End Cyber-Bullying!!!

Recently, Phoebe Prince, age 15, took her own life in South Hadley, Mass. Phoebe had moved from Ireland to the U.S. last fall—and was allegedly bullied by other teens at her school via text messages, Facebook and other social-networking sites. Her suicide highlights the tragic number of adolescents who have been cyber-bullied and see no recourse other than death.

What can we do to stop this? Parents? Teens? This growing epidemic needs to be halted before more terrible situations like Phoebe's repeat.

The following can be useful for parents or teens....

* It is vital for parents to discuss appropriate and inappropriate online behavior. Parents should warn children that bullying and harassing behaviors, including sending or posting information that is hurtful and defamatory, is unacceptable. And children need to know that because they are minors their parents could be held liable for their actions. Parents should caution their children that despite the illusion of intimacy that comes with one-to-one interactions via technology, words and images shared can be recorded, are usually permanent, and can be disseminated widely.

* How can a parent do a better job monitoring the situation? You can watch for signs that your child is under more than usual stress. Look for changes in the way your child approaches or avoids technology. Keep abreast of technology trends by staying current on the social uses of technology by teens. Additionally, you may want to have a written agreement with your child that makes explicit acceptable and unacceptable uses of technology — and follow through on consequences for noncompliance with such written agreements.

* Discuss your child’s experiences with technology in an open manner.

* Talk about dangers associated with technology and use incidents reported in the media as teachable moments.

* Avoid knee-jerk reactions when parental help is sought, including blaming your child or preventing access to technology.

* When young people are cyber-bullied, they often do not seek help from their parents. Instead, their top three strategies are to seek help from a friend, keep it to themselves or try to ignore it. If friends encourage retaliation, this could actually worsen the situation.

* Parents must actively put themselves in the mix, and should not wait for their children to come to them. After all, trying to deal with issues such as cyber-bullying alone can be a very heavy burden for a young person to bear.

Teens.....remember the lesson we learned in Kindergarden....
***TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WISH TO BE TREATED***

DO NOT tolerate bullying....tell someone, ask for help and stay strong!