trying to remove an individual that they see as a danger or undesirable. The society firmly believes that it is doing something good and beneficial for the community, but in reality they are exposing these individuals to months and years of what amounts to a psychological operation, capable of breaking down and destroying the individual, or driving that person to committing acts of violence.

Over the last several years there have been several such shootings, where the individuals complained about surveillance, monitoring, harassment, people saying rude things, gaslighting, but the individuals are always written off as being mentally ill. It should be pointed noted that with school shootings the kids where once written off as kids who snapped without cause, and the same was true for workplace shootings. They were also written off as people who went postal without any cause. Once a correlation of prior complaints could be established a very different story emerged. It was then noted that in 2/3 of all school shootings the targets had complained about bullying without anything being done, and the same is true for workplace mobbing.

What the Targeted Individual community now has to establish is the link between incidents of violence in the community and these community flaggings, warning markers or listings that individuals are having added to their files, otherwise known as Gang Stalking. What needs to be established is the fact that the violence is happening in some if not most cases, not because the person is mentally ill or violent, but the actions of the community once the individual is flagged in this way, is leading to incidents of violence or mass shootings in the community. The endless community mobbing that the target experiences, which is basically amounts to a psychological operation, that goes on for months if not years, is what is leading to these incident of violence in society.

Were the following cases simply disturbed or violent individuals, or were they targets of something far deeper, something more insidious, the dark side of society?


Jiverly Wong

The news reported Jiverly Wong as a loser with a failed marriage, who had once tried to rob a bank. A person who had a history of drug abuse, and who could not hold down a job.

The story that Jiverly Wong tells is very different.

gangstalkingworld.com/Media/2009/04/jiverly-wong

Jiverly Wong tells a story of 20 years worth of harassment, by members of the community, but mostly by police officers. He talks about rumours and slanders, he also describes what sounds similar to what Targeted Individuals describe as Electronic Harassment. When reviewing Jiverly Wong’s story, it became clear that there were discrepancies. His parents had no reason to believe that he had ever been married. The bank robbery was a lie told to police which established an investigation being opened. None of Jiverly Wong’s co-workers reported any type of a drug problem. His job loses were not job loses, he had worked at one company for several years then left. They report him as an excellent worker. With his second job the factory closed down and he was laid off. He then tried to take an English language class, but reportedly dropped out, most likely due to mobbing. This same school would be the focus and target of his anger.

To look at the story the media painted was to see a paranoid individual, but once society is aware of the psychological operation that goes on behind the scenes, Jiverly Wong’s complaints about what happened to him become far more credible, and requires closer examination. Not just for Jiverly Wong, but for those who were the targets of his final outrage at society. If a correlation can be established, if his complaints can be verified, then maybe this can be used to make sure such incidents do not happen in future.

Kimveer Gill

gang-stalking.blogspot.com/2007/02/kimveer-gill-revisited.html

canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=fea965ce-4606-4a63-a92b-1ae28e07df8b

Kimveer Gill in the news was painted as an anti-social young man, who one day took a gun and for no apparent reason, went on a shooting spree at Dawson College. The reports could find no reason for his shooting. The shooting was in fact attributed to the goth lifestyle and goth culture. The website VampireFreaks.com was in the spotlight for weeks if not months as a possible source for individuals who might be violent.

When reviewing Kimveer Gills postings, there were little hints that something else might have been ongoing, that might have contributed to the shootings.

Dated September 12, 2006

Stop Bullying

It?s not only the bully?s fault you know!!It?s the teachers and principals fault for turning a blind eye, just cuz it?s not their job. You f*ckers are pathetic. It?s the police?s fault for not doing anything when people conplain (oops, my mistake, the cops are corrupt sons of whores,
so it?s not like they can do anything about it.)
F*CK THE POLICE

It?s society?s fault for acting like it?s normal for people to be assholes to each other. Society disgusts me. It?s everyone?s fault for being so apathetic towards f*cking everything that doesn?t affect them personally. F*CK YOU
SOCIETY.

I wonder why my household has been under surveillance by law enforcement for 6 years now? Makes no sense to me!!

