For some of us the semester is coming to a close and others it's just frenzy all the way around. The last week or so following Black Friday, life has jumped into hyper-drive, every waking moment is filled with something to accomplish and every sleeping moment is spent figuring out the next step. Anyways, let's get away from all that and focus on something that I feel isn't talked about enough. It seems that in our culture people aren't aware of pressing issues until someone dies, a phenomenon happens or news stories are splashed in front of our eyes for more than a 24hr period. None of these occurrences should have to happen in order for our nation, government or school system to wake up to what is really going on. Cyberbullying is a huge issue in our culture today and we need to start taking action to teach our youth the importance of creating safe, respectful online presences for themselves. Unfortunately, cyberbullying is so prominent it causes children to hurt themselves in many ways.
An article I found in the Huffington Post, Cyberbullying: The Elephant in the Room, talks about Cyberbullying and the rampant movement of people, kids especially, being tormented and eventually leading to a non-reversible act. Many bullies prefer to harass online because it's virtually, no pun intended, anonymous. Today, we have the power to post things without sharing our names. So when someone does throw someone else down hard, it's difficult to figure out who is talking. Personally, I'm glad I didn't get a Facebook page until college. High school was bad enough without social media.
In a nutshell, as parents, supervisors, guardians, teachers, older siblings etc. we all need to become better role models for those still growing up. We need to be "cyber-shields." We NEED to be more aware of what is happening on the internet. Lets inspire our youth to be loving instead of hateful.
To help protect yourself online you can:
- Keep your information private online and keep private information offline altogether
- Report users with abusive comments to website personnel, generally there is a "report user" button on websites that allow comments
- Tell someone you trust if you are being cyber bullied, a teacher, parent, friend or adult who can help
- If you see someone else being cyber bullied tell someone
To help protect yourself online you can:
- Keep your information private online and keep private information offline altogether
- Report users with abusive comments to website personnel, generally there is a "report user" button on websites that allow comments
- Tell someone you trust if you are being cyber bullied, a teacher, parent, friend or adult who can help
- If you see someone else being cyber bullied tell someone
--Ruth Jackson
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