A Michigan teen who wanted a normal high school experience was targeted when someone decided to use his photos and videos to create social media accounts pretending to be him.
The story of Daniel “DJ” Phillips, 19, of Washington Township, sparked the Local 4 Investigators “Randomly Targeted” series. You can find links to all our coverage from the week-long series below.
You can learn about DJ’s story by watching the full-length report in the video player above or clicking the link below to read the full article and watch his full victim impact statement..
Metro Detroit high school students speak out about cyberbullying
Six Metro Detroit teens opened up about bullying in schools. They say cyberbullying through group chats, social media, and even AirDrop is widespread and happens more than people realize.
--> Watch the full report here to hear from high school students themselves.
Michigan teen’s life upended by complete stranger. How to keep it from happening to you
In this report a cybersecurity expert shares some tips on how you can protect yourself online. The problems of hacking and online impersonation are more widespread than many realize.
While investigating this story, Local 4’s Karen Drew discovered she, too, had been hacked.
“Within minutes, we found I had been hacked, my photo being used without my permission, connected to some unfavorable words,” Karen said.
--> Watch the full report and learn how to keep it happening from you here.
How to keep teens safe on social media as cyberbullying, online impersonation cases persist
This week we sat down with licensed marriage and family therapist Carrie Krawiec and Peter Hoffman, an OK2SAY program specialist to learn more about keeping teens safe on social media.
Krawiec said adolescence is a time when teens want to prove they can handle problems independently. She said that when teens keep something like cyberbullying to themselves, it puts them at a disadvantage.
Hoffman highlighted the importance of documentation. He said that if someone is being impersonated online, they should report it to law enforcement so there’s documentation showing the posts aren’t theirs when trying to get them taken down.
--> Watch the full report and learn more about keeping teens safe on social media.
What happens if your Facebook page is stolen?
As a city council person it’s Priscilla Ayres-Reiss’ job to protect and fight for the citizens of Southgate. She had no idea she would become a victim and need someone to fight for her when her Facebook account got stolen.
“One of my friends reached out to me and said, hey, what’s up with the new picture? And so when I went and looked, it was Julie Plum’s picture that was on there. And I’m like, I don’t know what’s happening here, but this is still my page,” Priscilla said.
If you find yourself suddenly Facebook friends with someone you’ve never seen before -- then what happened to your real friend might be what happened to Priscilla.
Her Facebook page was hacked. The hacker deleted her pictures, changed her name to “Julie Plum” and started making new posts as this new person.
--> Watch the full report and learn more about Priscilla’s story.
Are Michigan’s anti-bullying laws keeping up with technology?
Michigan’s anti-bullying law requires schools to have policies and plans for bullying.
The Matt Epling Safe School Law has been in place since 2011, but insiders tell us that while most school districts have something on paper -- most policies are outdated, inconsistent, or not well understood -- and that can make it hard to keep up with technology.
“Cyberbullying doesn’t just hurt feelings. It’s not just something kids get over. It hurts the way that they see the world. It takes away their security, it takes away their safety, it takes away their innocence,” Jamie Kaniarz, the Executive Director of Defeat the Label said.
Defeat the Label is a nonprofit with a mission to create a safer, more inclusive school community. They offer anti-bullying school based programs.
--> Watch the full report to learn more about cyberbullying in Michigan’s schools.
Calls for change, tougher laws to address cyberbullying
Michigan Sen. Stephanie Chang said she wants to see change.
“These companies should need to be more responsible for creating the environment where these things are happening,” Chang said. “I hope that we can really find some ways to change the laws to make social media platforms safer for kids.”
Local 4 asked if punishment should be different if a minor is actually doing the cyberbullying.
“That’s something that we’d have to think about, right? And so I am someone who thinks that we need to make sure that when we enact criminal justice policies that we recognize that young people make mistakes, right. When they cause harm to other people, that’s definitely a problem and there needs to be some type of way of dealing with that,” Chang said. “But also we need to recognize that They are also young people and their brains are not yet fully developed.”
--> Watch the full report to learn mor about the calls for change.