The Victim Assistant 🐼

Legislators are comparing two bills that would make it a crime to take revenge on an ex-lover by posting nude photos on the Internet. This practice is commonly referred to as "revenge porn." With the exception of victims in New Jersey and California, which recently criminalized "revenge porn", victims have no legal recourse. With these bills, there will be harsh penalties including fines and prison time. I have three issues with these bills, one issue is there is no recourse for recovering these damaging photos. No one can force the hand of the websites where the posts were made to erase the photos. So victims have no guarantee that their embarrassing and private photos will not resurface. Another issue I have is that victims have to take some responsibility for their actions and taking part in racy photos is risky behavior with consequences. In this day of social media, it is dangerous to take part in nude photography with someone just because you have no idea what

Despite an unfortunate and embarrassing incident involving an ASU fraternity last week, I decided to redirect the negative and introduce you to the greatness that comes out of the university. ASU students have come together to create an app that can help parents monitor cyber bullying on Facebook. According to the website, BullyBlocker is a app designed t o prevent cases of adolescents being cyberbullied on Facebook, BullyBlocker alerts parents of potential cases where their child may be a victim of this form of online aggression. Indeed, over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online, and well over half of the victims do not tell their parents when cyberbullying occurs. Addressing this epidemic, BullyBlocker gauges at-risk adolescents who are most emotionally vulnerable by using a combination of computer science coupled with psychology research.  After being granted various permissions, BullyBlocker extracts information from the child’s Facebook data to be analyzed for si

Today while obtaining some research for my book, I came across this great website that provided expert help to resolve any type of health issue. There is information and resources on emotional and mental health, abuse, parenting, addictions, healthy living, family, seniors, and the list goes on. Everyone needs to check it out. It is days like this when I find a good tool that I miss advocating for others! http://www.helpguide.org

January is Stalking Awareness Month! Visit the Stalking Resource Center for helpful tools and information including webinars and articles. Be informed! http://stalkingawarenessmonth.org