Locking down your digital identity is not only for those who are being harassed – it’s good practice in general. However, if you find yourself being cyberstalked, harassed, or threatened with violence this information can be particularly important and timely. This list of tips is compiled from resources developed by Jon Jones and Jaym Gates and includes an estimate of the time involved so that you can budget accordingly.
1) Set up two-factor authentication on everything
What it is: If you log into a website, two-factor authentication works to ensure that you are who you say you are by requiring two sources of verification. This usually means it sends your phone a text message with a random, one-time-use code to type into the box as a secondary password. People almost always have their phones with them, so this is a simple, reasonable security precaution.
What it does: Makes it extremely difficult for anyone but you to log into your accounts.
How long it will take: 15 – 30 minutes, depending on how many accounts you have.
Will I ever have to do it again? No, but set it up when registering on new websites.
Go to this list and check for websites where you have accounts.
2) Use a password manager and use unique passwords
What it is: a piece of software that both creates and manages your strong passwords.
What it does: Creates impossible-to-break passwords for all your websites, and you only need to remember one.
How long it will take: 30 – 60 minutes, depending on how many accounts you have.
Will I ever have to do it again? No, but use your password manager to generate new passwords for you when registering on new websites.
Also, disable your web browser from remembering passwords. It’s not safe. You can view all saved passwords in Chrome instantly in plain text if you have the password to the computer.
3) Lock down old Facebook posts and adjust your privacy settings
What it does: Locks down all your privacy settings in Facebook, and hides your old posts so people can’t dig through them.
How long it will take: 15 minutes.
Will I ever have to do it again? No, but it’s good to check every six months.
4) Check the internet for your personal information and then clean up
What it does: Finds out what personal information on you is available online so you can take it down.
How long it will take: 15 to 30 minutes, possibly longer if you go through the manual removal request process.
Will I ever have to do it again? Yes, about every three months or so to be safe.
Search Pipl to get a you a sense of what information is associated with your name on the web.
Search Zaba to see what location/contact information is available for free about you.
Spokeo is a particularly powerful information aggregator. You have to go through and click on each instance to request a take-down, but they will process requests. However, if you submit a large number of take-down requests they may block further attempts. To manage this, start with most recent listings first, and move IPs if possible if they block the one you’re working from.
5) Delete old accounts
What it does: Delete your old, unused accounts.
How long it will take: 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how many accounts you have.
Will I ever have to do it again? No.
If you have any old accounts or profiles online that you’re no longer using, go in and delete them. Remove all your information first and overwrite it with fake information just in case, then delete it.
JustDelete.Me gives you site specific instructions for closing old accounts as well as information on the relative ease of removal.
6) Consider using pseduonyms
If you need to use social media and register for websites but don’t want to use your real name, try the Fake identity generator.
Tips that Cost Money
If you have your own domain name(s) consider purchasing whois privacy guardWhat it does: Hides your home address and phone number from your website’s public records.
How long it will take: 10 minutes.
Will I ever have to do it again? No, but it’s a small yearly recurring fee to keep it.When you register a domain name, you generally use your real address. This is a problem, especially because swatting is becoming more popular. It’s incredibly easy to look up, and it’s also incredibly easy to secure it. Plug your url (and remove the parens) into the following address to how to see what information is available now: https://who.godaddy.com/whoisstd.aspx?domain=(yourdomain.com)
Use a VPNWhat it does: Encrypts all of your communications online to keep you private and secure, and very easily.
How long it will take: 15 minutes to read about it and sign up.
Will I ever have to do it again? No, just use the VPN application whenever you’re online.A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, is a way to securely connect to websites online using encryption in a way that’s virtually impossible to eavesdrop on or track. There are a wide variety of companies that offer VPN service. It’s inexpensive ($3 to 5 a month), most of them are good, and it’s extremely easy to do.Here’s a guide to the best VPNs to choose: https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/This is a simple, forget-it’s-there way of staying private and secure online all the time. You will only be safer for using it, and the only downside to using a VPN is that sometimes (not always) they are slightly slower than an unencrypted connection, since it’s routing your traffic anonymously through another server.
