Someone bothering you online? There's only one thing you've got to remember, and that's that they have no right to. This is easily said of course, but it can be a lot harder to know what to do. We've put together a few quick tips that may help you get that person off your back.
Block those contacts
It may seem incredibly obvious, but it's the quickest and easiest thing you can do to get someone out of your face.
• Right click on the name of the person bothering you
• Hit block contact on the dropdown menu and be done with them.
Appear offline
Another pretty straightforward option — you can either block them, or make like you're not there.
• Click on the status bar right next to your name at the top of the Messenger window
• Change your status to "Appear offline"
Take screenshots or copy threatening exchanges
You might want to do this if things start getting more serious. Remember, it's you're right to take action if someone starts threatening you, and that goes for physical and verbal threats or abuse.
The good news is that you've got two options, either:
• Highlight the text from the threatening message, then just copy and paste it into a word document. If you're doing this just make sure to keep a record of the date and time as well as who it was sent by (including their display name), and send it to someone as soon as you can.
• Or you can download a screenshot program and really stick it back to whoever is giving you grief by taking a screen capture of whatever nasty or threatening things they've been saying about you.
Just go here to download a free screenshot program, and follow the instructions provided to snap someone in the act.
Take control of your wall
Cyberbullying happens all over the web, and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are easy places to be targeted. Luckily, you've got a lot of control over the privacy settings for your profiles on Facebook, MySpace and Windows Live.
• Just login and tick the option that allows you to approve everything that goes on your wall (check the relevant help section for how-to do this on Facebook, MySpace and other services)
If you're using Windows Live you can do it in a couple of easy steps:
• Go to the permissions link at the top of your Windows Live Profile page
• Now you can choose who gets to post notes to your wall or comments on your photos or updates
Home