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Exploring The Hack Harassment Campus Ambassador Program

Cybersmile have been supporters of the Hack Harassment initiative for some time. This is your chance to join us in making the internet a brighter place!

Cybersmile are big supporters of Hack Harassment, how’s that going?

Right now, online harassment is rampant, and it can have devastating consequences…
■ 40% of all users – and 70% of those age 18 to 24 – have been affected.
■ Women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals are all disproportionately impacted.
■ Of those who have experienced online harassment, 15% said it impacted their reputation and 29% said it made them fear for their lives.
Currently, most online platforms have manual community management. What that means for online harassment is low reporting numbers due to most people choosing to just navigate away from the site and too much time passing between the event occurring, being reported, and then being handled by admins.

We need to find a way to intervene quickly to help those individuals and communities that are being affected. We share a belief that the immense potential of the internet is threatened when we allow online harassment to go unchecked. But we also believe that through technology, teamwork, and innovation we can change the status quo.

Over the last ten months, we’ve been working towards that goal by:
– Elevating the conversation so that more people understand the reality of online harassment, its consequences, and what we can do about it. To do so, we attended and spoke at events with large audiences – such as Code, VidCon and TwitchCon.
– Fostering collaboration so that everyone who is invested in combatting abuse online can work together, sharing learning, ideas, and resources. As part of this effort, we started a partnership with Major League Hacking to help students implement technical solutions to online harassment.
– And by cultivating real solutions so that we can leverage the immense opportunities technology presents to make the internet a better place.

Every single one of us at #HackHarassment is passionate about this cause – and we’ve seen the program grow over the past year because thousands of others agree with us!

We’re interested in your Campus Ambassador Program, can you tell us a bit more about it please?

We launched the Campus Ambassador Program to help support the three goals outlined above. College students have a unique perspective in this fight, as many are impacted by online harassment themselves. We’re looking for creative, talented, and passionate people. #HackHarassment Campus Ambassadors have the opportunity to put their amazing skills to work to positively influence their student community – just simply by signing up at www.hackharassment.com/back-to-school.

Who can apply to be an Ambassador, can anybody apply or do they need to be staff at a college/University?

Any resident of the United States currently enrolled at an accredited undergraduate or graduate college or university can be a #HackHarassment Campus Ambassador. We just ask that they are in good academic standing at their institution. Other eligibility requirements can be found here.

What does being a Campus Ambassador mean? Is it time consuming and what are the benefits/responsibilities?

Here’s what our ambassadors are asked to do:

COLLECT 25 #HACKHARASSMENT PLEDGES
Raise the awareness of those around you about the problem of online harassment by getting friends and community to take the Hack Harassment pledge using your unique referral URL.

APPLY FOR A CAMPUS GRANT
Once you’ve hit at least 25 pledges, apply for a grant to bring the message of Hack Harassment to your campus and enlist engagement to do something about online harassment.

USE YOUR CAMPUS GRANT
If you win a Campus Grant, you’ll have several months to use it to start a conversation, get people invested, or come up with an idea to help reduce online harassment.

Your personal participation in the Campus Ambassador Program is what you make of it. The more you raise awareness of the issue, the more opportunity you have to implement some of your amazing ideas of how to combat it!

In a few words, can you summarize why the Campus Ambassador program is so important?

Online harassment has become a pervasive and often vicious problem with real-life repercussions. Unfortunately, there is very little in place to identify and reduce it. #HackHarassment was created to do something about online harassment by bringing together great minds and developing real world technology solutions. Help us make a real impact – you have ideas that we can help you bring to fruition!

What is the closing date for applications and where do people register? What is the process for registration?

Visit www.hackharassment.com/back-to-school to sign-up to be a #HackHarassment Campus Ambassador. In order to apply for a grant, you will need to collect your 25 referrals and submit a grant proposal by November 28, 2016. We’ll send you emails along the way to keep you apprised of your progress!

So what are you waiting for? Surely this is all the motivation you need to enrol and start making a difference today! As you are probably aware, our expertise lies within the cyberbullying and online abuse space, if you are affected by any online negativity feel free to check out our Global Support Service or our cyberbullying and digital abuse help center. For further information about Cybersmile and the work we do, please explore the following suggestions.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on Twitter @CybersmileHQ!