Kimveer didn’t work at all in 2006, telling his mother he was tired of how people doing contract work were treated.

People kill each other

Rape women

Molest children

Deceive and betray

Destroy lives

Bullying and torturing each other at school

What kind of world is this? What the f*ck is wrong with people. This world … this life, is worst (sic) than hell.

“Postal dude was sad before he became angry and psychotic, that’s the part we never see in the game. He was normal, but the world made him the way he became.”

His postings sound very rambling at first, but he talks of bullying and schools who do nothing. He talks of police who do nothing when people make complaints. He talks about his house being under surveillance for over 6 years.

It might just be the ramblings of a disturbed individual, but it’s also very possible more was ongoing.

The message said that the same thing could happen again if Rajan’s demands for $10 billion in compensation for both he and Kimveer weren’t met.

That same day, they searched the house and discovered a three-page typewritten letter in which Rajan demanded $10 billion “for all the violations, damages, suffering” committed by citizens and the government and “for the negligence of their law enforcement agencies.”

Police also found one of Rajan’s chats on his computer, in which he demands $10 billion for both him and Kimveer for violations of their fundamental rights, like “freedom from torture” and the “right to paid holidays.”

During his interrogation with police, he said he had no knowledge of what his friend had planned. He also said that for the past five or six months, he had developed the ability to read people’s minds, had telepathic powers and had the ability to move people and animals.

Kimveer’s friend Rajiv Rajan wrote some interesting postings after Kimveer’s death. He wrote about damages, suffering committed by citizens, and the government. Neglegence of law enforcement agencies. Violations of his and Kimveer’s fundamental rights, for freedom from torture.

Might just be the ramblings of someone who has since been diagnosed as schizophrenic with a history of depression, but his statements might also shed more light on what might really have been happening with Kimveer Gill.

gangstalking.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/droege-the-right-and-the-system-in-between/

Keith Deroche

Friday said the 44-year-old Deroux’s cocaine addiction was fuelling ‘paranoid delusions’ that listening devices and cameras had been placed in his apartment. The drug addict believed someone was sending him coded messages through his computer and, even after moving to a new residence, Deroux feared people were entering his house through an underground tunnel and funnelling “noxious gases” into the residence. The only person with enough resources for this kind of surveillance, Deroux figured, was his friend and cocaine dealer, Wolfgang Droege. …

Mr Deroche would then shoot and kill his friend Wolfgang Droege who he blamed for the surveillance and mishaps going on in his life. He gave what to many seemed like a wild, paranoid drug induced description of being under surveillance, gassing, harassment, people entering his home, and that it continued after he moved.

Was he just spewing out a drug induced fantasy or was he on a list, flagged, with a warning marker against his name?

Damon Thompson

guardian.bz/component/content/article/53-headlines/842-belizean-stude nt-at-ucla-facing-attempted-murder-charges

The allegation against 20-year-old Damon Thompson is that on Thursday October 9, he attacked a 20-year-old female classmate Katherine Rosen. It happened in an organic chemistry class in the William Young Hall at the university sometime around midday on Thursday when Thompson allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed Rosen five times and slashed her throat.

Thompson, an A -student with consistent excellent academic performance is an only child of Judith Brook a legal clerk with the Legal Advice and Services Centre in Belize City. While the US media has painted a negative picture of Thompson,
sources close to him and his family indicated that prior to this incident he had made countless complaints against classmates and this specific lab partner but with no results. Contrary to US media reports, Thompson did know Rosen who was his lab partner and who has been very offensive to him on previous occasions and even the day in question. Now UCLA in an attempt to shift blame away from itself has sought to discredit the mental stability of Thompson by using his many complaints by e-mail as an indication of instability.

When this story occurred, the American media painted Damon Thompson as a student that had walked into a classroom, pulled out a knife and stabbed a random student. He was immediately painted as mentally ill, and placed in jail. That is the bulk of what many will remember about this story, but digging a little deeper and told a very different story.

