Introducing Anna Kavanaugh, Syndicated Columnist

By David Simms, Senior Contributor

The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards

It is an honour to welcome Anna Kavanaugh to The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards as an esteemed partner in our organisation. Anna is seated as a voting member on our Board of Advisors and a lead team member on our Coalition Committee. She will serve as a Senior Mentor and Co-Executive Director of Development in our education programme. Her positions will also be in tandem with her role as a syndicated columnist to be published by the Institute. We will be syndicating worldwide her cyber-abuse column aptly named Cyber Abuse: The Virtual Violent Crime.

Anna is recognised around the world as a renowned expert on cyber-abuse and online victims advocate. An active champion for change, she has a powerful and unique understanding as the target of an unspeakably grievous online cyber-abuse, hate, cruelty, and defamation campaign launched against her in 2011. Anna's is a distinctive and ardent voice in defining and describing what she rightly deems a global pandemic of virtual confusion whereby a societal breakdown of empathy and compassion confuse and pose serious threat to legal boundaries and civilised conduct.

Anna Kavanaugh is a writer, editor, speaker, radio show host, and is also an advocate for several humanitarian and environmental causes. She is the Founder and Director of The Anna Kavanaugh Charitable Foundation, and its cyber-abuse division, The Bully Battleground. The mission, core values and focus areas of the foundation’s work stems from Anna’s own life and are the driving force behind her passionate determination to help bring about social, political and legislative change. A primary goal of the foundation is suicide prevention for other victims desperately seeking relief. Empowerment and emotional repair, together with a wide array of other strategies, are used in her work to help victims reclaim their lives. Her personal journey has provided an intuitive sense for the support and services she believes are needed and has led Anna to an initiative of improving the lives of others while advocating change through the work of her foundation.

We will be publishing and syndicating worldwide Anna's column, Cyber Abuse: The Virtual Violent Crime, in the near future.

Creating Mentors

By David Simms, Senior Contributor

Since the dawning of the digital age, computer technology and now the blossoming internet have come so far. Unfortunately along with its splendor and wonder, we must also accept the monumental amount of negativity and hate that is regularly rippled throughout the fabric of cyberspace. Hate that erodes away the integrity of the human spirit.  Though we may not be ourselves victims directly, we can still be affected by the mere observation of damage happening to others. We all lose! Cyber harassment, bullying, stalking, hate, are all aspects of the larger category of cybercrime.  These crimes are executed at more elevated rates than has ever been seen and on a wider scope than has ever been seen.  The problem has exploded internationally reaching to nearly all communities.  It is for this reason the Global Institute was created. It is a work dedicated to providing not only a safe haven for those under attack but also an opportunity for those with heart, to become involved and give of themselves to help fellow brothers and sisters. We have been working to consolidate information from a multitude of countries to our website in an effort to show the world it is not an isolated problem. Although every country has its own set of laws, constraints, cultural challenges, economic challenges, and so forth, there is value in sharing each other’s challenges, so that we can find a common thread and common identity. It is only then that it can be fully addressed and conquered. 

The problem of cybercrime is happening everywhere. Therefore communities and individuals need the tools to protect and heal themselves before they can then move to help others. It is our goal to write so that people will see, speak so that people will hear, and educate so that they will do. Our mentorship program was established for this purpose. Mentors possess the training to help victims of cyber-crime where it matters. We try to align victims with mentors sharing similar cultural backgrounds however, it is not always necessary as the crimes of cyber-hate transcend culture. To our fortune, we have been blessed with wonderful resources and exceptional individuals who are committed to training our mentors. To these incredible people we owe much and it is through them that our faith in humanity is regained.  It is our sincere desire that you join us if not as a mentor, as a supporter of what we stand for.