Got bullying problems? Consider a private investigator.

A simple Google search using the key term "bullying" suggests that it is a serious social issue. While school-yard bullying has always been a concern of parents and gurdians, recent news about cyber-bullying and its effect on youth and adults' seemingly lax oversight and poor understanding of both physical and cyberbullying, have prompted a national conversation. West Virgina, for example, just passed a stronger anti-bullying bill.

Suspicions of bullying can be hard to prove. False claims made against a child can be hard to disprove. Cyberbullying is hard to detect. School misconduct or poor due diligence can be unnerving.

While any serious concern about bullying should be reported to the proper authorities, there are reasons that parents and guardians, schools, and other public stakeholders ought to consider, in certain circumstances, hiring a private investigator to prove or disprove (cyber)bullying. As an independent professional, a private investigator can collect additional facts, interview witnesses, conduct surveillance, review case files and, when necessary, work with authorities. This work will allow you to obtain an unbiased impression of a case in order to protect a child.

As part of their "domestic services," many private investigators already conduct investigations into parental abuse, kidnapping, and other crimes against children. Thus, they are well prepared to handle bullying cases. So speak with one to see if he or she can assist you with bullying too.

As our regular readers know, we have designed this blog to provide helpful information to our clients and to passersby. Thus, we'd like to mention that when it comes to online social networking and cyber-bullying, parents and guardians should consider implementing safeguards with or without a professional investigator's help. Many private investigators can, of course, conduct a comprehensive online security risk-assessment for your family. For those who need a basic solution, though, help seems to be on its way. There is a new company, SocialShield, that provides a solution for online monitoring, and it recently received an injection of capital to improve its product. Here is a description of the service as posted in a recent issue of Entrepreneur:

SocialShield doesn't prohibit users from engaging in any behavior online and doesn't restrict access to websites. Rather, it acts as watchdog, monitoring children's contacts online, comparing friends and others interacting with the child to names and photos on sexual predator databases. Parents are alerted if there is a match or if there is a contact unrelated to other connections in the child's network, which can be a sign of stalking. The application also analyzes keywords in comments and posts and notifies parents if there are references to drugs, violence and suicide and words commonly used in cyberbullying.

If  your child attends school in the Austin area, and should your child be a victim or suspected instigator of bullying, please call us to discuss your concerns and the specific nature of your case.

CYA: Get ToneCheck to monitor your company

We’ve blogged in the past about the need for small businesses to think about cost-effective solutions to security, employee monitoring, and due diligence. So when a program comes along that could help you legally monitor (if implemented correctly) your and your employees’ emails with internal and external stakeholders, we want to pass this information along.

Entrepreneur Magazine recently published an article about ToneCheck, an email plug-in that flags emotionally charged and other inappropriate email. With a relatively good freeware version and a reasonably-priced full version for use in small to large enterprises, ToneCheck provides a line of defense against harassing and inappropriate emails. You know, those types of emails that may originate in a time of intense anger or passion, or when you're rushing to send off a rushed email.

If, for example, your employee wants to send a message, in jest, that reads "Ugh, you suck!" the "CYA" program comes to the rescue: a box pops up informing the sender that she or he "has exceeded the company’s tone tolerance." You can, of course, create various settings, and it does not stop an email; it only warns the sender. Such a program. however, can come in handy for a variety of reasons.

When used legally and strategically as part of your broader risk- and security-management, this program can help mitigate risk of lawsuit or lost business. For example, if you have this program installed on all of your computers, with employees' full awareness, they may actually appreciate this handy tool. Before an employee sends you that angry-toned email about how you're such a “bosshole” (admittedly, Entrepreneur Magazine said this one got through), the program will warn him or her that the message is “threatening.” In short, the employee will appreciate that this program saved their job.

Before an employee sends along a sexually-provocative joke throughout the office, “just to make people laugh,” the program will warn them of the risk. If she or he still proceeds, and your employee handbook specifically notes “that we do not tolerate the exchange of inappropriate emails (e.g., sexually explicit or racist in tone),” and you further specify that sending the email after warning by ToneCheck, the employee can face legitimate reprimand or termination. Also, you can show due diligence in court should a discrimination lawsuit be filed.

As a tool for yourself and your employees, y'all will be warned regarding the tone of an email to a potential or current customer. If you or your employee happens to be in a rush, the program will warn that the email can be interpreted as “threatening.” You don’t want to say “It has been annoying…, upsetting…, troubling…,”—which are all somewhat angry—when you really want to convey the following:  “It has been concerning me for some time that you have not been able to keep up on payments.” Yes, you may be annoyed or angry, but you don’t want to lose a good customer just because they interpreted your email as threatening.

Of course, a program is only as good as it is used and it can only be used with the appropriate type of monitoring. If you find that a particular employee has a tendency toward writing violent or threatening emails, especially if unconsciously, you may want to hire a private investigator to look into the person’s history or to conduct a thorough investigation. This program could just help you uncover an employee who is threatening sabotage or violence against you or your company’s interests.