You can use a service to have the internet regularly searched and your information removed. For $129\year you can use DeleteMe.
You may also want to look at Take Back the Tech’s Safety Toolkit, which offers device specific tips and the Safety-in-a-Box information is available in 16 languages.
If you’re curious about how some of the sites you use handle online harassment issues, browse through these informational resources and terms of use conditions directly from the sites themselves.
The Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW) and the Purple Sisters Youth Advisory committee have developed Tech Without Violence, a set of resources to help prevent, respond to and support individuals experiencing online gender-based violence or harassment—known as cyberviolence.They have site-specific strategies for dating apps and social media platforms as well as some excellent online safety tips.
The Center for Solutions to Online Violence is a distributed network of activists, advocates, content creators, and educators who want to enable women and feminists to preemptively take steps to ensure control of their online identities and to educate everyone about the many forms of online violence.
During the 2016-2017 academic year, CSOV will be lead by co-directors responsible for the stewardship of the organization and website.
Moya Bailey
T.L. Cowan
Steering Collective
The steering Collective manages the website and the project as a whole through ongoing collaboration and communication over various digital platforms.
Amanda Phillips
Jessica Marie Johnson
MArlene Tromp
Rebecca Richards
Veronica Paredes
Director Emeritus
JACQUELINE WERNIMONT
The Alchemists
The Alchemists are a subset of the CSOV that explores the unique ways that anti-feminist violence impacts women of color who are Black and Latinx in the Americas. Modeled from the popular Power & Control Wheels that have been created for discussing domestic and intimate partner violence, The Alchemists created a new wheel that addresses similar concerns in digital spaces.
The group includes:
Bianca Laureno, I’nasah Crockett, Megan Ortiz, Jessica Marie Johnson, Sydette, IAM, Danielle, and Moya Bailey.
Topics: research & teaching ethics with social media; social media safety for teens
T.L. Cowan
T.L. Cowan is a Presidential Visiting Professor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Yale University. Dr. Cowan’s research and teaching focuses on the political, cultural and intellectual practices and social lives of trans- feminist and queer community-based performance and on shifting practices of self- expression across digital and analog media. T.L. is an organizer with the Feminist Technology Network (FemTechNet) and the Center for Solutions to Online Violence (femtechnet.org/csov/). Dr. Cowan has a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta and previously taught at the University of Saskatchewan and The New School.
trans- feminist and queer social media, performance and pop culture
trans- feminist and queer scenes, community protocols of consent & “intimate publics”
community-based research ethics
accountability & research ethics
critical disability studies
cyberfeminism & feminist digital media practice
social media & self expression
autonomous representation & social movements
decolonializing digital archives
Jessica Marie Johnson
Jessica Marie Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and History at Johns Hopkins University. Her work has appeared in Slavery & Abolition, The Black Scholar, Meridians: Feminism, Race and Transnationalism, and Debates in the Digital Humanities. She is also the founder/curator at African Diaspora, Ph.D. and Diaspora Hypertext, the Blog. Johnson is also a member of the LatiNegrxs Project and co-founder (with Vanessa Holden) of the Queering Slavery Working Group. As a digital humanist, Johnson explores ways digital and social media disseminate and create historical narratives, in particular, comparative histories of slavery and people of African descent. She tweets as @jmjafrx. Learn more about her research here.
