There is an area of Cybersecurity that often evades the
headlines. This is Cyberbullying. Sure while growing up as kids, we have had
our fights on the playgrounds, and even bullied each other in the physical
sense. But once again, given how
interconnected everything has become, bullying has now taken onto the electronic
form of it, especially where the social media platforms are concerned.
Its becoming a huge problem today, and is expected to only
get further exacerbated by the growth in AI, especially that of the Generative
kind. We are all at risk of becoming a
victim of Cyberbullying, no matter what age we are or where we live. Just like fending off a security breach, the key
is learning how to mitigate the risk of becoming an actual victim of
Cyberbullying.
The worst is when our nation’s most precious asset – our
children, become the victim, and they feel helpless to do anything about
it. In fact, Cyberbullying is a huge
topic that I have undertaken on my own, and have published numerous blogs and newsletters
on it, especially when it comes to the standpoint of our kids.
There is a lot on this topic, but for the purpose of this
blog, there are four areas of focus which needs to be addressed in order to
protect our kids. Here they are:
1)
The School:
This is where kids spend the most
of their time during the school year.
The first line of defense here are of course the teachers. They must encourage the kids in their classrooms
to come to them directly if they think they are being Cyberbullied. There must be an open line of communication
here, and the parents must be involved in every step of the way here as well. Even the school staff must be supportive of these
efforts, going all the way from the administrative assistant to the principal,
and heck even the school superintendent.
2)
The Federal Government:
I have to be honest here, the Biden
Administration probably has done the most in recent history to initiate new
directives when it comes to Cybersecurity and making sure that AI is being used
properly more so than other Administrations that I remember. One such effort can be seen at the link
below:
But unfortunately, much more needs
to be done to combat Cyberbullying at the national level. If you leave it to the states, then everybody
will be marching to their own beat. What
is needed is a set of best practices and standards, for all of the 50 states, which
will eventually transcend down to the school level. But keep in mind one thing: there is also an explosion in the amount of
threats that are taking place against our elected leaders, given the political
climate that we are in today. I was
reading more about this today, and it is called “Swatting”.
3)
Corporate America:
Just about every company out there
today is trying to produce some new AI based gimmick. This is all fine and dandy, but why can’t we
divert these efforts into more meaningful and useful efforts like discovering new
ways in which AI can be used to help prevent Cyberbullying? There is a lot of potential in this area, and
in fact, it will be the focal point of my next newsletter.
4)
The Parents:
Ultimately in this regard, the buck
stops here, you, the parent. You have to
take ultimate responsibility for the safety of your kid, but bear in mind that
you are not alone in this. The school in
which your kid attends will be one of your strongest allies. But you need to keep close tabs on what your
kid is doing on their wireless device, and lay down strict rules. Be loving, but be firm at the same time. My best advice here: Don’t even let your kid have a wireless device
until they are in college.
My Thoughts On This:
As a parent, you also need to be concerned about another
grace issue: Making sure that you child’s
PII datasets are safe, and the appropriate controls are put into place to make
sure that data exfiltration does not happen.
But, this will be a topic for a future blog.
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