Interesting Fact
Online chat room for everyone

Danger
File sharing is always a potential gateway for viral infection and an access point for the bad guys to punch a hole in securing your data.

Tip
Best to create and use passwords for online accounts in order to keep them from being victimized

Inspirational Use
Chatting with siblings or friends who are currently overseas

Case Study
David Knight David Knight's life at school has been hell. He was teased, taunted and punched for years. But the final blow was the humiliation he suffered every time he logged onto the internet. Someone had set up an abusive website about him that made life unbearable."Rather than just some people, say 30 in a cafeteria, hearing them all yell insults at you, it's up there for 6 billion people to see. Anyone with a computer can see it," says David. "And you can't get away from it. It doesn't go away when you come home from school. It made me feel even more trapped."He felt so trapped he decided to leave school and finish his final year of studies at home.These days the internet is a crucial part of teenage culture. Kids can't imagine life without it. They run home from school and the first thing they do is log on. They "talk" for hours using instant messaging, bulletin boards and chat-rooms. But the chatter and gossip can spin out of control, slip into degrading abusive attacks.A recent survey found that 14 per cent of young Canadian users had been threatened while using instant messaging; 16 per cent admitted they've posted hateful comments themselves.In David's case, the website about him had been active for several months before a classmate told him about it.
"A kid from school sent me a message on the internet saying, 'Hey Dave, look at this website,'" says David. "I went there and sure enough there's my photo on this website saying 'Welcome to the website that makes fun of Dave Knight' and just pages of hateful comments directed at me and everyone in my family."Whoever created the website asked others to join in, posting lewd, sexual comments and smearing David's reputation."I was accused of being a pedophile. I was accused of using the date rape drug on little boys," says David.Along with the website, there were nasty e-mails too.David: "Here's an e-mail, 'You're gay, don't ever talk again, no one likes you, you're immature and dirty, go wash your face.'"CBC's Joan Leishman: "Why do you think they were picking on you?"David: "I don't know. I honestly don't know. I'm not different from any other kid."
Nancy Knight At the Knight's home near Burlington, Ont., David's mother Nancy says one of the most frustrating aspects of the whole affair was that the bullies who went after her son hid behind the anonymity of the internet."It's a cowardly form of bullying," says Nancy Knight. "It's like being stabbed in the back by somebody (and) you have no way of ever finding out who they are, or defending yourself against the words they say. So it's more damaging than a face-to-face confrontation with somebody who is clearly willing to tell you what he or she things of you."Nancy says the electronic bullying seemed to have a different affect on David than even the verbal attacks and bruises."After this bullying started, he began withdrawing completely, isolating himself from everyone," she says. "I guess it's a matter of not knowing who knows about you sort of makes you feel you don't want to know anyone."
Grade 8 students at Deer Park Public School Most adults don't understand how damaging cyber-abuse is. But a group of Grade 8 students at Deer Park Public School in Toronto says it causes deep emotional wounds.