Fact: The Internet is here to stay.Fact: So is cyberbullying.
Ironically (and most helpfully), the Internet is a great source on how to deal with cyberbullying.
StopABully.ca offers up the following statistics on cyberbullying:
The website also states the most common form of cyberbullying was the public circulation of personal information received from a private email, IM, or text message.
When it comes to dealing with online harassment, common sense must prevail.
In a recent Globe and Mail article by David Butt (“Teens must learn the line between online socializing and pornography), Butt keeps it simple: “First, assume there are people out there who wish to cause you harm, and don’t post anything about yourself that those people could use to hurt you; and, don’t post anything about others that you would not want posted about yourself.”
HelpGuide.org offers some other common-sense tips for both teens and parents.
Tips for teens
If you are being cyberbullied:
Tips for parents
Encourage your children to tell them if they are being harassed, and deal with the issue together. They may not want to tell you for fear of losing their Internet privileges.
Carol Todd, mother to Amanda Todd (the 15-year-old who committed suicide as a final response to cyberbullying), did much of the above. She offers the following advice, which reappears often in her many interviews: In an exclusive with Yahoo!, she said, “ensure that your child has three to four adults that they can trust or talk to. Whether its a teacher, an aunt, a pastor at a church ... someone that your child can go easily to and talk to.”
Tips for bystanders
Author Barbara Coloroso, identifies the three parties involved in bullying: as suggested by the title of one of her books, the three players are The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander. When it comes to stopping bullying, whether online or in person, behaviour modification will not come willingly or effectively from the first two parties; it is the intervention of the third, the bystander, that can make the critical difference.
All too many times, supporters come out of the woodwork when it is too late. Amanda Todd was overwhelming supported by her peers — after she died. Yet, as evidenced in her video, in her cue card that read “I have nobody, I need someone,” she felt horribly alone while alive.
If you really want to stand out in a crowd and shine your uniqueness onto the world, step up when no one else will, speak out, and stop the bullying.
Compiled by
Britt Santowski