Tag Archives: Education

Australian children’s personal information is being sold online after being stolen from gaming sites

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The Daily Telegraph

POPULAR video games such as Fortnite and Minecraft are being used to harvest children’s personal data by web fiends who flog it to anyone willing to stump up the cash.

Cyber-safety expert Ross Bark said crooks could use a child’s username and password for a gaming site like Fortnite to extract more information including phone numbers, credit card details, dates of birth and home addresses.

“Websites like Fortnite ask users to hand over a lot of personal information, which is very valuable to criminals,” Mr Bark said. “The account details would usually be purchased in bulk by the hundreds.”

Read the full article in The Daily Telegraph here

Cyber-trolls and online bullies: Call for bans amid spate of teenage suicides

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The Daily Telegraph

CYBER-BULLIES would be banned from social media and slapped with an online­ version of an apprehended violence­ order as part of a radical plan to stop trolls.

Anti-bullying charities are using a powerful parliamentary inquiry to call for a criminalisation of trolling — including giving child cyber-bullies a social media order (SMO) that would ban them from contacting their victims and using sites such as Facebook and Instagram.

It comes after 14-year-old Amy “Dolly” Everett took her own life on January 3 after being targeted by bullies online.

Cyber-safety expert Ross Bark, who runs education courses across NSW through his company Best Enemies, agreed the creation of an “SMO” would be helpful.

“It would be useful to be able to ban offenders from Facebook, Instagram and social media but it would need to be coupled with education so they can actually learn the very real effect they are having on their victims,” Mr Bark said.

Read the full article in The Daily Telegraph here

Kids are being exposed to disturbing content on YouTube

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A Current Affair – Channel 9

The summer holidays are peak internet season for families – but parents have been warned about a trend of violent, graphic cartoons specifically designed to target children.

The cartoons feature beloved children’s characters such as Peppa Pig, Spider-Man and Elsa from Frozen, but feature gruesome acts including murder, cannibalism and pornography.

“Your child could be viewing the Peppa Pig video which could be a proper video, and in one second they could be watching something completely inappropriate, which they think is the same thing,” Cyber Expert Ross Bark told A Current Affair.

Watch the full story and my comments from last weeks A Current Affair.

Bill to Stop Workplace Bullies – SMH Article

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Victims of workplace bullying will be able to go to Fair Work Australia to seek an order preventing the offender from continuing to harass or intimidate.

Ross Bark said their workshops and the work of the foundation are designed to “prevent these horrible circumstances of bullying from happening to begin with rather than waiting for them to occur and picking up the pieces. That is too late – the damage is done, and we are saying enough is enough”.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/bill-to-stop-workplace-bullies-20130316-2g76e.html#ixzz2YR4yKAIQ