Bullying whether offline or in cyberspace has the potential to cause great pain for its victims and their families. With the increased usage of social media, more bullies are going online to target their victims. Unfortunately, the children's rhyme, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me," is losing some power in today's social media fueled world.
Over the past several years, there have been multiple incidents where online bullying has been a contributing factor in teenagers committing suicide. These tragedies demonstrate the need for parents and teachers to stress the importance that the above children's rhyme is now more important than ever. In addition to better educating our children, social media platforms must do a better job of policing their web sites and making the personal privacy of their users a top priority.
One such example of a social media platform putting profits ahead of personal privacy is when Facebook was recently caught featuring a photo of Canadian teenage Rehtaeh Parsons who killed herself earlier this year. Even though Facebook apologized for allowing this to happen, it demonstrates that most digital platforms are reactive in nature and not proactive when it comes to privacy. While I am generally not a proponent for stricter regulations, this appears to be another example of why stronger digital privacy laws may be needed to protect our children from companies that may be putting profits ahead of privacy.
Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Social Media Scam Entangles Miami Heat Star
Athletes and other high profile individuals are constant targets of scams offline and on social media. Earlier this year, Manti Te'o, then a student-athlete with Notre Dame was the target of an elaborate catfishing scheme that almost destroyed his NFL career before he was even drafted. Manti Te'o is not alone in being targeted by con artists who utilize electronic communications. The Miami Heat's Chris Andersen was also recently entangled in a digital scheme that almost destroyed his NBA career and personal life.
These incidents are the tip of the iceberg. I have counseled multiple high profile individuals who have been the target of these scams. Fortunately for most of my clients, they usually contact me before these issues become public knowledge. When I provide services to professional athletes, professional sports teams, college athletic departments, Fortune 500 executives, and other high profile clients, I discuss these type of issues and the importance of limiting one's digital footprint. Unless one is able to authenticate the person with whom they are texting with and/or sending emails/social media messages with I do not recommend communicating with them.
The bottom line is that some people are putting their guard because a growing number of self-styled social media consultants are advocating that high profile individuals should focus on increasing one's social media usage to build one's personal brand and/or their school and/or corporate brand. My philosophy is different. It is about protecting the individual, school, corporation, etc... first. Brand building is a long process that takes years of hard work and a handful of Tweets or Facebook posts won't do it despite what some self-styled social media consultants advocate.
Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.
These incidents are the tip of the iceberg. I have counseled multiple high profile individuals who have been the target of these scams. Fortunately for most of my clients, they usually contact me before these issues become public knowledge. When I provide services to professional athletes, professional sports teams, college athletic departments, Fortune 500 executives, and other high profile clients, I discuss these type of issues and the importance of limiting one's digital footprint. Unless one is able to authenticate the person with whom they are texting with and/or sending emails/social media messages with I do not recommend communicating with them.
The bottom line is that some people are putting their guard because a growing number of self-styled social media consultants are advocating that high profile individuals should focus on increasing one's social media usage to build one's personal brand and/or their school and/or corporate brand. My philosophy is different. It is about protecting the individual, school, corporation, etc... first. Brand building is a long process that takes years of hard work and a handful of Tweets or Facebook posts won't do it despite what some self-styled social media consultants advocate.
Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.
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