Last week, two Florida girls, ages 12 & 14, were
arrested on felony charges of taunting and bullying after a 12 year old Florida
girls committed suicide. This is a sad
realty in our world today. Bullying is
no longer happening face to face. It is
happening everywhere we have access to the internet and at all hours of the
day. For a victim it is difficult to
escape or find refuge when the attacks are happening even when you should be in
the safety of your own home.
Rebecca Sedwick committed suicide by jumping from an
abandoned cement factory tower in Lakeland, FL on September 9th. She had been a victim of bullying by at least
15 other girls utilizing on-line social networking sites such as Ask.fm,
Instagram, Kik, and Voxer.
More often than not, bullying has been extended to the
digital world. For parents and schools,
this is a difficult evolution. It is
difficult for parents to keep up with the latest trends in social networking.
It seems many of us just figured out Facebook only to have to new application
such as Instagram or Ask.fm become the application of choice.
We are living in a digital age and the responsibilities of
parents, schools, and children have changed.
We have to educate our children about the proper etiquette for using
social networking. As parents we have to
be open and honest with our children and have to be willing to learn about new
technology and be willing to check on our kids.
It is fine line between protecting our children and respecting their
privacy.
In addition to parents having more responsibilities, so do
you students. Here are some tips on how
to prevent and stop cyberbullying:
·
Make sure if you are members of social networking
sites, protect yourself by using the security features (for example, make your
profile private if you are on Instagram)
·
Never accept a “friendship” request unless you
know the person
·
Refuse to pass on cyberbullying messages
·
Tell friends or others to stop
·
Block communication with cyberbullies, delete
messages without reading them
·
Never post or share personal information online
including full name, parents’ names, address
·
Never share internet passwords with anyone
·
Never put anything online you wouldn’t want your
classmates to see
·
Do not send messages when you are angry or upset
·
Always be as polite online as if you were in
person
If you are a victim of cyberbullying or become aware of
cyberbullying, you need to ask for help.
Find a teacher or trusted adult and ask for assistance.
How many different social networking sites do you belong
to? Have you ever witnessed acts of
cyberbullying? Besides the suggestions I
provided, what are steps you believe would be helpful to stopping this behavior?
I belong to a couple social networks. I have a facebook and I have a profile on an online game. I have witnessed acts of bullying online. On facebook I've seen kids post things like "You're so gay." or things like "Why don't you commit suicide and do the world a favor! LOL JK!" Even if it's meant to be a joke or teasing, telling people to die or judging them isn't right at all. I honestly feel like telling an adult and/or turning off the computer is the best way. If you tell someone and you know who posted those things about you, and you know them, you could confront them. If you turn off the computer, the stuff on the internet is still there. It's still mean, but telling someone and turning off the computer is a good idea. Honestly, if you are bullying online, that's really low. It just proves that you're a coward because you can't say that stuff to someones face.
ReplyDeleteMy Social Network sites that I support are Instagram and Tumblr. I think they are very fun to share things on and share what you are doing. I have never witnessed Cyber Bullying although if i did i would report it, or tell them to knock it off. I think if you want to become stronger you have to stop letting people pushing them around. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes. "If You want to live, you have to become strong" - Carol (Walking Dead Season Four) You can block the user or simply just turn of the computer. If you want to keep your social media up and running then you must report them and stop letting people push you around. The best way to stop cyber bullying is to never start.
ReplyDeleteI belong to 3 network sits but I don't really use them very much. I have not witnessed any acts of cyber-bullying. My friend has told me about some of the cyber-bullying that happened at her school. You should never friend someone who you do not know. You should never meet with someone you met on online. Never give out personal information like where you live and your phone number. Never post something online that you would not show to your parents. Don't put something about your friends online that you wouldn't say to your face. Never post anything or comment something that destroys your reputation or your friend's reputation. Don't encourage cyber-bullying get rid of it.
ReplyDeleteI, personally, aside from the average kid getting angry on Xbox Live, have never witnessed any acts of calculated cyber bullying. I belong to one social network- Facebook, but I do play online games. Amazingly, though, I have never really seen any bullying. I think it's because I mute strangers. I believe that all the steps provided above are good for preventing cyber bullying, but perhaps another good idea would be to never deal with strangers. Never even type to them, and if you have an opinion, keep it to yourself. You can never know exactly how someone will respond to what you think.
ReplyDeletei belong to 3 social networks sites. I only use one of them that often and on that network (instagram) I haven't noticed any type cyber bullying, I probably have not witnessed anything because I have a private account, I don't follow anybody that I am unaware of, and I don't look at others's peoples's profiles if I do not know them.I think to avoid cyber bullying you don't want to give out any kind of information about yourself, what ever social network your on make sure to make the profile private, and don't talk to anyone you don't know online because you don't know what they could do to you, how dangerous they are, and what they're capable of doing. If you avoid all of those things then you will be as far as possible of cyber bullying and other types of dangerous things online.
