Mission Statement

The mission of W.H.O.A. is to educate the Internet community about online harassment, empower victims of harassment, and formulate voluntary policies that systems can adopt in order to create harassment-free environments. W.H.O.A. fully supports the right to free speech both online and off, but asserts that free speech is not protected when it involves threats to the emotional or physical safety of anyone. W.H.O.A. further asserts that online harassment is about power in a community (the Internet) that has been previously statistically dominated by a certain type of individual: white, heterosexual, privileged men. While W.H.O.A does not wish to single this group out as an enemy, we recognize and celebrate that the tide of the community is changing as people from all walks of life begin to become active participants online. As such, we must begin to assert our power as a group toward the protection of all people online against harassment targeted against them based on gender, sexual preference, race, ethnicity, age or privilege. W.H.O.A. is primarily an organization of women, but we welcome men who demonstrate sensitivity toward the issues of harassment and a willingness to support our cause.

Goals and Implementations

1. Educate the Internet Community About Harassment. This will take several forms:
a. Educating administrators of BBS’s, chats, IRC servers, web sites and other interactive media about the issues of harassment and creating positive, safe communities. This will be implemented through the development of web site resources, email resource packs that can be provided upon request of administrators, and through the development of an administrators email newsletter bulletin.
b. Educating the community itself and providing information about how users can protect themselves against harassment situations. Part of this involves the creation of a safe-site and unsafe-site list that will allow users to make decisions about the level of protection they are comfortable with at the sites they frequent. Sites that adopt anti-harassment policies and follow through on them will be added to the safe list. Sites that have complaints pending against them in which the administrator refuses to consider arbitration or refuses to address the issue will be placed on the unsafe site list
c. Educating victims on how to fight back and protect themselves in the meantime against further harassment.

2. Empowering Victims In addition to education about what they can do to fight back, victims will be offered the opportunity to join a safe, helpful private majordomo mailing list where they can talk to one another and to other helpful people who have been screened for their sensitivity to these issues. Victims will also be provided with information on where they can go for further assistance, both legally and emotionally.

3. Providing Policies For a Better Internet Community

There are several policies that W.H.O.A. will seek to develop and advance.
a. Policies against sexual harassment or intimidation through public or private means (such as email).
b. Policies against public personal attacks, particularly involving the "outing" of private information about someone or libelous material.
c. Policies against threats of any kind.
d. Policies favoring the self-policing of sites.

All of these policies will seek to encourage administrators to use the control they have over the use of their resources to remove any persons causing offenses to those policies that are either severe or repeated. Administrators who choose to adopt these policies will be educated and assisted in putting them into practice. They will also be encouraged by appearance on the Safe List and permission to use the W.H.O.A. Safe Site Logo if they choose. Administrators who do not choose to adopt these policies will not be censured in any way unless there are complaints against their site.

In the event of complaints, W.H.O.A. will seek to assist the administrator in a sensitive and timely handling of the situation. If they refuse to take any action with or without the support of W.H.O.A. they will be placed on the Unsafe Site List and W.H.O.A. members will be advised of what actions they can take regarding the situation (such as a letter writing campaign to the university or ISP which houses the site).

Administrative Structure

The administration of a vast program such as this requires many hands and many minds, which means that in order to continue to run effectively, W.H.O.A must have clear leadership. This will take the form of a Board of Directors consisting of the following key positions:

President, Lynda L. Hinkle
Responsible for the appointment of the Board of Directors. Also responsible for providing leadership on all matters relating to W.H.O.A. and for the general health and growth of the organization. Responsible for administration related to membership and dissemination of educational materials. Provider of case management services and arbitration with site administrators.

Publicity Director
Responsible for providing direction to the publicity campaign necessary to get W.H.O.A.’s message to the Internet community and the world.

Educational Development Director
Responsible for the development and review of educational materials related to online abuse/harassment.

Director of Victim Empowerment
Administers the mailing list for victims and keeps a contact list of professionals to refer victims to for emotional or legal counsel.

Policy Director
Responsible for the development and administration of W.H.O.A.’s anti-harrassment policies. Also responsible for the development of W.H.O.A.’s own policies with the consent and assistance of the membership and the Board.

Web Director , Juliette Page
Responsible for the maintenance of the web site, logos and graphics for W.H.O.A. working in tandem with the President.

Other positions may be added at a later date with the assent of the current Board. Each of these Directors may choose a committee if they wish of interested members to help them with the responsibilities that fall under their position. Directors will be appointed by the President and Founder, Lynda L. Hinkle for the period of one year. Positions are unpaid at this time, but in the event that the Board finds it is ready to move W.H.O.A. into collecting funds for various projects through fundraisers or advertising, it may vote for a small stipend depending on the amount of funds it is capable of raising. They can be removed at any time during that period by a majority vote among the Directors. They can also resign at any time. Directors will be chosen on the basis of sensitivity to the issue of harassment, prior administrative or related experience, and willingness to commit to the project.

W.H.O.A. Policies

1. W.H.O.A. is not a replacement for legal counsel and under no circumstances are any of its officers permitted to provide legal advice. Requests for legal advice should be handled through the Director of Victim Empowerment who can provide a list of referral options.

2. W.H.O.A. is also not a replacement for psychological counseling. While we hope to be a supportive and empowering embrace of understanding to those who come to us for help, we cannot provide advanced psychological assistance, and will also refer out in cases that seem to require it.

3. W.H.O.A., its officers and members must agree as part of their involvement that they will never, under any circumstances, directly contact any person that is suspected of harassment. Rather, we deal with administrators and others in positions of authority who can use their influence to resolve the issue, rather than endangering any others.

4. W.H.O.A. does not demand compliance with its policies from sites. Rather, we suggest. If harassment is taking place and site administrators refuse to address it, W.H.O.A. uses letter writing campaigns, boycotts, or publicity to fight injustices, remaining nonviolent, responsible, fair-minded, and willing to negotiate on anything but a person’s right to emotional or physical safety.

5. W.H.O.A. will not advise its members to write letters or take any action against any site unless it has either seen proof from the victim that harassment is taking place or has directly spoken with or visited the site and found a culture of harassment and abuse.

6. W.H.O.A. will not give out the personal information of any of its members or anyone it tries to help under any circumstances barring court order.

Membership

Membership is free and open to all. Members will receive updates and information about W.H.O.A. as well as the opportunity to serve in any committees or volunteer to assist the organization in a manner with which they feel comfortable (this is not required, but encouraged). At no time will members ever be charged a fee for the receipt of information or for participation in W.H.O.A..