He had been familiar with Rosen his lab partner, he had made many complaints about harassment, and he had in particular complained about her on several occasions, but I reports of this do not seem to have been printed in the American Media.

gangstalkingworld.com/Forum/YaBB.pl?num=1255211726

Frank said he grew concerned about Thompson in mid-December 2008, after the student sent several e-mails complaining that classmates sitting around him had been disruptive and made offensive comments to him while he was taking a written exam.

In one of the e-mails that Frank provided to The Times, Thompson, 20, also accused Frank of taunting him.

“I believe I heard you, Professor Frank, say that I was ‘troubled’ and ‘crazy’ among other things,” Thompson wrote in the e-mail. “My outrage at this situation coupled with the pressure of the very weighted examination dulled my concentration and detracted from my performance.”

Frank said he was told that other professors had reported similar exchanges with Thompson, who complained he was the constant target of taunts from students across campus — in dorms, dining areas and the library. A university official told Frank that he could only suggest that Thompson seek treatment, but they couldn’t require him to seek psychological help. “My concern was in the context of other violent incidents on campuses around the country,” Frank said.

To Frank, the e-mails he received from Thompson indicated the student was in need of serious help. Frank said he urged university officials to take action. An official told Frank that they could only suggest to Thompson that he seek treatment, but they could not require him to seek psychological services.

University officials have acknowledged that “Thompson was known to our student affairs office prior to the incident,” but could not disclose information about the suspect, citing privacy laws.

When the story was examined a little bit closer it was clear that he had made several complaints about disruptions not only by the students around him, but also by also by professors. His complaints had not been taken seriously, infact he it seems that he was viewed as the problem for making the complaints which most often happens in cases of workplace mobbing, and habitual bullying in the schooling system. It should be noted that the professor he had accused of harassment, was the one used in the interview. What is happening in cases of this is that the system is not correcting itself, instead of tackling systemic bullying, harassment, mobbing, these individuals are all too often placed on lists, have warning markers placed against their names, or flagged, once this happens, it almost invariably leads to open season on the target by the community, and an escalation of open harassment. Then further complaints by the target are seen as a cry for mental health and not what they should be seen as, which is a system that is broken and not functioning. This is is also often a precursor to Gang Stalking, and the escalation of systemic harassment.

Abdo Ibssa

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“We’ve heard him say crazy things and do crazy things,” said neighbor George Johnson. “The chip they’re talking about–I don’t know where that came from, but he kept on thinking that the government put a chip in him.”

tadias.com/04/21/2010/police-hospital-shooter-mentally-ill-had-grudge/

“The suspect through the note left at his residence indicated he was upset with the doctor, thinking a chip had been placed inside of him during his appendectomy. The suspect believed he was being tracked due to this chip,” Sterling Owen IV, Knoxville’s Police Chief said.

According to the case file, which lists his name as Abdo Ibssa Mohammed, Ibssa told the court he bought his business in 2008 but wasn’t making any money. Handwritten notes indicate he was $80,000 in debt, apparently for an online school he dropped out of in 2007 “due to personal problems.”

The notes also indicate he filed no tax returns in 2008 or 2009.

scrippsnews.com/node/53178

Also found during the search were a second handgun, a bag of marijuana and a copy of the book “The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception” — a reproduction of a Cold War-era CIA handbook on the use of illusion and deception for acts of espionage.

Ibssa was allegedly involved in a violent incident a year ago, attacking a stranger in a convenience store, according to a lawyer for the man who filed the civil suit.

Jalal Boudarga sued Ibssa for $300,000 in January, claiming Ibssa shoved him violently against his car, causing him to fall to the ground and badly break his leg. Boudarga’s attorney, Jerry Martin, told The Associated Press that Ibssa believed Boudarga said something bad about him in the store.

“I guess if Mr. Ibssa imagined that a doctor had put a computer chip in him, then it’s not that far of a jump for him to imagine my client saying something about him,” Martin said.

It’s very easy to write this man off as a paranoid and mentally ill individual. He has a history of violence, he was just committed to a mental health facility, and he was off his medication.