ReplyDeleteThe only social media site I use is Facebook. At first I got it so I could play pet society and farmville when I was ten, and my parents trusted me then to be safe. Now, as I am older, they are more concerned about my online safety than when I was younger. I also have two instagrams I have no memory of, and cannot access them because I don't know the passwords. Whoops. And an X-box live account, but I don't even go on it because I don't like video games unless it's the sims. NO, I have never witnessed online bullying. Probably because they know to avoid me. Also because I don't go on enough to witness it and don't associate myself with it. One thing I can think of to stop bullying is to not tolerate it. If i saw anyone being bullied, or even if I was, I wouldn't put up with it at all. I hate bullying, and it's not something that should be taken lightly.
ReplyDelete1... ;_; (That being Google plus if I didn't forget anything, or even count). With this I have not noticed much cyber bullying on my own account time but being with my friend Ben (Who is that guy who is on practically all social networking sites), I noticed how much I saw people being attacked for being on the internet with bullies who live in there district. I mean people sometimes find a safety in being on the internet and having that being attacked by the same people who might even bully you at school, it must feel terrible. The only real tip I can give instead of the ones on top is do not trust everything a friend might say online to you, even if they are a friend.
ReplyDeleteRylie: I am involved in Facebook, Instagram and Kik. Although I never use my kik, I am often on Facebook. I have seen something on Facebook about a friend that Bailie is friends with about her getting bullied. She had pictures of it and wrote about it on a post. Bailie, naturally, told my dad and he went and offered to help with the situation. I have no further information about that. Some helpful tips for stopping this behavior is to go right to the ones who raised the bullies. Their parents. People need to address them with with what the situation is and who is being bullied and doing of the bullying. The parents, even if they had no idea their kids were bullying, should (along with their kids) go to counseling. In preventing cyberbullying, all of the reason I would share have already been stated.
ReplyDeleteI don't belong to any social networking sites. I have a few emails but those are the extent of my social networking. I have never witnessed cyber-bullying, thankfully. My advice would be to not have any accounts on things like Facebook, Instagram, etc. This is the easiest way to prevent being cyber-bullied. Since I don't have any accounts, I don't really have any advice.
ReplyDeleteI belong to a large, large amount of social media sites, such as tumblr, twitter, deviantart, google plus, the playstation network, 4chan, 2chan, facebook, overseas chatrooms, image based boards, kik, instagram, vine, skype, steam, and multiplayer gaming sites. and in my time of browsing a good amount of the internet and having to deal with so many other's issues I have been, and seen a lot of cyberbullying, including threats, the demanding of killing yourself, stalking, slander, spreading rumors, and the spamming of profanity. What usually helps for me and other people I have helped get out of things such as these is; turning off the computer, logging out of the bullying social media sites for a matter of time, talking about it, cutting off connections to the bullies (because seriously it is a computer for crying out loud. What do you do if someone threatens you over the phone? You hang up, right? This is not much different.), or if worse comes to worse acquire assistance from a trusted adult. One issue of cutting off connections with a bully is that the said kid wants to prove to them self that they can take these kids on. But gets hurt by the things the bullies say and bad stuff happens.
ReplyDeleteIt is also funny since a certain kind of bullying happens here too, kids generalize with what one person thinks of said topic, don't ask the person that is involved with the issue, and then that said person finds out what these people assume about the issue and makes it humorous to find out how dense the people are.
DeleteI belong to very few if not any. My Gmail account is really the only social networking account I use. I have never really witnessed cyber-bullying mostly because I am not really involved with these things. My advice to people getting cyber-bullied is to block the person bullying (if you can). The one other tip I might give is to not believe everything that someone say.
ReplyDeleteI am apart of Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, gmail (if you count that). I have seen a few cyber-bullying messages mostly in anonymous messages on Tumblr. That is one of the flaws in it's system is that people can tell them how much they hat them without even knowing them. My advice to people being cyber-bullied is that if someone insults you over the internet then they don't matter. They are the one's who don't know how to spend their free time other than hurting people they can't see.
ReplyDeleteIf a bully is about to sent a message they should think about the person they are sending it to. What if their message is the last they read. What if their parent finds them dead in their room because of your message. Think are they trying to be better? You don't know their life, maybe they've been free of cutting for a year and you're the one to make them start again? I don't think bullies think through their actions and they just need to take a moment to think of what they could cause.
