Keeping Up With Our Kids & Technology

I have acknowledged the challenges related to keeping up with the latest social media and communication tools that our children and young adolescents are using.  The Internet and social media sites are not going away. Children and adults use them every day and they can be useful tools. They can also be abused and waste a lot of time for people. I would like to share some advice from the Olweus Program as to how a student (any person) should react if he/she is the receiver of bullying like comments or cyber bullying. (Taken from Cyber Bullying: A Prevention Curriculum)

DO FIRST

DO FIRST is an acronym where the first letters represent a step one can take to address cyber bullying like behaviors and/or cyber bullying. Reviewing these steps with your child will be useful in providing them with tools to address negative comments on the internet.

Do not retaliate-When people find out that something mean or nasty or untrue is being said about them, they often want to get back at whomever did it. Not only will that make the things worse, but you will be giving the person who is cyber bullying what he or she wants-a reaction from you.

Off your friends list-If you have been bullied or attacked on any social network site like Facebook, Twitter, Ask.fm or others, take that person off you list so the person will not bother you any more. You also need to make sure that your pages are set to private so you can control who views your information.

Figure out who it is-If you receive unkind information through your phone, trace the number. Do not respond, but tell an adult and determine next steps when you are calm.

If you are receiving threatening email messages or texts or posts, tell an adult right away. Police should be contacted.

Ignore it-Sometimes just ignoring it makes people stop, because their actions are not having the effect they’re hoping for.

Respond after you think about it carefully- A response is different than a retaliation. You might be hurt or angry or upset, but you don’t want to give the people who are unkind to you the satisfaction of knowing it. So if you choose to respond, make it clear and simple.

Save the evidence! This is very important! Save anything that is harmful-even the messages you decide to ignore-in case you receive more of them later. IF the bullying like behavior continues, you will need to have evidence before steps can be taken to make it stop. You can save evidence by printing it, copying and saving it, or just not erasing.

Tell an adult! If you receive or are aware of disturbing, unkind or threatening messages, it is important to ell an adult immediately. This could be an adult at home or school. Here at school we will take all reports of cyber attacks very seriously.

Sincerely,

Monica