According to the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), nearly 15 percent of high school students have experienced electronic bullying within the past year. Sexting has become a concern as adolescents text, e-mail, or post explicit pictures of themselves or others on social networking sites. Online content is another area of concern since the Internet provides access to information and goods that would otherwise not be readily available. Even as states ban synthetic drugs like bath salts and synthetic marijuana, the drugs are still easily purchased online. Some websites normalize suicidal and self-harming behavior, such as eating disorders or self-mutilation, offering advice on suicide methods or on hiding self-harming behavior from adults.
This resource guide provides links to organizations, programs, publications, and resources focused on Internet safety, as well as information on a variety of subtopics related to the Internet, including: alcohol and drugs, cyberbullying, sexting, social networking, and suicide and self-harm. Each item in this resource guide includes a short description and a link to the resource itself. Descriptions of reports, guides, toolkits, campaigns, websites, and initiatives are, in most cases, excerpted from the resources themselves while descriptions of research studies are excerpted from the study abstracts.