Online tutors face harassment massively

Online educators, psychologists, and even fitness trainers have admitted that they are increasingly exposed to outright harassment during video calls. The victims are mainly young specialists, and the scheme of deception, according to investigations, honed to the smallest detail.

As a rule, a tutor is contacted by a certain “caring spouse” who is looking for a teacher for her old husband. In the first lesson, such a “student” behaves quite adequately, listens attentively and pretends to master the material. However, already in the second or third lesson, the mask falls off: inappropriate comments about the teacher’s appearance begin, and then frank actions in front of the camera that violate personal boundaries. When an indignant professional interrupts a session, the abuser may try to manipulate guilt or simply disappear to repeat the pattern with a new victim.

Cyber security experts attribute the surge to tightening regulations on popular dating sites and anonymous chat rooms. There, moderation systems now instantly block accounts for displaying banned content. Unable to find the previous audience, such users began to storm professional platforms, where the level of trust is initially higher, and preventive control over the content of calls is weaker.

How do you protect a teacher?

• Always record lessons on video, having previously warned the student about it (this is the main evidence).

• Immediately interrupt and block the user at the first sign of inappropriate behavior or ambiguous hints.

• Be sure to report such incidents to the support service of the platform to include the violator in the global blacklist.

Internet security is not only the responsibility of the sites, but also the users themselves.