Speaking topics: slavery and diaspora, digital archives, digital black studies, ethics, academia and activists online, avatars and digital identities, teaching with digital media, radical media and social justice/activism, blogging, social media, online activism
Bianca Laureano
Bianca is an award-winning LatiNegra sexologist who has been in the US sexology field for over 20 years. Her background is in Black and Latinx sexualities, education, media justice, and youth culture. She resides in New York City where she provides education, consultation, training, and skillshares on various topics in the sexuality field. Bianca earned a BA in Women’s Health & Latino Communities from the University of Maryland, a MA in Human Sexuality Education from NYU, and a MA in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland. She is co-directing a feature-length documentary film titled BLACK PERVERT, about the intersections of Black and kink communities. She is a founding member of the Women Of Color Sexual Health Network (WOCSHN) and founder of The LatiNegrxsProject and LatinoSexuality.com. Bianca is on the board of The Black Girl Project and CLAGS The Center for LGBT Studies at CUNY and is the Director of Education at Scenarios USA. Bianca has written inclusive intersectional curricula for two decades. Her most recent curricula, What’s the REAL DEAL about Love and Solidarity?, centers young Black femmes. She teaches with the Institute for Sexuality Education and Enlightenment (ISEE) on Sexuality and Culture and her webinar on the needs of LatiNegras may be heard here. She is AASECT Certified as a Sex Educator. To reach or hire Bianca visit her site BiancaLaureano.com.
Bianca has done workshops that center the experiences of queer and trans people of color online, especially in a sexuality education context. She is also available to do support on racial and reproductive justice, capacity building, and trainings for staff, faculty, and board.
Sexuality & Media
Consent online and offline
Media Literacy & Media Justice
Moya Bailey
Dr. Moya Bailey is an assistant professor in the Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies and the program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Northeastern University. Her work focuses on Black women’s use of digital media to promote social justice as acts of self-affirmation and health promotion. She is interested in how race, gender, and sexuality are represented in media and medicine. She currently curates the #transformDH Tumblr initiative in Digital Humanities (DH). She is a monthly sustainer of the Allied Media Conference, through which she is able to bridge her passion for social justice and her work in DH.
As scholars, makers and artists invested in feminist media and technology, we approach the issues raised by Concerned Student 1950 and the related firing of Dr. Melissa Click from the expertise of our collective. Numerous organisations and networks have issued statements of solidarity with Concerned Student 1950 and have rejected the University of Missouri’s unauthorized firing of Dr. Melissa Click for her actions in support of Concerned Student 1950. We also highlight our rejection of the mainstream media’s focus on first amendment rights of the press, and a resulting lack of attention to the civil rights concerns expressed by the Concerned Student 1950 movement.
We are concerned that video clips presented out of context in social and mainstream media have focused attention on Melissa Click, framing her as an agitator, and have removed attention from the civil rights demands of the Concerned Student 1950 movement. We find that Click’s taped actions, in fact, demonstrate support for students who felt unsafe in the face of violent threats issued against them on their university campus—both by protestors in the public Mizzou spaces and residence halls, and via social media. Feminist and critical media scholars have carefully documented practices whereby viral video footage fails as evidence because it shows only one part of a larger story. In this case, a student (who was not on assignment, and failed to present himself with reporting credentials) imposed aggressive body and verbal language upon Click and student protestors; nevertheless, viral video clips frame Click as aggressor and reporters as victims. Feminist media scholars understand that the individual holding the camera, rather than the subject of the camera, is deemed to hold greater power; viral repetitive of these biased clips created a story whereby Click and student protestors were represented as unwilling subjects of a valid and benevolent press. Feminist postcolonial scholars have also shown that mainstream rights to freedom of the press often trump the rights of populations who protest discrimination based on race and ethnicity. In fact, Concerned Student 1950 had provided unfettered access of the press to their protest until the moment that the University President met their request to resign. Following this announcement, there was significant campus unrest and no security was present to ensure safety; Concerned Student 1950 requested a private moment from the press to discuss and weigh safety concerns and determine their response to resignation. The disproportionate attention to the media’s supposed lack of access to student protestors for this short period served as a smokescreen that veiled the demands for safety and civil rights articulated by Concerned Student 1950.