When you look at the story there are some question left unanswered. Why did this man feel that he was being tracked? Was he being followed, or did he think he was being tracked via electronic means? Why was there a copy of the CIA manual of Trickery and Deception? For those familiar with the techniques used in Gang Stalking rude comments by strangers, that directly correlate to the Targeted Individual are all too common and it would not be very hard to imagine that a complete stranger could indeed have made a comment to Ibssa.

The stories unlike several of the others does not go into enough details, to establish a firm correlation, in regards to what might have been happening, and the some media outlets have claimed that his neighbours are not giving interviews.

If these cases can be reviewed and it is determined that these men or some of these men were on community lists, had warning markers placed on their files, were flagged, then it might help establish a link between these community incidents of violence and these community listings, warning markers, or flags.

If these patterns can be established, then other factors such as complaints to the police and other agencies can be reviewed. Maybe then Targeted Individuals could get more understanding and awareness, vs being written off as mentally ill.

If it can be established that placing people on lists, warning markers, or flagging files causes community paranoia, harassment, mobbing, and Gang Stalking, then in future when targets complain, maybe their complaints will be taken more seriously. Right now complaints are taken as a sign of mental illness, and additional complaints are viewed the same.

The community in the meanwhile thinks that anyone flagged is a dangerous person, and someone that the need to do everything they can to protect and guard themselves against. The target is then exposed to day in day out systemic harassment, which equates to a psychological operation that is capable of driving the target to a breakdown, or acts of suicide or violence.

Community members go out of their way to do things to provoke the target, harass them in subtle ways. Each incident in and of itself means nothing, but the repeated provocations over time, lead to the headlines seen on the news. This is the dark side of society that is not seen or reported.

It took years for enough research to be put into place to establish a direct link between bullying, mobbing and acts of violence. This process within the Targeted Individual community can be more readily streamlined, by checking to see if any of these individuals had such warnings or flags on their community files.

If they do has such warnings, then it’s important that this link be used to draw the correct conclusion, which would be that placing such warnings against individuals files, can and often does lead to identifiable patterns and cycles of harassment. This then causes acts of violence with in the community as the target is provoked, monitored, and psychologically harassed on a daily basis, everywhere they do. This is the conclusion that should be reached vs people on these lists are violent for no apparent reason and without any justification. It’s important to look at cause and effect.

If the communities actions are leading to these end results then it’s important to establish laws and support for targets to address this, so that fewer incidents will be caused over the next few years.

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Basics of Svchost.exe and Tech Support for the Error

Svchost.exe is just a name of a critical computer error to most of the computer users. Very few of us actually know about its functional aspect. As been said by the tech support experts, Svchost.exe is an essential part of Windows operating system. It executes DLL files and locates the respective libraries into Windows system memory. So, why do we always relate the name with an error message? This is perhaps because Svchost.exe comes into attention only when something goes wrong with the process. The entire computer system gets disturbed and runs utterly slow. Worst part is, independent turning-off can even result in a sudden computer crash.

Many Windows proceedings work under control of Svchost.exe. You will find it in the system directory: C://Windows/System32. As computer help experts always suggest, if you even notice the process is running from any other unusual location, you should either fully scan the computer system with antivirus program or talk to a tech support professional immediately. This is because such fishy cases could be the reason of malicious virus or Trojan horse attack. Some latest deadly virus applications can disguise svchost.exe and steal important data keeping you unaware of the entire bullying execution.

Online technical support experts name such deadly threats as Worm, Win32, Miroot, Backdoor, Lastdoor and Trojan. Note down the names- this will help you understand and follow PC troubleshooting instructions in future! SirCam, Swen and PrettyPack are some error-causing virus that corrupt system registry badly.

Fixing Svchost.exe error depends on the intensity of system corruption and exact cause of the problem as well. In fact, diverse reasons are there for which Svchost.exe gets corrupted. If your tech support vendor has concluded the reason as an application error, you can be rest assured that this only happened due to Window update which has not been done properly. So, blame yourself! Online tech support professionals always suggest user to perform any critical task under expert supervision especially if they don’t have enough technical knowledge or prior experience.

