Thanks to the overwhelming publicity surrounding both the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Hollywood and the Larry Nassar criminal case involving Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, most Americans have been engaged in a much more open dialogue regarding the topic of appropriate sexual boundaries in recent months. Given the number of victims and the decades of abuse represented by these two cases alone, it would appear that these conversations have been badly needed for a very long time.

One potential problem with recognizing or preventing similar incidents of sexual abuse and harassment, however, is that many times the perpetrators’ behavior doesn’t appear as extreme or obviously inappropriate as the cases that make the news. Consequently, victims of inappropriate sexual advances don’t always feel justified in calling out the behavior or reporting an incident if it was “just uncomfortable”.

Actor David Schwimmer and writer/director Sigal Avin have created a video series designed to highlight this particular issue and educate others as to where the line defining sexual harassment actually lies. In doing so, they created a resource that allows people in various settings to identify sexual harassment before it escalates to a pattern of abuse. Cosmopolitan.com has helped to publicize the series, called #ThatsHarassment.

Social media use among teens has become almost universal, and nowhere is this more evident than in the proliferation of photographs and social media posts shared by older kids and teens. Because the rise of social networking has been so rapid and recent, however, the possible pitfalls of social media use are often poorly defined and overlooked. According to a 2012 survey by Pew Research Center, 91% of teens report posting a photo of themselves on social media profiles, but only 9% of older teens report being “very concerned” about third-party access to the information on their social media accounts. This amounts to a great deal of identifying information that potentially opens them up to interaction with or exploitation by strangers.

Enabling parental controls and monitoring internet usage are very effective ways to lessen the risks, but there are even more basic measures parents can take in the meantime to help ensure that their kids aren’t compromising safety through the information they share on social media.

Cyberbullying is a term that would have been unheard-of even 15 years ago. Today, as our digital presence increasingly overlaps with our everyday lives, it has become an area of major concern for many parents. Recent surveys on cyberbullying indicate that anywhere from one-fifth to one-half of all teens have experienced some form of it.

Understanding what cyberbullying is can be the first step in helping to prevent it. By definition, cyberbullying involves sending material intended to embarrass, insult, or harass another individual via social media, text, email, or instant messaging. Some forms of cyberbullying are more obvious than others. For example, a cruel reply to a Facebook post is easy to identify, but cyberbullying can also involve more subtle acts such as creating a fake profile to impersonate another person or publicly sharing information that was intended to be private.

Many corporations, large and small, engage in some form of charitable giving. Whether these corporations offer monetary donations to nonprofit organizations, provide volunteer support, or match employee contributions, there are numerous benefits throughout the chain of individuals involved in any form of corporate charitable giving. The OffenderWatch® Initiative (OWI) is just one of numerous nonprofit organizations that owes its continued survival at least in part to corporate contributions.

Human trafficking represents an international human rights crisis, and awareness of the problem is growing. However, many parents in the United States may not have a strong understanding of the threat that human trafficking may represent to their own children. This practice may be seen as an issue only in certain parts of the world or in certain populations, but the reality is that men, women, and children in every country can become victims of human trafficking operations.

Private and government agencies who address the problem of human trafficking have a very difficult task, because no one has been able to compile any reliable statistics about the number of people involved in human trafficking schemes or the exact way all of these schemes operate. In addition, human trafficking is an “underground” issue. By its very nature, human trafficking operates in secret, and involves victims who are difficult to track or merely disappear.