Love is respect – National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline

Ohio is on the right path to helping prevent teen dating abuse. A Bill has been passed requiring Ohio schools to try to help stop dating violence. Local school boards will be required to adopt policies to prevent and address abusive relationships and train staff on the subject. Lessons in dating violence prevention will also be added to seventh through 12th grade health classes. The new law has been called “Tina’s Law” named after an 18-year old in Ohio who was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend in 1992.

Back in March, Break the Cycle  released a report card  grading states based on their laws related to domestic violence and teen dating violence. Ohio had received an “F” but with these new changes, they are well on their way to passing with flying colors this year. Check out more about this story here.

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We are so excited to announce that our live chat function will be featured as a direct link on MTV’s website. This will occur as part of MTV’s “A THIN LINE.” This initiative seeks to empower youth to identify, respond to and stop the spread of digital abuse. Digital abuse refers to behaviors such as sexting, cyber-bullying and digital dating abuse. According to a study released by MTV and the Associated Press, 50 percent of 14-24 year olds have been the target of some form of digital abuse, and 3 in 10 have engaged in “sexting.” If you haven’t experienced this abuse yourself, there is a good chance one of your close friends has.

MTV’s “A THIN LINE” will be putting out a lot of on-air specials, PSAs and a lot of cool online and mobile tools. We are proud to partner with MTV on this initiative with other digital abuse experts including Facebook, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, Liz Claiborne, Inc., DoSomething.org and more. Their website has really fun features including an interactive quiz, a “Redraw the Line Challenge” and great resources, so be sure to check out ATHINLINE.org!

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We were very excited to find out that loveisrespect.org has been nominated for a Webby Award. The People’s Voice Webby’s are open to public voting – and there’s tons of categories for websites, online video, and other interactive technology. Visit http://pv.webbyawards.com/ to register, check out all the great websites, and vote. You’ll find loveisrespect.org in the Society- ACTIVISM category (along with a few other great nominees).

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I really want to break up with my girlfriend, but she says that if I do, she’ll tell my family that I’m gay. I don’t want to see her anymore. She freaks out if I talk to any of my friends, and she always has to know where I am. But my parents don’t know that I’m a lesbian, and I’m afraid of how they’ll react if she tells them. I don’t know what to do. Can you help me?

Obviously, it’s really unfair of your girlfriend to put you in this situation. She is trying to keep you in the relationship by blackmailing you. An abusive or controlling person will often make threats to reveal secrets to friends or family in order to have control over their partner.

It sounds like you really want to end this relationship, and with good reason. Hopefully, she won’t follow through with her threats if you do break up with her. You shouldn’t be forced to come out to anyone before you’re ready. If you think she is serious, you may even want to consider telling your parents first – but that is up to you. An organization like the GLBT National Youth Talkline can offer you peer counseling concerning coming out and parent issues.

We hope you’ll also call or chat with one of our Peer Advocates about your relationship and ending it safely. Our advocates are trained to help teens in any type of dating relationship. Your call or chat will remain confidential – you don’t even have to give your name. You can call 1-866-331-9474 (1-866-331-8453 TTY) or chat with us through www.loveisrespect.org.

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  I broke up with my boyfriend and now he’s posting pictures of me naked on MySpace. He says he won’t stop until I get back together with him. What should I do?

When you break up with someone that has been abusive, they will often try to get you back by threatening or harassing you, or even by trying to humiliate and blackmail you.  Trying to reason with someone who is doing things like this doesn’t usually work, and obviously getting back together with someone that has abused you would only make the situation better for the moment.

Setting your profile to private or deleting it might be one option. But while that may stop your ex from contacting you directly, it won’t stop him from writing or posting photos on his profile- or harassing your friends.

MySpace has rules concerning what users can post and use their profiles for. Harassment, threats of physical harm and sexual exploitation (that would include posting photographs of you naked) are against the rules.

Here are some things you might try:

If there’s a possibility your ex may know the password to your profile, change it now. Make sure you new password is something they won’t easily guess.

Keep copies of any harassing messages, comments, or photos he sends to you or post on your profile or their own. Don’t respond to the messages. There’s no point. 

Delete any comments or photos your ex has left on your profile. Ask your friends to remove any postings your ex leaves on their profiles about you.

Click the Report Abuse link at the bottom of his MySpace profile. They will not know you have reported their profile.  If your ex is harassing any of your friends, ask them to do the same.

Block your ex from viewing your profile and remove them from your friend list. Ask your friends to do the same.

If you have more questions or need more help, one of our peer advocates would be happy to talk to you. You can contact us by phone at 1-866-331-9474 (1-866 331-8453 TTY) or by chat at www.loveisrespect.org.

Read more…

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 We’re so excited to announce the winners of our dating bill of rights video contest. Ashley Hoyle of Wichita, Kansas won first place for her very cool video (below). Second and third places went to groups of students in Buffalo, New York for their videos, We Have the Right and Don’t Become a Statistic.

We really appreciate the effort everyone took in creating in their videos. Also, much thanks to those who took the time to watch the videos and vote.

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Today we posted the five finalists for our Dating Bill of Rights Video Contest. Please take the time to watch these videos and vote for your favorite. Voting will close on the 21st – and then we’ll announce our three winners.

We really appreciate the time and effort every entrant put into their video. Also, we want to say thanks to our wonderful celebrity judges (Tim Gunn, Jaslene Gonzalez, and Ann Shoket) for narrowing it down to five finalists for us.

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