Cyberbullying: The Role Teachers Play

Parents and teachers are forced to long for those days when bullying mostly ended up with school authorities suspending the bully and calling in parents of both parties. Schools do boast of counseling sessions and preventive measures to stop bullying but the offense has taken a new form which is making it more and more difficult for both educators and parents to control. As the only exercise for more and more teens is flexing their fingers on the keyboard of their computer or phone, their cyberbullying, at some point or the other, does step into their virtual lives. The main problem is that traditional bullying was more visible than cyberbullying. It happened mostly on school premises and even if it didn’t, there was always some proof of harassment or some kind of supervision that could put a stop to the act. In its most dangerous form known as cyberbullying, the mere detection of the problem is very difficult. Prevention and long-term effects are even more unmanageable.   

Justin Patchin, an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Co-Director of Cyberbullying Research Center, spoke in an interview about how cyberbullying has teachers baffled as to what role they can play in stopping it. It has managed to give teachers more to worry about than just the falling grades of their students. Recognizing it as more or less new phenomena, Patchin encourages school authorities to avoid keeping cyberbullying at the end of their priority list.

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Star Wars Kid Speaks Out Against Cyberbullies

If your child becomes the victim of cyberbullying, will he or she have the tools to cope? Parents of cyberbullied kids can do a lot to help, but one important one is making sure that they have access to positive role models. One of these is Ghyslain Raza, more popularly known as “The Star Wars Kid”.

In 2003, Ghyslain Raza was an ordinary ninth grader in Quebec. He was trying out for a school Star Wars skit, recording himself stage fighting with a golf ball retriever for a light saber in his high school's TV studio. Without his knowledge, classmates found the video and posted it online, where it became one of the first viral videos on the Internet.

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Teacher Gives "Cyber Ninjas" Social Network Training Wheels

Beth Gentrup at Norfolk Junior High in Nebraska is providing seventh-graders Social Network training wheels in the form of an elective course called "Becoming a Cyber Ninja." The course teaches about a wide variety of topics meant to protect online users and promote proper online behavior.  This means addressing topics like cyberbullying, stalking, identity theft, and uses of personal information.

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Current Anti-Bullying and Cyberbullying Movements Around the Country

Bullying and cyberbullying are two of the most serious issues you will face in raising your children. These behaviors pose an immediate threat to your child's safety and if they are not handled swiftly they can cause long-term psychological damage that can affect everything from their personal relationships to their performance in school. Fortunately, parents, educators, and counselors across America are responding to these behaviors with some new and innovative approaches.

Leading the way, the federal government created Stopbullying.gov. Essentially, this is a one-stop shop of tools and resources where parents and educators can search for information that they can use at home, at school, and within their own communities. This fantastic resource provides information on how to recognize bullying, how to respond when it is discovered, and how to prevent it from reoccurring in the future. 

While resources such as this have been extremely helpful in providing communities with support and information, some states have decided to take their anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying efforts even further. This past year, the State of Delaware began considering legislation that would make it mandatory for schools in the state to report bullying and cyberbullying.

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Guest Post: Cyberbullies Online: Educate, Lead by Example

This guest post is from Tina Kehoe, a stay-at-home mom of three wonderful kids and a frequent writer on digital parenting topics.

A little girl named Marie, who happens to be in eighth grade, recently received an anonymous text that reads “we are going to have sex next Friday after the dance. Or else." The little girl trembles in shock and fear as she ponders whether she should go to an authority figure or just live in fearful suspense, wondering if the sender is telling the truth. Another sixth grader in New York is plagued by the school bully, so he retaliates via text that “You and your sisters and mom better watch your backs. My dad has a gun."

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How To Deal With A Facebook Cyberbully

It is simply not acceptible to have to put up with a Facebook cyberbully. When someone is behaving in this manner they are causing problems that no one should have to deal with when they are just trying to enjoy their social media experience. As such, it is important to know the proper steps to take to deal with a bully should the need ever arise. 

The first thing to do is to add all of the privacy settings that you can to try to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. It will also help to cease any harassment that you are currently experiencing. This wikihow article explains how to go about doing this: 

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With Cyberbullying and Bullying, What's a Parent To Do?

This article was originally posted on November 23, 2012 by Serena Gordon of HealthDay Reporter

When kids have academic problems, report cards make that clear to parents. And if a kid skins a knee or breaks a bone, parents know what to do.

But detecting that a child is being bullied, and then knowing how to react, may not be so clear-cut.

Kids often are reluctant to tell their parents they're being bullied or cyberbullied, making it difficult to know that they're having trouble with other kids at school or online.

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Cyberbullying: Is it Possible Your Kid is a Cyberbully?

