The National Youth Internet Safety and Cyberbullying Task Force, Inc. (ISTF)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/08/06
The National Youth Internet Safety and Cyberbullying Task Force, Inc. (ISTF) is intended for the adolescents and their families to have a resource to know what cyberbullying and internet safety is and what to do in the case of cyberbullying.
As Chris Rock notes, rightfully, real-life bullying tends to be worse than words on a shimmering screen. Nonetheless, the safety of the young is important as there are those within one’s own peer group that can be out to explicitly harm an individual young person.
Also, there are those who are well-above the age of teenage peers who want to take advantage, and sometimes do, of the naivete of the young, whether through ignorance and the vulnerability of individuals to the evils of the world or to the proper informational etiquette.
That is to say, the proper data decorum for the young comes from the discriminatory foresight about what sites are and are not safe. Parents and so families need to be aware of this; they need to be able to ascertain what is and is not safe regarding the online world.
As noted on the ISTF website, “It also serves as a catalyst for the prevention of teen suicide, teen dating abuse, human trafficking, and bullying through research, education, support, helplines, and resources. It also works to aid teen victims of sexual abuse and/or family abuse. The task force covers a wide range of teen related issues, but focuses the majority of its time on teen suicide, bullying, internet safety, dating abuse, and cyberbullying.”
Kids deserve a safe upbringing. There is an essential need to provide for the young in some critical ways because children have guardians. Those guardians or parents, specifically, are bound to the duty of interests of the child. In particular, the best interests of the child.
This creates a moral arc and interest in the upbringing of the children, especially in terms of the safety for the young. The internet is the same as any place. There are predators preying on the vulnerable, on the young and the old alike.
The problem in the modern world is the relative vulnerability of the young population because of the issues with the rapid changes in the technological and, as a result social landscape. Cindy is up until 3am texting with Tyrone about his breaking up with Brian.
It is heartbreaking and socially juicy gossip. We are addicted to our devices; same with our young the population. The question is what to do in the case of socially inept discourse where there is inadvertent or even overt abuse of another young person.
Then there are the really serious cases of those who wish to bully young people in the online world, or cyberbully, in order to garner information about the young person, presumably to take advantage of them.
In each case, we have the problem of the cyberbullying from peers and adults with different motivations, dissimilar long-term outcomes, but the same title of cyberbullying. The main one focused on by national and international organizations is the form of the peer to peer cyberbullying. A majority of youths admit to being cyberbullied in their lifetimes.
This becomes a ubiquitous concern for the parents and problem for the teens of the upcoming generations. The ISTF works not only within the United States but also in Canada and the United Kingdom.
There are four offices in New York State, two in Pennsylvania, one in Vermont, and another two in Massachusetts. Overall, we can see the development of organizations such as the ISTF to work on tackling the problem of cyberbullying. The idea is to create a less abusive and kinder world. Who does not want that?
“The task force is recognized as a national task force which is formed typically as a special operation to work to help a certain task or cause,” the ISTF describes, “It’s also recognized as a human service organization, as well as a non-profit organization under the Internal Revenue Service’s 501(c)3 tax exemption code. As a non-profit organization, we rely 100% on donations to keep the task force running.”
The donations enter the finances of the ISTF from a variety of sources including awards, business, community, and grants. More than 90 cents on every dollar work towards their state anti-bullying mandate and mission. It is one of the world’s leading anti-bullying organizations. I write for them and highly recommend them. Our team is completely volunteer and come from across the United States, even Canada such as myself.
Please do donate or volunteer if you can. You can go to the website and reach out for volunteering or donating!
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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
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