Education and empowerment for safer practices online

While the Internet is a useful and necessary tool for learning, sharing information and much of day-to-day life, existing online—including engaging in social media—also poses unintended risks.

Everyone is at risk for the exposure of their personal information and if you’re not familiar and vigilant with privacy settings across various sites, you might be sharing more than you intend to.

There are additional risks of technology-facilitated abuse related to crimes such as dating abuse, stalking and domestic violence, where online activities can be tracked and used by perpetrators to control or intimidate their victims. Sexual abusers have also been known to gain access to their victims via websites and online forums. And in the case of image-based abuse, abusers use an individual’s intimate images to harm, manipulate and control them by distributing, or threatening to distribute, those images without that individual’s consent. Further, these intimate images may be real photographs or videos, but it is increasingly common for such images to be synthetic, digitally generated images (commonly referred to as “deepfakes”).

Especially since the internet is integral to most of our day-to-day lives, we encourage our community to stay informed on best practices for safe internet use. To that end, please consider this list of resources with strong, up-to-date information on staying safer online.

General Online Safety

StaySafeOnline.org is a project of the National Cyber Security Alliance. NCSA’s mission is to educate and therefore empower a digital society to use the Internet safely and securely at home, work and school, protecting the technology individuals use, the networks they connect to, and our shared digital assets. StaySafeOnline.org has wonderful information about general online safety and a number of other topics.

Online Safety for Survivors of Domestic Violence, Dating Abuse or Stalking

• Loveisrespect.org provides detailed information about digital dating abuse as well as recommendations for staying safe on social networks.
• Downloadable PDF from Stalking Prevention, Awareness and Resource Center (SPARC); Technology-facilitated Stalking Behaviors.

Internet Safety Resources for Parents

• Childnet International is a leading resource for parents who want to understand how best to keep their children safe online. 
• The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also offers information for parents through their NetSmartz website.

Resources and Information on Image-Based Abuse

• Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) Helpline supports victims of nonconsensual pornography, sextortion, deepfakes and other forms of image-based sexual abuse. Call 1-844-878-2274 or visit cybercivilrights.org for free advice 24/7.
  
• Revenge PornHelpline is a UK service that supports adults who are experiencing intimate image abuse.
  
• EndTAB provides training for organizations to help address online abuse. Visit endtab.org to learn more and schedule a consultation call.
  
• Stop NCII is a free tool designed to support victims of nonconsensual intimate image abuse by creating a hash for your intimate image or video that participating companies can use to detect and remove the images. Visit stopncii.org for help.
  
• C.A. Goldberg, PLLC is a law firm representing victims of online harassment, cyberstalking and revenge porn.