Congratulations to Gitanjali Rao, TIME Magazine’s first-ever Kid of the Year! We applaud all of your work but are especially fond of your efforts to prevent cyberbullying with Kindly. 👏👏👏  

The US Combat Online Predators Act has added 5 years to the maximum penalty for an online stalking offense if the victim is a person under 18. This was put on the President’s desk for signature on Friday, December 11, and was signed by the President and became law on December 23, 2020. Congress.gov    

Along with the type of cyberbullying Masquerading, we should probably mention Catfishing as well. Catfishing is when someone creates a fake profile and lies about their identity (often occurring in online romantic relationships). According to Facebook’s Transparency Report, 1.3 billion fake profiles were deleted in the third quarter of this year. This number is trending downward from the beginning of the year.

A new form of trickery has emerged this holiday season as the world has become increasingly virtual. The sender of a smishing scam often impersonates a trustworthy company such as a bank or store and sends a fraudulent link for “tracking” or other purposes. Read more:⠀ ⠀ TLDR: Beware of links sent in text messages as they may not be legitimate.

Another example of the consequences for someone convicted of cyberstalking. For more information, watch the CBS Sacrament clip.