Mainstream media has framed Click’s critical popular cultural scholarship as a form of “low culture” unworthy of a lauded educational institution. These claims reflect masculinist and racist biases that privilege the white, male, upper income culture associated with the leadership of the University of Missouri. The mainstream media and university framed Click as aggressive and potentially violent when she called for “muscle” to remove an aggressive reporter from the student encampment, reflecting a host of biases. Citing Click’s actions as aggressive, rather than as civil rights action, reflects the flawed assumption that female behaviour in public spaces should be passive and pleasing. These biases diminish the pain and fear of black students at Mizzou who routinely suffer racialized threats in campus and social media spaces, and feel unsafe at the university to which they pay tuition. Such comments reflect cultural class and racial biases that privilege the class of the reporter over the student or the civil rights advocate. In asking Click to conspire in these biases, Mizzou asks the public to demand that university professors comply with racist, classist and sexist standards of behavior.
We understand Click’s actions in support of Concerned Student 1950 as a welcome form of support for essential civil rights guaranteed by the US Constitution. Click’s actions demonstrate behaviours that feminist scholars strive to enact across our many roles–as professors, citizens, colleagues, parents, friends, advocates and more. Decades of feminist scholarship supports our commitment to working in all spaces—both public and private– in manners that are ethical, compassionate and empathic, and we applaud Click’s actions in this regard.
FemTechNet makes the following demands:
That the University of Missouri:
Dialogue with and meet the demands of Concerned Student 1950. These demands include that the University:
Meets the Legion of Black of Black Collegians’ demands that were presented in 1969 for the betterment of the black community.
Creates and enforces comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion curriculum throughout all campus departments and units, mandatory for all students, faculty, staff, and administration. This curriculum must be vetted, maintained, and overseen by a board comprised of students, staff, and faculty of color.
That by the academic year 2017/18, the university increases the percentage of black faculty and staff campus wide to 10%.
That the University of Missouri composes a strategic 10-year plan by May 1, 2016, that will increase retention rates for marginalized students, sustain diversity curriculum and training and promote a safer and more inclusive campus.
As demanded by the American Association of University Professors (the AAUP,) that the University should reinstate Dr. Click to her faculty position, and adhere to common principles regarding academic freedom and tenure procedure (as detailed in the “1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure”). As such, the university should defer any questions regarding Click’s status to the faculty Council, who rightfully adjudicates any such cases, if and when they see fit.
4chan’s oldest and most popular board where users post anonymously; it is known for its lack of enforced forum rules making it notorious for highly offensive or illegal content((https://fimoculous.com/archive/post-5738.cfm))
Bait
To troll an internet scammer by pretending to be interested in the falsified company/product order to waste said scammer’s time/collect useful information on the crime for law enforcement agencies and other consumers who could be affected, or simply for entertainment; could also be applied/used in terms of a social engineer luring victims to divulge sensitive information((https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/15/how-to-troll-a-scammer))
/Baphomet/
A hacking news source community thread within 8chan that focuses specifically on “all news on recent hacks, exploits, danknet markets etc.” using “lulz” as a primary source of motivation. As a result, they often terrorize their subjects and release incriminating or highly sensitive information to others within the group for further exploitation.((https://8ch.net/baphomet/index.html))((https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Baphomet))
“Cross site scripting is an attack on the privacy of clients of a particular web site which can lead to a total breach of security when customer details are stolen or manipulated.”((https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs155/papers/CSS.pdf))
Cyberbullying
Bullying that is conducted in an online setting. This can be done by sending harassing messages to the victim, blackmailing the victim, spreading rumors about/shaming the victim using social media, or manipulating the victim using fake profiles/social media accounts. Like face-to-face bullying, victims can develop serious depression/anxiety, suffer damaged self-confidence, sever relationships, or self-harm in order to cope with the serious consequences of cyberbullying.((https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/))
Not to be confused with the Deep Web; an overlay network that can be accessed using specific software; enables anonymous communication for the sake of file sharing, p2p connection through privacy networks like Tor.((https://www.wired.com/2013/10/thompson/))
Acronym for “denial of service”; often an attack which inhibits a user or users from establishing a network connection. This is usually done by overwhelming a network with information, preventing other users from accessing services like email, web browsing, etc.((https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/tips/ST04-015))
Dox(x)
Doxing is the act of publishing someone’s personal information, of which there would be a reasonable expectation of privacy and dubious value to the conversation, in an environment that implies or encourages intimidation or threat.
