BLOG: Bully Buster OC Launches a Smartphone Anti-Cyber-Bullying App

I am proud to announce that Bully Buster OC has officially partnered with Iconosys, Inc., a leader in mobile safety communication and lifestyle applications, to launch Word Bully™, the ultimate defense against cyber-bullying.

To celebrate this collaboration and the start of launching this great cyber-bullying tool to the community and nation, I will be giving people who attend my Bully Buster workshop this Saturday, a FREE DOWNLOAD of the application.

Also I am excited to announce that the Orange County Fire Authority's firefighters from San Juan Capistrano are going to bring a fire truck by Marbella Plaza at 10 a.m. to support the Bully Buster workshop! It is so great to see the community come together to show that what we are doing really matters. And all the kids I have talked to are really excited about the fire truck coming!

Now back to this phone app you need to know about! Word Bully allows the parent/guardian to customize a filter for profanity, vulgar or threatening language, or other offensive or objectionable communications, all with the protection of password-enabled access for the parent/guardian.   

Cyber-bullying is an epidemic that carries with it great danger for the general population, not to mention our friends and family members. In today's society, where much of our discourse and communications are done via the internet and text messaging, our loved ones (children and adults) are easy targets for, and potential victims of, the harmful practice of cyber-bullying.

First coined and defined by Bill Belsey, “cyber-bullying” involves "the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, which is intended to harm others.”

As recently reported by on the National Crime Prevention Council in July of 2011, cyber-bullying is a problem that currently affects almost half of all American teens. Cyber-bullying is known to cause very serious psychological effects including destruction of a young person's feelings of self-worth, self-esteem and confidence.

Word Bully now gives actual or potential victims and their families the power to fight back by policing, monitoring and censoring these harmful and destructive communications.

The press release is yet to hit the wires, but here is a statement by Wayne Irving II , CEO and co-founder of Iconosys: “We are very excited to partner with Bully Buster OC and appoint Ryan Foland as the official ambassador of the app. Our goal is to get this app to the families who need it, and with Ryan’s grassroot efforts in schools promoting bully prevention and awareness, he is the perfect person to head our efforts in a local and nationwide push.”

I am very excited and truly believe that the Word Bully App is an important incremental step in utilizing technology to protect children and give peace of mind to their parents. With a small, one-time investment of only $9.99, concerned parents can download the application and know that his or her child is much less exposed to the threat of child predators and bullies. Such peace of mind I believe is well worth the investment.

Now that most children carry phones, many of the circumstances that make them vulnerable when out of our sight can be lessened with this unique and functional safety phone app.

Word Bully™ Features:

• Word Bully™ monitors for approximately 3,600 words, acronyms, bulli-cons, and phrases that might be considered profanity, threatening, vulgar, and even a custom add list.
• Enable and Disable the Word Bully service using a parental-controlled password.
• Word Bully monitors for inbound and outbound questionable communications and forwards to the parent’s phone.
• Word Bully allows you to create and manage a custom list of monitored words (e.g.  acronyms, abbreviations, cultural-isms, and gang-style lingo)
• Choose to monitor ALL of the text message communications with “Black Listed” individuals suspect to be a significant threat.
• Choose to ignore specific numbers or add numbers to a “White List”
• Locate your child anytime with Trick or Tracker® child location retrieval service, built right in.

If you are interested in purchasing this great application, simply visit Word Bully online.  If you would like to talk about how Bully Buster OC can help you, your school, church, or your community organization combat cyber-bullying, please contact me at (888) 312-4954.

Ryan Foland

Follow me on twitter @BullyBusterOC