I dont belong to any social networking sites besides gmail( if that counts)I have heard but not witnessed and cyberbulling. there are too many suicides because of social networking sites. I think it's really not mature sending people rude or hurtful messages online. if you're going to send a message then make sure that it is somthing that can be said to your parents or to someone face to face. the advise i give to you is either get off or ignore it, so stop cyber bulling and start being friendly
ReplyDeleteI am not a part of any social networking sites. I think that i would like to have an account to see what everyone else is doing and i think that i can follow those steps to be safe. I haven't witnessed acts of cyberbullying at all. I never looked over the shoulder of the bully or the victim. I am NOT a bully either. It can be hard for the victim to forget about it, they can be scarred for the rest of their teenage years. I think that the most important step is to talk to someone, whether it is your teacher, friend, parent, or counselor, it releases all of that sadness that they were hiding.
ReplyDeleteI belong to tow different social network sites, instagram and vine. I have witnessed cyber bullying and it is terrible to see. All those "haters" look at what you post and dis on it, till the point where something like this happen. I think cyber bullying is the worst form of bullying because there is no escaping it. Normal bullying you go home and you are safe for 16 house, cyber bullying is always there. I also,(not saying this from experience) believe that it would be easier to bully someone through the keyboard instead of face to face. the bully doesn't feel that he is being challenged so s/he just keeps going. Some ways to stop this are having the "report" or "block" button. Then the person can stop the situation immediately. I also think, as unfortunate as this may seem to the kids, that parents should have a view at what is happening. This will eradicate the problem completely.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't belong to any networking sites, but I have seen an act of cyber bullying. In 4th or 5th grade, there was a girl in our class who posted mean things about another girl on Facebook. She ended up getting a very stern lecture later. I think a good step to prevent cyber-bullying would be to have parents have access to their kids account, even if the kid doesn't want it. I do understand how teens want to have a certain degree of privacy, but when it comes to cyber bullying, it's too serious to keep private. If parents could access their children's accounts, then they could monitor what they post (if they're the bully), or what gets posted about them (if they're getting bullied). I think this would help the problem of cyber-bullying a great deal.
ReplyDeleteI belong to two social networking places but I am hoping to delete those soon. I am private on both, so I haven't been cyber bullied. I also haven't seen much cyber bullying except for the little kid fights on Instagram. Those fights are honestly the stupidest thing, though, so I usually just don't read them. I also am not on the most cyber bullying website, Facebook and Ask.fm, and I don't plan to be. My friends are and I have seen them using it and it looks really really stupid. I would do all of those wise things that you listed up there and one more: just delete your profile. If someone is bullying you then you have the power just to either turn off your computer and leave it there, or delete the profile. I would also just ignore them because they are big dummies for bullying you.
ReplyDeleteI belong to one social networking site which is facebook. I have not seen any cyberbullying happen except for arguing and name calling which isn't really bullying. I think that if someone is getting bullied online they could do many things like deleting their account, telling an adult, or not paying attention to the insults. If you are getting bullied I think that the best thing to do is to tell an adult and get the situation handled from there.
ReplyDeleteI have profiles on Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine. I have never witnessed any type of cyber bulling on these sites. I am always trying to be safe on the Internet and I never follow anyone who would do things like that. To stop cyber bullying, you can keep your accounts private. Only let the people you know follow you, not your friends friends. Never ever give out personal information including your last name. When I was younger, I played on Google+ and used my last name. That stuff is still on the internet even though I deleted it. It isn't bad, but I would rather not have it on the internet. Also never give out things like your address. Thats never a good thing. Never post about things that would hurt someone you know. You can't take it back once you've already said it.
ReplyDeleteI am a part of only 2 social networking sites, both of which are private. I only use one though, and thats instagram. And even then I still never post anything anymore. I have never seen cyberbullying myself, although I still know that it happens. Besides doing all of the things Mr. Grant has suggested, if I or anyone else was being cyberbullied, I would just delete my account all together and seek help. Not just for me but for the other person/ people too. Because what if they are just being hurtful to you, because they themselves feel hurt inside. And the only way they think will make the hurt go away is by hurting other people as well.
ReplyDeleteI belong to one social networking site, which is private. My one social networking site would be instagram. I have never seen cyber bullying myself, but I have heard stories about awful things people have said to each other online. One way to stop cyber bullying is just to delete your whole account. Cyber bullying can be very dangerous and could end in fatal ways. I say that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. Any form of bullying won't do you any good, so people need to stop now and be nice to everybody. One other way to avoid cyber bullying is to tell an adult immediately or anyone with authority. People don't realize how it feels to walk in someone else's shoes. Think about what you say about before you say it.