Firewall
A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both.((https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/firewall.html))
A person who is actively involved in the programming community, and works and experiments with online systems (although other types could apply) to expose problems with software, internet security and/or online transparency. Hacking culture has made many important contributions to the technological community (one example is Unix). However, some hackers have ill intent in their work and often try to compromise others’ safety by collecting sensitive personal information without consent.((https://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is))((https://www.catb.org/jargon/))
Hacktivist
Coined in 1994 by Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) member Omega; a person who uses computer networks to insight social change; hacking for political purposes.((https://www.cultdeadcow.com/cDc_files/cDc-0384.php))
IP Address
An IP address (internet protocol) is a computer’s unique series of numbers separated by periods which identifies the system communicating across a network.((https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/IP_address.html))
Internet Relay Chat Protocol (IRC)
“A teleconferencing system, which (through the use of the client-server model) is well-suited to running on many machines in a distributed fashion. A typical setup involves a single process (the server) forming a central point for clients (or other servers) to connect to, performing the required message delivery/multiplexing and other functions.”((https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1459#section-1))
Phishing scams use spoofed emails and websites as lures to prompt people to voluntarily hand over sensitive information like usernames/passwords, credit card information social security numbers, etc. ((https://www.phishing.org/history-of-phishing/))
Phreak(ing)
The practice of hacking phone (or other communication) networks to gain access to certain features that media companies may typically charge/exploit customers to use (ex from source: hacking the phone system to make free long distance calls).((https://www.telephonetribute.com/phonephreaking.html))
Reddit
Reddit is a social networking, news, and entertainment site where registered users can upload context and communicate with one another through a bulletin board/messageboard format. Through voting posts up or down, Reddit’s algorithm arranges posts’ positions on the site according to popularity. The site’s name is a play on words—“I read it on reddit.”((https://www.reddit.com/wiki/faq#wiki_what_is_reddit.3F))
Scam
A facetious or fraudulent ploy that takes advantage of victims in an online setting, usually resulting in the unsuspecting victim losing some sort of good (information, money, the victim’s computer may be compromised in some way, etc.)((https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/s/scam.htm))
Sexting
To send sexually explicit photos, images, text messages, or e-mails by using a cell phone, social media, web camera, or other mobile device. ((https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sexting))
A situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data, thereby gaining an illegitimate advantage over the victim(s) so that their information can be used fraudulently upon disclosure. This can be done through web applications or telephone. (ex used in source: falsifying caller ID display info to coerce those accepting the call to give away sensitive information) ((https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/202654304-Spoofing-and-Caller-ID))
A program that can be ran on someone’s personal computer that conceals their activities, identity and location using a network of Tor users in order to expand their privacy when online. This is usually done using a browser which closes many privacy loopholes that are incorporated into unconcealed internet browsers.((https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#WhyCalledTor))
Troll
To post deliberately inflammatory articles on an internet discussion board with the intention of offending, negatively provoking, or hurting someone; can also be used to signify someone who engages in this behavior as a means of taunting those affected and in turn engaging with them in arguments online; many trolls treat this method as an argumentative technique which degrades discourse.((https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/troll))
Trollstorm
Synonymous with cybermob; a group of people (trolls) who aim to collectively harass others in an online setting, usually for the sake of intimidating and/or oppressing those with opposing views
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
The extension of a private network that encompasses links across shared or public networks like the Internet. A VPN enables you to send data between two computers across a shared or public internetwork in a manner that emulates the properties of a point-to-point private link. The act of configuring and creating a virtual private network is known as virtual private networking. ((https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb742566.aspx))