However, Svchost.exe error can be fixed. Online computer repair companies provide instructions to fix the error manually. Turning off automatic system updates in the control panel might be enough to cure the problem. You must restart the system to see any significant improvements though. You can also get system restore tool from remote computer support providers. All you need to do is, just download the application and run the utility. It is no doubt an easier way to fix Svchost.exe just with a few clicks. These software applications not only help you troubleshoot the system errors but also help to detect and resolve other Windows system error on your PC. Registry cleaner software can also resolve Svchost.exe error efficiently. Sometimes, online tech support experts instruct user to explore the Svchost Fix Wizard. It gets a few moments to recover the issue completely.

So, understand the error message of your PC first and then work on troubleshooting it. Online tech support assistance is always there to support your way.

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Distinct Services Available in Orlando Schools

Any school district, whether it serves the tiniest of rural communities, or the students of a huge city, must effectively communicate with its parents. Individual schools stay in touch with families most commonly through newsletters, web pages, and sometimes via e-mail. Teachers in Orlando Schools conduct parent-teacher conferences a minimum of once a year, make phone calls as needed, and send home comments about their students’ progress on report cards and mid-term reports.

Orlando Schools do all of this, and even more. The district has implemented a mass telephone service so that it can communicate any pertinent information to Orlando Schools parents almost immediately. Ronald Blocker, Orlando Schools Superintendent, describes the program: “Since March 2006, the school district’s Connect-ED system has dialed more than 3.8 million phone numbers with community outreach and emergency notifications. The system supports multi-language communications that are specific to school communities. Notification of school closures, hurricane makeup days, updates on incidents at Orlando Schools, test dates and reminders of important meetings are just some of the topics that have been covered. Many of you (parents and community members) have already raved about our use of Connect-ED. It is an effective tool that allows district officials and Orlando Schools’ principals to prepare messages that are dispatched within minutes to people who need to hear them.”

A second service available in Orlando Schools is an anti-bullying program. The program aims to prevent students from being bullied or bullying others. In academic classes at Arbor Ridge High School, for example, students are given bullying lessons that may include reading assignments or questionnaires on their personal experiences with bullies. 46% of Orlando Schools students have said they had been bullied. Students are learning how to prevent situations where they or others may be bullied. A key lesson is that bullies escalate their actions the more they get away with it.

A third, and very exciting program just launched this summer (2007) is The Big Red Bus. Orlando Schools students who reside in Seminole County can now take advantage of a summer reading program that is truly ingenious. All students in Orlando Schools can board the bus and check out as many as three books a week. They can return them to the bus the following week, or they can keep them! The bus’ seats have been removed and replaced with wooden shelves to hold the 4,000 brand-spanking new books that officials have purchased. Orlando Schools will be using $40,000 in donations from CFE (Central Florida Educators) Credit Union, and the Foundation for Seminole County Public Schools. Anna Marie Cote, director of instruction in Orlando Schools says the program will especially benefit students who may not be able to get out to the library on a regular basis to get books. “We are trying to get it into places where it might be a bit harder for kids to get out and get books,” she says. When Orlando Schools students have finished reading books picked up from the Bus, they can log them on the Let’s Read website and have a chance to win prizes. The site also offers reading list and access to online books, including some that the computer will read aloud.

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Parents Guide: World of Warcraft

The appeal of an exciting second life, made all the more realistic by increasingly powerful personal computers is unquestionable. The world of the massively multiplayer online role playing game, or MMORPG for short, offers players a tempting escape from reality. Online, normal people of all ages can become heroes, villians, leaders of extensive online groups known as “guilds” and even enjoy some degree of fame in their limited, simulated worlds.


An increasing number of online games have been appearing on shelves of late. Lord of the Rings online, City of Heroes, Pirates of the Burning Sea and Conan online have all appeared relatively recently and all have respectable fan bases. However, it would seem that there is currently one game to rule them all, World of Warcraft. With over 10 million subscribers, each paying around 9 GBP a month, World of Warcraft (WoW for short) is the undisputed king of online gaming at the moment.


