People on the internet aren't always very nice. While some adults may be tough enough to wade into the snark-infested waters of YouTube comments and other particularly nasty online fora - many children could use a helping hand coping with it all psychologically.
Enter Firefox for CyberMentors. It's a new custom browser made in partnership with the popular anti-cyberbullying organization Cybermentors.org.uk. It's a good looking option for parents.
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The browser puts users one click of a button away from a live chat with adult staff and other children concerned about cyber-bullying, some of whom have been trained as mentors by the organization to offer personal advice in private chats. It's a very active site and the 13 year old mentor I chatted with in testing the service was very well spoken. She told me that a majority of the young people she had chatted with sought advice about off-line bullying, but said that she frequently gives advice about online trouble as well. She had been trained in her UK school as an anti-bullying mentor and seemed like she would do a good job helping other young people.
In addition to easy access to chat with trained anti-bullying mentors, the browser also offers one-click access to a media sidebar where kids can see the latest news videos about anti-cyberbullying efforts.
We haven't been able to figure out what happens to the sites that get reported as inappropriate through the browser, but maybe the CyberMentors staff finds the site owners and gives them a wet-willie.
People who already have Firefox installed may also get a browser plug-in that offers all the same functionality as the stand alone anti-bullying browser.
Disclosure: The author was bullied a lot as a child, but before the internet existed. He considers having a job as a blogger now a form of revenge. You know who you are! May you be plagued by spammy Facebook apps!
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