4chan is a messageboard/imageboard website, originally intended to be an unofficial sister site to 2chan.net—a Japanese imageboard. Users generally post anonymously, with the most recent posts appearing above the others. 4chan is split into various boards with each of their own specific content and guidelines, but it is popular for its often shocking or “not safe for work” (NSFW) content. Registration is not required or possible (except for by staff).((https://www.4chan.org/news?all#2 ))
((https://gawker.com/346385/what-the-hell-are-4chan-ed-something-awful-and-b))
8chan
Also called Infinitechan, is an imageboard website created as a spinoff from 4chan upon the parent site’s banning of all GamerGate threads, as site administrators identified the threads’ violation of community standards. Users create posts anonymously. The site is composed of user-created boards moderated by its respective creator, with minimal interaction from other site administration. The boards’ lack of administrative rules and community standards made it a favored alternative to 4chan. ((https://8ch.net/faq.html))
Research Ethics, Social Media & Accountability Video Series
In June and August of 2016, CSOV and FemTechNet hosted two online Kitchen Table Workshops on the topic of Research Ethics, Social Media and Accountability. Six of the co-facilitators of these workshops further contributed to the project by making videos, responding to the question, Why is it important for teachers, students and journalists to think about Research Ethics when they are using social media as part of their teaching and research?
Supplemental Videos Discussing the Social Implications of Safety and Risk in an Online Setting
This is a collection of videos that CSOV collaborators find useful in explaining the scope of what we’re talking about when we talk about online violence. These videos help us to better understand it, respond to it and end all forms of online violence.
Telling the many histories of online violence is incredibly difficult and fraught with risk. As Rebecca Richards writes having tried to find “a meaningful and safe way to collect data on the histories related to online violence, we have realized that there is no way to collect this data in a way that inspires trust between those participating in the collection or that protects those whose histories are being collected.”
You can read more about this effort at creating a history of resistance to digital and terrestrial violences in Richards’ piece “A Lot of Work and Nothing to Show for It But This Blog: Feminist Historiography and Online Violence.” This situation may change and we hope that we and others will find ways to make visible the long standing efforts of women of color, trans people, and digital content creators worldwide without putting these innovators at risk. In the meantime, you can read up on some of the issues by following the links below.
The law is a fundamentally conservative practice, one based on precedent and the procedures of due process. In many ways the legal ecosystem does not match that of the rapidly changing digital worlds that we inhabit and create. That said, there are some resources that you can consult. Please bear in mind that this is not legal advice but resource sharing.
The Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW) and the Purple Sisters Youth Advisory committee have developed Tech Without Violence, a set of resources to help prevent, respond to and support individuals experiencing online gender-based violence or harassment—known as cyberviolence.They have site-specific strategies for dating apps and social media platforms as well as some excellent online safety tips.
Below are a series of tips and tools for addressing the violences you’re currently experiencing. We have information on how to document, block, and report harassment. At the bottom of the page are a series of additional resource links.
Protect Yourself
Self-care is important all of the time, but especially when you’re experiencing harassment and/or being abused. Where possible, take time for yourself and surround yourself with people you trust. At the same time, it may be hard to explain to people what you’re going through. Crash Override has a helpful guide to talking to friends and the police that may be useful. One of the particularly pernicious forms of online harassment targets family members, so it may be a good idea to share news and resources with family as well.
If you are in physical danger, consider staying with a friend or family member until you are more secure. Also consider developing or activating a network of people who you can call should you find yourself at risk or simply overwhelmed. If you feel safe doing so, talk to your employer so that they hear from you first. If you have children, talk to their caregivers and/or teachers.
If you are concerned that you may be SWATTED because you have been doxed and your physical address has been released, you can use this sample letter to notify local police.
My personal information, including [address/phone number/social security number (as appropriate)] were recently posted on the internet by someone who is harassing/stalking me. There is a chance that someone may call in a fake bomb or hostage threat at my address as part of the harassment, so I wanted to reach out and let you know that this could happen. If you receive a threat like this for my address, I need you to call my cell number before sending emergency responders.
