The London Children’s Museum has partnered with Safe Futures Canada and  local agencies to bring you a one day conference  to address various youth issues such as bullying, internet safety, e- bullying and healthy kids.

BARBARA COLOROSO as our guest
on Raising the Ethical Child

Bullying, prior to the use of technology, pitted the bully and target face to face, requiring the bully to choose an opportune time and place and forcing the bully to recruit supporters and an audience over a period of several hours and possibly even days.  With the use of technology, bullying happens instantaneously and the degree of hurtfulness is unlimited.
The bully now has the luxury of carefully choosing words and actions that deliver messages filled with as much hurt, betrayal and embarrassment as the bully’s imagination allows. Words are often accompanied by photos, either real or manufactured, only increasing the level of embarrassment and hurt. An act of “BULLYism” that may have taken an undetermined period of time to complete in the past now has the potential to reach an audience of infinite proportion in mere seconds.
The use of technology can also be a benefit to the target as well. With a face to face encounter the targeted individual often has to use a variety of methods to escape from the situation. We remind people all of the time that to end an encounter with a cyber bully the target can quickly hit the “BIG RED X” on the top right corner of the screen.
From a law enforcement investigative point of view, cyber bullying almost always leaves a footprint in the form of an electronic paper trail that leads right back to the person or persons responsible for the attack. This eliminates the challenge of a “he said / she said” situation often associated to bullying incidents that don’t involve the use of technology. Education about respect and the proper use of technology for users of all ages is still the best way to prevent becoming involved in cyber-bullying incidents. 

Come up with a family plan about how you will respond to cyber bullying.
As a family, come up with a plan that everyone can promise to stick to:
•Start with a conversation about cyberbullying — what it is and why people do it.
Encourage your children to report bullying to you. Don’t dismiss their problems and let them know that you will take action with them. They also need to know that if their strategies are no longer working, you will advocate on their behalf.
•Talk about how you as a parent will respond. Reassure kids that you won’t “freak out” (as hard as that may be) providing they are following the rules. Telling them to “turn off their phone”, or “stay off the Internet” doesn’t help. These connections are their lifelines to friends.
•Talk about, under any circumstance, bullying someone else or retaliation is not acceptable. Make it clear what the consequences will be
•Understand both your child’s school policy and its actual responses toward bullying
Some quick tips for kids
•Do not open e-mail or messages from someone that has been harassing you
•Delete comments on photo’s, walls and profiles…do your best to ignore them
•If you do read messages or wall posts, copy them, take screenshots or print them out
•Walk away from your computer and tell someone
•Block the person from MSN, Facebook or other social media
•Try not to engage in discussions at school the next day about comments that were posted
•Make sure to report any form of bullying. Take it seriously if you want it to stop