Skip to main content

Book Review: No More Victims: Protecting those with Autism from Cyber Bullying, Internet Predators and Scams by Dr Jed Baker

No More Victims
Protecting those with Autism from Cyber Bullying, Internet Predators and Scams 
by Dr Jed Baker

Coming less than a week after a terribly mishandled bullying case which destroyed my five year career in scouting, I guess I had unrealistically high expectations for this book. While it didn't measure up to my expectations, it was nevertheless a useful and practical booklet covering the subject of Internet predators and scams.  There's a mention of autism but really, it's something that can be summed up in one or two sentences.

People with autism spend a lot of time online, they are naive and are easily baited.

I really wasn't happy with the bullying section of this book. The section didn't start with a definition of bullying but described cyber-bullying thus; "Cyber Bullying is a term typically used to describe emotional victimisation and abuse among school and college aged individuals".  This is a terrible description which makes it seem that cyber-bullying stops when people leave college.  The remainder of the chapter assumes that the bully is a school student and that the school is supportive of the victim".

I can tell you from recent experience that in real life, this is certainly not the case.

The second section covers online predators and this was much better. Strangely enough, there were three pages which were copied pretty much verbatim from the previous section. They fitted into the subject material but in a book of under 100 pages, this just felt a little wasteful.

Once the book reaches the scams though, it picks up considerably and gives a great deal of good practical advice while covering the major types of scam. This section is the real gold and it stops concentrating on kids and recognises that adults with money are generally the main target of scams.  There's also a chapter by Jennifer McIlwee Myers called "an insider's view".  I was expecting this to be about Asperger's syndrome but instead it's about sites which help you to identify scams.  It's still a great chapter, it's just not about Autism - except perhaps for one or two lines.

No More Victims is a great book if you need to know about scams and predators but not so useful for bullying. Despite its title, it doesn't bring anything about Autism to the table but it is nevertheless a useful book for adults on the spectrum who are clearly more at risk due to their naivety and the number of hours they spend on the Internet.  I'm not sure that including autism on the cover is doing the book any favours though and it's equally useful to all adults who "compute" regularly.

At under 100 pages, this book is a breeze to read and it's very well laid out with clear headings, points and pictures. The appendix contains two sample "contract forms" that parents can use with their kids covering bullying and the use of phone and Internet.

If you've ever unknowingly believed and forwarded a fake message on Facebook, then this book is for you.

No More Victims: Protecting those with Autism from Cyber Bullying, Internet Predators and Scams by Dr Jed Baker is available from Future Horizons Inc. and Amazon.


Honesty Disclaimer;  I was provided with a copy of this book free of charge for review purposes.

Comments

Unknown said…
I've always been bullied off-line. And I get it all the time from people in the Oswestry area. I've been called all sorts of weird crap words. Harmful to those of us that are very sensitive to too much neurotypical behaviour. Even The British Police don't help us at all. Oswestry is a very dull community. Too much high unemployment going on around here. I'd love to know who I could report the local authorities/establishments to. Anybody got any good tips for me?

Popular posts from this blog

Aspie Myths - "He Won't Miss Me"

I apologise for the excessive "male-orientated" viewpoint in this post. I tried to keep it neutral but somehow, it just works better when explained from a male viewpoint. Here's a phrase that I've seen repeated throughout the comments on this blog on several occasions; "I know that he won't miss me when I'm gone because he's aspie" Today, we're going to (try to) bust that myth; Individuals I'll start off with a reminder that everyone is an individual. If all aspies were completely alike and predictible, they'd be a stereotype but they're not. Each is shaped by their background, their upbringing, their beliefs and their local customs. An aspie who grew up with loud abusive parents has a reasonable chance of becoming loud and abusive themselves because in some cases, that's all they know. That's how they think adults are supposed to behave. In other cases, aspies who grew up in those circumstances do a complete about-fa

Why Do Aspies Suddenly Back-Off in Relationships? (Part 1)

One of the most frequent questions I'm asked is why an aspie (or suspected aspie) suddenly goes "cold" and backs off on an otherwise good relationship. It's a difficult question and the answers would vary considerably from one person to another and would depend greatly on the circumstances. Nevertheless, I'll try to point out some possibilities. Negative Reasons I generally like to stay positive on this blog and assume that people are not necessarily "evil" but simply misguided. Unfortunately, I do have to acknowledge that there are some people out there who take advantage of others. I read a book a few years ago on "sociopaths in the workplace" and I was stunned by the figures. They suggested that sociopaths were so common that most workplaces (small business) had at least one or two. The fact is that there are lots of people out there who really feel very little for others and who are very manipulative. I'd like to say that aspies aren

Why do Aspies Suddenly Back Off in Relationships (Part 2)

In part one, we looked at the role that Change Resistance plays in causing aspies to suddenly go "cold" in otherwise good relationships. This time, I want to look at self esteem and depression; Self Esteem The aspie relationship with themselves is tedious at best. People with Asperger's commonly suffer from low self esteem. As discussed in earlier posts, this low self esteem often results from years of emotional turmoil resulting from their poor social skills. Aspies are often their own worst enemy. They can over analyze situations and responses in an effort to capture lost nonverbal communication. This often causes them to invent problems and to imagine replies. Everything made up by aspies will tend to be tainted with their own self image. This is one of reasons that people with Asperger's will sometimes decide that they are not good enough for their partner and that they must let them go. Sometimes, the aspie will develop a notion of chivalry or self-sacrific