Cyber Safety

“Hello, I'm Beth. And I'm fifteen,” Darren Lauer crooned to us. At first, this man (who was so obviously not fifteen and not named Beth) made us laugh. And then he made us think. And then he made us cry: I'm sure there wasn't a single person left in the audience who didn't feel impacted after his presentation on cyber bullying and digital citizenship. Of all the things worth missing prep for, his presentation was definitely one of them. We laughed as he told us of the ten students in the room whom he had friended on Facebook, pretending to be “fifteen year old Beth” and then listened as he warned us of imposters who are definitely not as friendly as he is. Mr. Lauer is something he calls a White Hatter, which is someone who hacks or “creeps” in order to protect and educate others. The things we put online are never safe, and are certainly never private, even after they are deleted. It's entirely possible to hack webcams, attack cell phones and computers, hijack identities, and ruin a person's life entirely behind the safety of a screen. However, thanks to people like Mr. Lauer, we can learn to protect ourselves. We can do things as simple as avoiding suspicious links and websites, turning off certain GPS settings, and actually reading our privacy settings on social media sites. We can even take another step to keep ourselves safe: take a piece of tape and put it over your webcam. It takes less than a second and is the equivalent of closing your curtains to keep prying eyes out. Near the end, I can truthfully say even I felt the impact of the video he showed us of the eight grader, Jonah, who told us his message of hope and resilience through cue cards. I'm sure we all teared up a little at the music video encouraging everyone that it gets better; it'll all get better as long as you hold on. Mr. Lauer was emotional too as he very firmly told us that getting help for bullying of any kind is not weakness. It is incredible strength to be able to step up. For anyone who needs help and didn't attend the seminar: there is help available. For a cyber bullying issue, you can contact Mr. Lauer at his Facebook page, The White Hatter. For any other problems, your house parents or a teacher will always be there for you and help you out of a situation. It gets better. Sarah P, Mackenzie ‘15