Ever wonder what your child is doing while spending so much time online? Who are they talking to? What are the talking about? What happens when things turn mean? Who will protect them? How can you protect them? What if your child is the cyber bully? All the advice you need can be found right here!
Saturday, March 2, 2019
How do I help children understand the effects of their words?
This talk was given at a local TEDx event. Cyber bullying is a big problem! This young girl is passionate about stopping cyberbullying before it starts. Trisha Prabhu is a 14-year-old student at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois. From a young age, she has been fascinated with the inner workings of the brain. In 2013, Trisha heard about young girl’s suicide due to bullying on the Internet and set out to find a long-term solution to cyber-bullying. Watch this video and share it with your children. It is my hope that you will work collaboratively to come up with way you yourself and fight against cyberbullying in your schools and communities.
Want to hear more? Let's talk about it... comment below with your thoughts, questions and concerns.
Are you a teacher or school staff member who has to deal with cyberbullying and it's consequences? Check out the videos below and let me know what you think!
Many people worry about their child being bullied but many do not consider what they will do if their child becomes the bully. As with any unexpected behavior, the focus of parents and teachers is to change the behavior. Here are some things we can do in the classroom and at home to help change the behavior of a cyber bully.
Tend to your feelings separately. Realizing that you child is a bully will bring you lots of emotions. You may feel guilty, embarrassed, angry and even hurt. Your job will be to keep your personal feeling apart from the work with your child. Your work with them needs to focus on their actions, motivations and needs, not yours.
Identify who needs to be apart of this change process and who does not. Creating a team of people to help support the child through the process is important. This team can encompass parents, teachers, school counselors, religious leaders and whomever else you determine is most important to this process. The goal is to identify everyone that will be supporting the changes that your child needs to make in a collaborative and effective manner.
Sit down with your child. Of course a series of conversations must be held with your child. It is important for the conversation to be cal and focus on the actions of the child. Let your child know that you are aware of their actions and ask them to tell you the full extent of what they have done. Try to listen without jumping into solve it mode. Ask questions about how long it has been going on, who was involved, and what forms of technology were used. Ask them to show you any evidence of their bullying (text, emails, messages etc.)
Identify the motivation. Although there is no excuse for bullying, it is important to understand why your child chose to bully someone else. Is it retaliation, do they think it was funny, was there a stressor at home, or is there some other underlying issue that needs to be addressed?
Identify and relay the consequences. Remember that there is no action taken in life without a reaction (consequence). Although there may be consequences imposed by your child's school, you must also let your child know that you do not approve of their behavior. All consequences do not need to be predetermined, they can be modified as the story continues to be unveiled.
Reparations and restitution is necessary. Stopping your child from bullying others is a key step but the change process isn't over until they have changed their hear and made honest attempts at reparations. Your child must be required to remove all form of cyberbullying, to the best of their ability. When appropriate, they should also be required to post about the error of their ways along with an apology to the victim. Either way, be it in public or in private, your child must apologize to their victim. It is the hope that they will then be able to become more empathetic and internally change their thinking.
If appropriate, your child may benefit from listening to stories of families who have been effected by cyberbullying.
All parents want to protect their children. From the date of conception, the health and well being of your offspring is always your number one priority. Now that we have children who are so strongly connected to they cyber world, we must ourselves be just as in tune with what is happening in the cyber world.
Even our youngest students are becoming the victims of cyber bullying. With so many child friendly apps such as Musically, Instagram and Kik, and Snapchat, our children are constantly in contact with their peers. What troubles most parents is how to monitor their child's screen time, ensuring that they are not having negative interactions with others. According to a survey conducted by I-Safe America, over 40 percent of children in grade 4-8 reported that they have been the victim of cyber bullying.
So what can parents do to protect their child from cyber bullying in elementary schools?
1. Talk- Having an open and honest means of communication with your child is very important. When talking with your child about cyber bullying, let them know that you are there to hear them, without judgement. Reassure them that the communication between you are safe and supportive. Tell your child that you know about cyber bullying and you want them to feel safe enough to tell you if they are experiencing it in any form, and that your priority is to help them stop it!
2. Stay Involved - Pay attention to your child, where they go and what they do. You are involved with who their friends are, extend this same involvement to their cyber activities. Know all of your child's social media accounts and have full access to each of them. Remember that you always have access to parental-control software on their devices.
3. Set Limits - The more unsupervised and unrestricted time children have access to the internet, the greater the chances are that they can be bullied. Set some limits on the amount of time and what part of the day your child is allowed to access the internet. Be sure to also pay attention to where your child is when they are online. For younger children especially, make sure internet access happens out in the open and not behind closed doors.
4. Work Together With Schools - If you have a concern about cyber bullying, do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher or school administrator. Often cyber bullying can leak into the school building and turn into real-world bullying. Voice your concerns, ask for advice and follow up on the schools actions against cyber bullies.
5. Learn How to Respond - According to Common Sense Media, the most important thing to remember is to avoid responding. They say "engaging with a bully only fuels the fire. Plus, any response could be circulated immediately". Blocking the cyber bully should always be your first action. It is also important to save the bully's email, screen name or handle in order to share it with authorities.
Need more information on this topic? Check out this video!
Monday, February 25, 2019
Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Erica and I have been a public school teacher for 7 years. I have experience in grades K-2 and with one-to-one devices in the classroom. My school district has had one-to-one devices in the classroom for 4 years and we have been riding the wave to technology integration!
As you know one of the most difficult issues that have accompanied our tech savvy kids is their secret digital lives. Cyber-bulling has become a prevalent issue both outside and inside of the school building. Often cyber troubles brew at home or in the community and spill over into the schoolhouse.
According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, in 2017 an estimated 14.9% of high school students were electronically bullied in the 12 months prior. It is our goal as parents and educators to work together in order to educate and protect our students from this recent epidemic.
In my blog, we will discuss what to do, when to do it and how to handle cyber bullies and their victims! Let's work together to build a safer tomorrow for our kids!