The game is produced by Blizzard entertainment, the people responsible for the popular titles Starcraft and Diablo. WoW, by far and away Blizzard’s most popular offering to date, takes place in the fictional world of Azeroth. Players choose to play for either the Horde (baddies) or the Alliance (goodies) and can create a character from a selection of races, including classic fantasy staples; elves, dwarves and orcs.


The game’s realism is added to by the existence of its own economy, rare items are bought and sold for varying amounts of online currency (gold pieces) which can take weeks or even months to accumulate. This has resulted in the online gold being sold on both eBay and specialist sites for varying amounts of real world cash depending on demand. This in turn has led to characters investing not only serious man-hours but also several hundred pounds in order to become as powerful as possible.


This practice is often frowned upon by the games hardcore players who resent people being able to purchase powerful or rare items without the necessary amount of playtime. For children who are only allowed limited computer time, the prospect of these virtual get rich quick schemes is highly appealing.


WoW’s producers are not fond of online currency vendors and any player caught using one can face a range of punishments, from a few days ban to your character being deleted. Considering it is not uncommon for high level characters to have clocked up hundreds of hours online, the threat of losing characters is a dire one.


Given the recent media coverage of online bullying it is surprising to learn that such bullying does not seem to feature heavily in WoW. There is a genuine sense of camaraderie in the game, more experienced players are often helpful and will generally reply to sensibly posed questions. Of course there are exceptions and some people can be less than polite, but the game features a language filter and abusive behaviour can be easily reported to the games producers. In-game parental control settings offer parents the welcome opportunity to restrict and monitor their child’s time.


The game’s high level of player anonymity offers some protection to the virtual world’s inhabitants. Players refer to each other mainly by character name and seldom do they so much as mention their real names to each other. Of course online friendships do occur and eventually players may get to know one another personally, but I am yet to hear of anything sinister coming of this.


In fact some friends of mine, all of whom were at university at the time, met up with their online “guild”. They enjoyed a holiday together despite the fact they had only met in-game and only knew each other by their character names. The WoW environment is surprisingly safe for children, although the game is best suited to those in their teens and above.


It is important to remember the different time-tables of child players and their adult counterparts maintains a certain degree of segregation. Between 4:00pm and 9:00pm the younger players dominate the servers, they largely keep to themselves as they play at a slower pace than the more hardcore adult gamers. The kind of adult guilds that holiday together as I previously mentioned, mainly enforce a strict over 18’s policy so once again, the younger players do not become involved in unsuitable conversations or social activities.


Online gaming is notoriously addictive. The desire to improve characters is driven by the competition between players. The character names of each servers most powerful and talented players are well known in the virtual community. The most powerful groups of players sometimes achieve a sort of simulated celebrity status. Their exploits become the gossip of the server, with chatter relating to which bosses groups have “downed” dominating the games message boards and discussion forums. The elite of each server are in very high demand to play with, large groups of players are required to take down the games most fearsome monsters and so the best players on each server are often invited to join the battle against these dragons and other assorted nasties.


There is of course, a dark side to gaming addiction, there have been reports of people dying from playing non-stop for over 24 hours. These players have all been of university age or above, younger players generally benefit from parental supervision to keep their playtime within acceptable boundaries.


All in all WoW is a harmless and fun distraction for older kids and teens provided it is enjoyed in moderation. It is easy to forget the sheer amount of other players online creates a strong sense of community in the game. This sense of community can become a haven for children and adults alike. Often the kind of people who enjoy MMORPG’s are considered geeky or uncool and so for these people having over 10 million like minded individuals to connect with can be quite the lifeline. To others it is harmless fun a few hours a week.


Like all fun things, WoW can be abused but responsible parents with sensible children have nothing to worry about. After all in our current cultural climate of youth crime, gang culture and teen pregnancy a little bit of escapist fantasy can’t be a bad thing.

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High School Diploma Online

Technology is changing every aspect of the world and that includes education too. It is now possible for you to get your high school diploma online. If the idea of going to school, or going back to school after a long time, seems intimidating to you, then getting an online high school diploma could be the solution to all your woes. The main reason adults choose this method of getting a diploma online over actually going to school is that they can do this while continuing with their work and careers.