We’ve all seen the headlines about victims of cyberbullying and the devastating results. Parents are now alert to recognizing signs that their kids might be cyberbullied, and there are a lot of resources kids on the receiving end of it. But not much attention has been paid to getting help for the child who starts the bullying.

Cyberbullies are Victims Too

The truth is that kids who bully other children need help. If you find out your child has been bullying others online, you have some options:

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Special Welcome to Jim Nico, Founder of TheSocialNetworkShow.com

I was recently invited to be a guest blogger at uknowkids.com and I am honored, inspired, and grateful. Once I recognized the genius behind uknow.com and uknowkids.com, I immediately saw the urgency, importance, and inspiration of this powerful company to help kids. Knowledge is potential power but action is power.

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October is National Cyberbullying Awareness Month

Did you know that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month? 2012 marks the ninth year that the National Cyber Security Alliance and the Department of Homeland Security have teamed up to educate the American public – and that includes your kids – about staying safe online. Here's what you can do.

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#uknowkids Cyberbullying Twitter Party

Tweet Tweet! It’s that time again…Twitter party time! We are happy to announce that our next party is this Thursday August 23 at 3PM EST.  The entire hour is going to be dedicated to cyberbullying due to the number of Olympic athletes that were bullied in London. Our hosts @timwoda and @stevewoda will be offering helpful tips to parents to ensure child safety this year and are available to answer questions.

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Olympic Athletes Get Involved with Anti-Cyberbullying Efforts

Celebrities often get involved in causes, and perhaps no cause is more worthy than ending cyberbullying.

Olypmic Taekwondo coach Jean Lopez and his Olympic medal-winning siblings recently paired up with the organization Youth Aid to raise money for anti-bullying education in an event called “A Night with Olympic Champions.”

Like other anti-bullying programs, Youth Aid believes that education can help empower bullied kids and teach bullies to avoid the behavior.

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Nation Wide "No Name-Calling Week": Anti-Cyberbullying

Every year, during the fourth week of January, hundreds of schools across the country participate in No Name-Calling Week to encourage the fight against bullying and cyberbullying. During this week, schools plan activities and events aimed at ending verbal bullying and name-calling.

At Mabel Wilson Elementary School of Cumberland, Maine the national No Name-Calling Week included several activities to highlight positive ways children can help stop bullying.

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MTV's A Thin Line Campaign to Stop Cyberbullying

AThinLine.org is MTV's attempt to raise awareness and educate teens on the facts about sexting, cyberbullying, and digital dating abuse. More specifically, it aims to give kids the knowledge of what to do when those issues arise in their real lives. The information given is concise, easy to understand, and not preachy.

Some of the topics covered at A Thin Line:

Sexting. Teens are told to look at the potential consequences of sexting, keep private pictures on their own phones, and not to let themselves be pressured into sexting. And if they receive a sext from somebody else, to hit 'delete' rather than 'forward.'

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Cyberbullying and Sexting: What's the School's Responsibility?

Legislators often demand that schools take more responsibility for students who engage in cyberbullying, sexting, or posting fight videos on the Internet – even when it doesn't happen in school or during school hours. One major question many parents are asking themselves is: can a school possibly police their students' online lives? And even if they can, should they?

Actually, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that schools can discipline their students for activities that occur on their own time away from campus, as long as the activities are “disruptive” or “dangerous” to the school or student body. So if a student's online conduct poses a threat to the school or other students (a subjective judgement), they can be punished.

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Big Shot Response to the Cyberbullying Threat

cyberbullyingAlexis Pilkington. Robyn Nixon. Phoebe Prince. These teenagers left their marks on the world by taking their own lives in the wake of relentless cyberbullying.

The response to cyberbullying has been slow and gradual, but many big entities are finally beginning to realize that cyberbullying is a serious problem that is not going to go away on its own.

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Cyberbullying: Do You Know What To Look For?

cyberbullyingCyberbullying is when a child is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated or embarrassed using technology like text messaging, email, instant messaging, blogs, websites and online games.  This isn’t the bullying we experienced as a child.  Unlike traditional bullying, there is no refuge for the victims because cyberbullying goes on 24-hours a day.  It invades a child’s home and is often unrelenting.  One third of American teens and one sixth of tweens have been cyberbullied – that’s 13 million kids! Examples of cyberbullying include:

    • Threatening, malicious or harassing language aimed at another person

    • Sending or forwarding (or posting online) pictures of another person via text message, email, instant messenger with the intent of humiliating or embarrassing them

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We are pleased to announce that Bark will be taking over where we leave off. The uKnowKids mission to protect digital kids will live on with Bark. Our team will be working closely with Bark’s team in the future, so that we can continue making the digital world a safer, better place for kids and their families. While we are disappointed we could not complete this mission independently, we are also pleased to hand the uKnowKids baton to Bark.
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