In addition to taking care of your bodily and emotional well-being, there are concrete steps you can take to “lock down” your digital identity.
While local laws vary regarding recording phone calls, you can explore these tips and software to record calls across a range of devices.
Document
The first step in taking any kind of legal action (which is frustratingly hard) is to create screen shots of all harassment. If you plan to file a complaint or contact the police it is essential that you document what you are experiencing – while the Internet may be forever, savvy users can delete harmful content and collecting evidence is important. For more information on pursuing legal protections against online harassment, check out our Histories and the Law resource page. You may also want to go directly to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’s resources regarding state and national laws.
Download all harassing emails and include as much information about the source, time, etc as is possible. Consider storing these on a non-networked device like a flash drive for additional security.
Online harassment can go on for a long period and has real effects on your health and well-being. Consider asking a trusted network of friends or family to help you document the harassment.
Here are a few tutorials on capturing and documenting online violence
Block
Block the people who are harassing you. Tools like BlockTogether and the Twitter shared block list can help you and your community keep some harassment at bay.
Paths is a short graphic story written by Mikki Kendall, drawn by her husband Patrick, and colored by kid #1 who also did the lettering and some QC on dialogue, with the help of kid #2 who weighed in with the 4th grade perspective. Paths is free to download, This is a project almost a year in the making, done in partnership with the Center For Solutions to Online Violence. It’s not intended to be a response to all possible forms of online violence, just a way to help parents, teachers, and kids think about why this issue matters and its potential impact. Some other resources for information and support include the following:
Please download, share, and discuss this with the kids and adults in your life. Content warning: references suicide
Tools for Understanding Social Media Violence
Research Ethics for Social Media In the Classroom DOWNLOADABLE PDF
The Research Ethics for Social Media in the Classroom handout was created by the Digital Alchemists and collaborators and produced by CSOV. The supplementary materials, including the social media ethics videos (coming soon!), were produced by CSOV and coordinated by T.L. Cowan and Moya Bailey.
The Digital Alchemist created two powerful graphic tools, The Respect Wheel and The Power and Control Wheel, to help people understand the dynamics of social media violence. Inspired by the Power and Control Wheels used in domestic violence settings, the Power and Control wheel details different kinds of online violence. The Respect wheel details the kinds of questions we should all be asking ourselves when using social media content or engaging social media users.
In addition to the graphic pages, Digital Alchemy and CSOV produced a downloadable Power & Respect Handout with both the wheels and a narrative discussion of the issues of power, control, and respect online.
Research Ethics, Social Media & Accountability Video Series
In June and August of 2016, CSOV and FemTechNet hosted two online Kitchen Table Workshops on the topic of Research Ethics, Social Media and Accountability. Six of the co-facilitators of these workshops further contributed to the project by making videos, responding to the question, Why is it important for teachers, students and journalists to think about Research Ethics when they are using social media as part of their teaching and research?
Suggested Assignment For Learning How to use CSOV Resources
In groups of 2 or 3, students study the material on one or more of the CSOV pages and present a report to the class on the materials they have found. This will allow the class to navigate the site together. If you want, as a class you can leave a comment on our Students and Other User Responses page!
Assignment Prep Note 4 Teachers: You’ll want to spend a few hours on the site yourself and divide up the materials in a way that makes sense. Some of the pages are mostly made up of links to resources we have collected so they are *very dense*!
Some questions for the class as a whole to discuss:
1. What are some examples of online violence?
2. What are some of the risks of being online and participating in social media sites?
3. What are some of the ways that you can limit your risk and protect your materials and identities?
4. Where are some places I can go for more information?
5. As a student, what are some ways that I can make sure that my own social media practices and/or research are not creating harm or reproducing harmful relations of power and control?
6. What does respect and accountability mean in the context of online communities and social media participation and research?
