Cell (mobile) phone safety
SMS and cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is rife on the Internet and bullies are now turning to text technology to harass their victims.
Text harassment is a crime and it should always be reported to the police. This article is about what to do if you are being bullied or harassed.
How to stop SMS bullying
If you are receiving threatening or malicious messages by SMS then the first thing to do is go to the police with all of the messages you have received. If you have the ability to record calls on your handset (this feature is built into most Motorola and some Erickson and Nokia phones) then take the recording too. They will then work with the networks to stop the problem you are having.
If the calls are merely annoying, then you should seek assistance from a parent or a teacher, as well as this there are technical methods available to help you stop getting these calls.
Internet related problems
It is very important not to give out your mobile phone number over the Internet, as it can be used to get information about you. Once it is made available, your number can be abused by spammers, scammers, identity thieves, online predators and cyberbullies. There are telephone directories which can reveal information about customers when their phone number is put in, and it also gives a method of contact that you may be reluctant to change.
Only give your mobile number out to people you know and can trust because once you hand someone your number it is very difficult to take back, because of the inconvenience of having to change your number and inform everyone who you do want to tell of the change. If you do need to contact someone via SMS that you met over the Internet, or even someone who dont really want to give your telephone number then you may want to take advantage of a service like ICQ web SMS, which allows you to send and receive text messages to a number which you can change easily, and can have none of your real details attached.
Are you confused by SMS text language? Then use the Teenangels chat translator!