|
Dear Jennifer,
As parents, we strive to protect our children. We do our best to
understand the challenges they face throughout the stages of their
development and we want to be available to help them in any way we
can.
This issue of OH! News is designed to give you information on the
growing and hurtful trend called cyberbullying. Many of you may not
have heard of cyberbullying even though it has recently received a
lot of press (see Recent MindOH! News and Events in the right hand
column). Simply defined, it's online bullying and it's a growing and
hurtful trend among kids in our society.
For the past 4 years, MindOH! has sponsored an annual Character's
Cool Contest to take a pulse on issues facing today's youth. It
helps us assess students' needs and predict future trends in order
to develop tools that help kids, parents and schools. In this year's
survey, there were over 5,500 participants and the overarching theme
was bullying with a specific emphasis on cyberbullying.
What trends do we see? We see that the cyberbullying trend
will only grow bigger if we don't curb this issue now. Technology is
advancing - it's becoming more accessible. Because kids are the
early adopters, they're more comfortable with technology than
adults. And kids initially don't understand the implications of
using it in a negative way. The bad news is cyberbullying exists.
The good news is that over 72% of the students in this survey
recognize that victims of cyberbullying feel just as bad as victims
of other bullying.
These kids get it. Cyberbullying doesn't feel good. They feel
horrible when they are the victim. And they feel bad when they are
bystanders and they see the impact - they don't want this done to
them. Additionally, the bullies feel regret for their behavior. They
want solutions for dealing with this new form of bullying that
usually starts in the home but follows them to school.
What can you do to help your children or children in your
life? Please take this opportunity to read articles this month
from our guest authors and also take advantage of the 15 Free
Cyberbullying Prevention Tools found on our web site www.mindoh.com.
As always, we appreciate your support and your feedback. If you
see other ways in which we can help curb this cyberbullying trend,
please email me at beth.carls@min doh.com.
Sincerely,
Beth Carls, Co-founder/CEO
| Behind the Screen: Is There a Bully in the
House? |
 |
|
By Elizabeth Van Auken, MindOH! Grant Writer
For parents and teens alike, the digital world is a new
frontier. While the 21st century parent is usually busy trying
to master the latest digital breakthrough, the 21st century
teen is already testing its limits. Whether it's cruising the
Internet or navigating the terrain of the latest X-box
release, teens are typically comfortable pushing technical
boundaries.
Sometimes this limit testing involves harassment and
intimidation known as cyberbullying. The shield of secrecy the
computer provides can entice teens to behave in ways they
never would in public. Raising children in the technological
age requires parents and adults to pay even closer attention
to their activities, online and offline, particularly teens
that seem to be handling adolescence with relative ease. Our
own experiences growing up, modern science, and current events
point to the fact that youth need our love, support, guidance,
involvement, and limits more than ever.
|
| Teachable Moments: From the Mouths of
Babes |
|
By Leslie Matula, MindOH! Co-founder
We teach for character when we help children understand
what it means to be respectful, responsible, fair, and caring
human beings. And if we teach them properly, children will
learn to care about these character qualities enough to allow
these virtues to guide their decisions. Imagine that:
respectful, responsible, just, and caring children motivated
to make choices based on an internalized set of principles.
I like to tell the young people in my life that we are all
students and we are all teachers. My husband and I raised two
sons and helped raise a nephew. We burst with pride when
talking about these young men, but I won't bore you with those
details. What I will say is that these boys provided many a
teachable moment for me, moments I treasure, moments
that have inspired me greatly in my work as a character
educator.
|
| Character, Bullying and the Cyber-world |
|
|
By Guest Authors Dr. Marvin Berkowitz and Melinda Bier,
University of Missouri-St. Louis
When we were students, there was no Internet and no known
Cyber-world. But there was character and there was,
unfortunately, bullying. As William Golding made patently
clear in his classic novel Lord of the Flies, there is
a frightening potential in youth to savagely psychologically
abuse peers, what has become known as "bullying." It has taken
many forms over the millennia from teasing gone too far to
individual predation to group bullying. And there are precious
few of us who have not been both a victim and a perpetrator of
bullying at some point in our lives. The point is that it
seems difficult to eradicate, almost part of the human
condition, and that it is quite variable in its
manifestations. Almost sounds like a particularly resilient
and adaptive virus, doesn't it?
And like most viruses, the symptoms of being bullied can be
mild or serious, even lethal. In Japan, for instance, bullying
may take the form of group bullying to the point where the
victim is driven to suicide. Grieving parents have attributed
several recent teen suicides in the US to cyber-bullying by
multiple perpetrators. In fact suicide from bullying has
become so prevalent that a term has been coined for it ...
bullycide.
And like many viruses, bullying adapts to its environment.
So new we have a new mutation of bullying, what many are now
calling "Cyber-bullying." Children and adolescents bully each
other electronically.
|
|
|
Featured Family Activity: Instant
Cruelty |
|
|
|
Cyberbullying is harassing, humiliating, intimidating
and/or threatening others on the Internet or using other
technology such as cell phones or PDAs.
This month's featured family activity will allow you and
your children to define cyberbullying, explore their
knowledge, attitudes and experience with it and determine your
Personal Internet Standards.
Download
the Featured Family Activity Access more free cyberbullying
prevention tools |
Get Involved!
|