It is very essential that you get your high school diploma, as this could be important and beneficial for your career and further education. A school diploma is your ticket to a good college entry, and in turn, getting a good job.


According to the census, school graduates earn $5,000 more per year than those without a high school diploma. An increased number of teenagers are opting for getting an online diploma for a variety of reasons. Either because their health does not allow them to attend regular class, or they want to pursue careers in acting or music without stopping studying, or because they just want to get away from peer pressure.


Choosing between Private or Public High School

Even with distance learning or getting a diploma online, you have a choice between public and private schools. Private schools are not dependent on government regulation for their functioning. They function independently and have their own regulations, teaching methods and systems. The tuition fee is higher as you will be paying for all the costs, including the hardware and software. Care must be taken with regards to the accreditation of these private schools that offer online diplomas.


Online public schools are of two types: Public charter school and regular public school. Public charter schools are funded by the public and allow free enrollment and have more freedom than regular public schools. If you have the facility of public charter schools in your state, opt for these. Some of these public charter schools even provide online students the computer equipment and study material for free.


Before choosing any kind of high school to get an online diploma, it is advisable that you do all your research and investigation so as to get the best possible education that you can.


Pros and Cons of Online High School Diplomas

The benefits of getting an school diploma online are plenty. You can work at your own pace and at your own time. There are fewer distractions while studying from home, and no peer pressure and bullies. It is even possible to finish your school early and get your diploma earlier. Some even finish their school twice as fast as regular students do.


There are some downsides of getting an online diploma. The lack of having a teacher to guide and motivate is difficult for some to handle. Some students tend to become antisocial and reclusive. You have to be extra careful where the accreditation is concerned, as some colleges may not accept transcripts from un- accredited online high schools. It can be a very expensive process, often costing thousands of dollars.


The choice and future is yours; choose wisely!

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Harassment in the work place how do I stop it?

I am being bullied at work. It has gone this way for two years. My Coworker humiliates and degrades me. Because she can find no mistakes in my work she goes through my desk and my computer. She checks my time card and has recently bitched to my boss that I didn’t punch out completely in the box and wanted me to be reprimanded. She tries to find ways to make the work place unpleasant she talks down to me and treats me like I’m incompetent. She yells slams door and hits things. She spends a good part of the day ever day fighting on the phone with her boyfriend or yelling bat one of us. She puts me down and barks orders at me. I get a constant attitude unless it’s a rare day where she is in a good mood. Every day I drive to work with knots in my stomach knowing what kind of meed she will be in. To get to the point. On Monday she pulled in a hour and a half late I was sitting on the bench smoking and reading. As soon as I was done smoking which takes 4 mins I \walked back in to the office handed the women in HR the mail and grabbed my paper work and head back yo my desk. I stoped to go to the bath room when I heard yelling. While I was on the toilite she yelled some more. I asked are you talking to me. She screamed yes and to come out now. I asked her if she had to use the bathroom. She creamed no and to come out. I told her I was pooping. She told me she didnt care to come out now. I told her she had no right to talk to me that way especially while I was going to the bath room. She continued to yell at me. I told her I was leaving and to leave me alone. I came out of the bath room and she continued to berate me. Told me that I wasn’t aloud to read while I smoked. I told her she had no right to say anything. She takes more and longer brakes then anyone there. I packed up my stuff and walked out the door. While I was walking to my car she continued to yell. I got in the car and called my boss who is on vacation. He didn’t answer I left a message telling him what hasppened and to call me. when I got home I emailed him again telling him what happened and that I was waiting for his call so that I could go back to work that I wanted to make sure that the situation was defused and that she wouldn’t continue on her rampage. No call no email back. The next day I was talking to another employee who saud that my boss hadn’t gotten my message until late and he was fishing all day that he would make sure he called me that night. I was online talking to one of my vendors telling her what happened when she told me that me emails kept bouncing back and when they called there were told I didn’t work there. called my boss again asking what was going on that I would appreciate if he would call me that if he was firing me because I stood up to me co-workers bullying that he should tell me that. Well it’s Friday and no call. What should I do? What can I do. Is this a form of harassment? Can I be fired without even being told? Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to make sure she doesn’t do this yo others. Three people have quit because of her I don’t want her to think she can treat people like shit and when they try to stop her they will lose there job.