ReplyDeleteI don’t belong to any social networking sites (unless Khan Academy counts :) When I was younger I used to play multi-player games online and I saw a LOT of bullying going on. People would say mean things to each other and I’d usually say something to back up the person being offended. Usually the bully would leave, and the person being bullied would thank me or whoever stood up for them. A few ways to stop this from happening are through
ReplyDelete1. Telling your parents if things are getting more serious.
2. Tell a moderator of the website.
3. Ignore them; they wouldn’t say it in person.
4. Record what they say so it is proof against the bully.
5. Delete them or your own account. If you’re sad about losing your account, in the long run it helps you.
It is horrible how people kill themselves after being bullied, and that to online. People need to find a way to figure this problem out. Support the victims! It may end up saving a life...
I belong to three social networking sites: tumblr, instagram, and facebook. I mostly use facebook though because I don't find the other ones as useful. I have never witnessed cyber-bullying, although I have witnessed physical bullying like Rylie mentioned. I asked the girl if she was alright and if she wanted to press charges on the girls who bullied her because they followed her home one day and attacked her. Other than the ways mentioned, another way to prevent cyber bullying is to report them or delete your account. You can also tell an adult if it gets really serious.
ReplyDeleteI belong to no social networking sites. In effect i have never had a first hand account of cyber bullying. I have heard several stories about the effects cyber bullying has on a person. It is very sad when a life is lost when it is 100% preventable. If someone comes across cyber bullying they should just delete their account and ditch their computer for a while. If it continues, tells someone who can deal with it. You could also block that person and avoid the possible situation.
ReplyDeleteI don't belong to any social networking sites. Though I don't belong to anything online, I have heard of some cyber bulling. Some cases even have happened with St. Joe's students. There are definitely some cases when I see my friends looking through comments on a networking site such as "Man, that's so gay!" and other horrible things like that. Another step you can think of when you post stuff that you don't know whether is mean or not is if you don't want your mother to see what you write, then don't write it at all. You should also treat others as you would like to be treated.
ReplyDeleteI am a member of Facebook and I have played many online games. I have never witnessed acts of cyberbullying, but there is much cyberbullying that goes on in some of my online games. I have actually been the victim of people calling me names when I play online games, but I never take it seriously. I have however, a cousin that has been a victim of some very intense cyberbullying in which the police were involved. He met someone online and he told him his cell phone number. The person then started calling his phone constantly and called him crude names. His parents soon called the police after it wouldn't stop. Things that people should do If they are a victim of cyberbullying is to block all possible communications to the person.
ReplyDeleteI belong to 2 social networking sites both are private. I haven't really witnessed any cyber bullying and make sure not to even get involved with any of that type of stuff. the steps I believe people should start taking to prevent cyber bullying towards them or anyone else is first keep all your personal information private and for others I think you should really put some thought in what you are about type in because you never know what could be a joke for you actually become. Those two steps are personally the most important to prevent any horrible situations.
ReplyDeleteI belong to one social networking sites and they are private. I have not ever seen any cyber bulling personally. I have herd about it. My advice is to don't get too rapped up on the computer and think before you act always. Another suggestion is to keep all of your profiles privet. This is what I think people can do to help other than the things listed above.
ReplyDeleteI belong to five social networking sites including Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Youtube, and Reddit. My profile on these sites are semi-private, meaning that I only post publicly if my post has something to do with my radio show. I have yet to see acts of cyber-bullying on these sites, but I have seen a person be very depressed on tumblr, maybe due to bullying. The only thing I could do was message the user anonymously and say that they mattered and to keep their head up. But I think that there should be stricter laws around the country defending those who do get cyber-bullied because it is a growing problem in the US and should be put to a stop.
ReplyDeleteI belong to Facebook, and a couple different video games sites and applications. I have never seen cyber-bullying, but I have heard that it has happened to people I know. I would say that you can always block the people that are harassing you, and you should definitely tell an adult or someone that can help about what is happening online; don't keep quiet!
ReplyDeleteI just have an instagram. I have never seen cyber-bulling. My suggestions are to block people you don't know and to log out of your account so that other people cant put stuff on your account when your not there. You should also stand up if you see someone you know getting cyber-bullied, by telling an adult.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI have an instagram,and facebook! Yes a girl on face was being cyber bullied. To block the cyber bully or to have people who take them off the site so that is does not happen any more truly you can block them and it wont happen anymore.
I do not have any social sites I belong to. No, I don't have a twitter or a Facebook. So, I am not exposed to cyber bullying. I think that most people that cyber bullies are just people who are not strong to stand up for them self’s. So if you just confront them they will not mess with you.
ReplyDelete