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Cuddly Social Robot Petrimos Vs. Cyberpedophilia

CYBERBULLYING AND CYBERPEDOPHILIA — explained by social analysts as “sexual attraction to prepubescent children” is no doubt at an all-time high today , burgeoning through a societal sex crime crisis experienced by the United States in the early and mid-1990s, and spreading through Europe, particularly Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Germany, countries which found themselves in the “same predicament”.

 

From offline sexual abuse moral panics, these developing phenomena have crawled through online bullying and pedophilia, and have become the scourge of concern by the parental community and the society as a whole.

Cyberbullies are touted to be “emboldened when using electronic means to carry out their antagonistic agenda because it takes less energy and courage to express hurtful comments using a keypad or a keyboard than with one’s voice”.

 

And  the astounding statistics continue in steadily increasing figures. A 2005 US survey reported 73% of the respondents stated that they knew the bully, 26% experienced that the offender was a stranger, 10% revealed that their picture and/or video of them via a cellular phone camera, “consequently making them feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, or threatened.”

Check out the statistical reports:

“The internet is the new playground or schoolyard where pedophiles go to meet children. Cyber pedophiles almost always have a history of sexual conduct with children and now use chat rooms to contact children directly. Cyber pedophiles usually have interest in child pornography or sexual urges and fantasies with children. The legal system has seen an alarming increase in the number of pedophiles over the past several years. Statistics show that 1 in 5 children who use computer chat rooms have been approached by a pedophile and 1 in 7 kids who use the internet have been solicited for sex online. Law enforcement officials estimate as many as 50,000 sexual predators are online at any given moment.”

Cyberpedophilia, meantime, targets the much-younger set of 6 to 10-year-old prepubescent children, with surveys suggesting that as many as 3 in 10 children have been subjected to bullying while online.

Enter Mixed Reality Lab , a project of the National University of Singapore and the Keiyo Media Design of the Keiyo University of Japan, has created the interactive “social robots” called Petimo: designed to guard children against cyberbullies and other online crimes, and borne from the reality that 18 percent of said prepubescent kids in the US use social networking sites, “thus there is a strict need of someone who vigils upon these minors so that they aren’t victimized by the cyber world, this is what the Petimos does so efficiently.”

National University of Singapore’s Adrian David Cheok , inventor of Petimo, explains that he wanted to use new media to help develop more natural human forms of communication, and that “Petimo is one step in this direction.”

How does it work?

“Children will only be able to accept new online “friends” if their Petimos are brought into physical contact first, to guard against cyberbullies and paedophiles masquerading as children. The devices work in conjunction with an online social network called Petimo-World in which they are represented by avatars. By squeezing their physical Petimos, or pressing buttons on them, children can send messages or “gifts” to their online friends.

Parents are notified each time a friend request is made and can block approaches that concern them, so children only see and interact online with the avatars of approved friends.

Meantime, UK group E-Victims, advocating safety for both children and adults on online sex crimes, contend that the system may be quite limited with the restricted content of Petimo World as online children are bound to be bored .

“Children young enough to be content with a walled garden approach and its limitations will probably be too young to be seriously interested in  the  chat  element.”

To  this,  UK  police officials last March called on social networking sites to place a standard “panic button” designed by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre on all pages, to help ensure safety for children against online sex crimes, and against cyberbullying and cyberpedophilia.

Meantime, advocates against online sex crimes on children also lament that the responsibility is not solely on social networking sites, as parents , too, have strong roles to play. Online practices such as anonymity and caution in disclosing information are very important, as well as installing certain filtering software which are able to block off pornographic contents if they were to receive pornographic materials in their inboxes, or when they surf the Internet.

“Companies or schools can also install software such as the BioObservation System using computer image analysis technology that can analyse computer images to identify pornographic or pedophile images on suspect computers and to alert the relevant authority when such offending images are received.”

Mixed Reality Lab’s Petrimo hits the US market late this year, and may also be due for distribution for the international market. 


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