Cyberbullying

No two cases of bullying are alike and some students are more likely to be bullied than others. That’s what a new survey by the nonprofit organization YouthTruth found after posing questions to more than 180,000 students across 412 schools between 2012 and 2017. Of those surveyed, seventy three percent said that most harassment occurs in person, while 23 percent reported being bullied online. The biggest reason being reported for why the bullying occurred is “how kids looked” and the group that suffers the most, is students who don’t identify with a specific gender. In the world of schools and districts that struggle with policies on bullying, the results may help teachers be more proactive or construct more consistent approaches for preventing abuse.

Tbh, which is a teen speak acronym for “to be honest,” bills itself as the only anonymous app with positive vibes for teens. The app isn't a standard messaging app like Sarahah that has become almost synonymous with cyberbullying. Instead, users are presented with a series of pre-programmed prompts about their friends like, "Should DJ every party" or "Hotter than the sun", and four options for friends (that come out of their Contacts list) that best fit that description. The name of the app follows a similar trend among teens who use the phrase "tbh" on Instagram to say something nice about their friends. There is no typing by the user required or allowed which keeps the attributes offered up about friends positive.

So what do you as a parent need to know about the app? Try reading 5 Things to Know About 'tbh,' a New Anonymity App Popular Among Teens to get updated and stay tuned in. Someone always seems to be able to turn even the most positive apps into cyberbullying tools.

Positive school culture and strong relationships are important foundations for academic achievement, and are crucial in creating a bulwark against bullying to create safe spaces for students, writes Erin Hearn, Director of Social Emotional Learning for Uplift Education, a charter school network in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. One interesting tool the network uses is the Panorama Student Survey, which is completed biannually to gauge the quality of students’ relationships with their peers and teachers, among other social and emotional components. It also helps teachers and administrators pinpoint issues and concerns students are facing.

Additionally, the school network employs a Safe Space program, encouraging faculty whom are willing to intervene in a bullying situation to wear a pin that signifies their readiness to help (this is very interesting as this “readiness” is something not all teachers embrace, as other critics have recently noted). Staff training on diversity, equity and inclusion is also a component of their anti-bullying strategy. Moreover, the school is one of the pioneer districts using Rosalind Wiseman’s Owning Up curriculum. Owning Up teaches young people to understand their individual development in relation to group behavior, the influence of social media on their conflicts, and the dynamics that lead to bullying, discrimination, and bigotry.

Teachers and principals are increasingly advocating that schools unblock social media sites in the interest of teaching digital literacy. Derek McCoy, a North Carolina middle-school principal, says restrictions should be lifted despite risks because people learn from mistakes and "cannot be governed by fear." Many educators feel that learning how to behave online responsibly and safely, a concept known as digital citizenship, requires access to social media tools in schools.

If you are wondering how pervasive the blocking of social media is in schools, you should know that currently in New York City, if an educator wants to use YouTube or other blocked sites in the classroom, they have to fill out a form, get approval from the principal, and send the request to the city’s Department of Education. The process may seem arduous but actually is rather lax when compared to other districts, where the entire district must agree to block or unblock a website across all its schools.

Do you know how social sites are handled at your school? If sites are unblocked there is a danger of more cyberbullying and other bad actions by students. However, many educators would like to be more in control of when social media can used. As many teachers point out, students use these sites freely at home and in other settings, and the only way they are going to learn to use them responsibly is to use them.

Each generation of parents has worried about the new technologies that have impacted their children’s lives from radio up to today’s mobile devices. Today’s devices are inescapable, and coupled with the allure of social networking,  are having a profound impact on the way adolescents communicate with one another and spend their free time. While some experts say it is too soon to sound the alarm on smartphones, a recent article in Time magazine entitled,” We Need to Talk About Kids and Smartphones” points out that the latest statistics on the incidence of teen suicide and depression are rising sharply and may be connected to the proliferation of smartphones. These statistics alone make this an issue that parents should be talking to each other about and to their teens as well.

Whether you have had a child who has experienced bullying online or at school and have approached your school about it, or you just want to be prepared in case it happens, you may want to read “A hard truth about school bullying “.  The point of view of the author, Jim Dillon, who has been an educator for over 40 years, is that there are two very different perceptions of bullying in our schools: the version of bullying that many school staff members believe and the version that students experience daily. As evidence for these two contrasting views he offers the fact that in anonymous surveys of teens, approximately 20% of secondary school students report being bullied approximately two to three times per month. Over 75% of the schools in many states report zero incidents per year. 

What accounts for these two contrasting views? Dillion says that if school staff members are being candid, they do not thinking bullying is a serious problem in schools. As for students, most students don't bully others and aren't bullied, so all the anti-bullying rules and pledges they are required to follow reflect just another set of adult rules. In reality, the student version of bullying is intertwined and concealed in the social world of how people treat or mistreat each other. The result of these two versions (and the article spells out both versions more fully) is that many school environments inadvertently not only ignore the bullying that students experience, but also contribute to its existence and persistence. All students learn the wrong lesson when they see peers endure mistreatment and witness educators who appear unconcerned and/or unable to stop it.  This article is worth a read and may explain why your school treated a bullying issue, that you may have reported, the way they did.

No doubt as a parent you have heard of Instagram, and maybe even use it yourself. It seems harmless enough - snap a picture or video, add a caption and then share. But have you taken time to consider some of the issues that the app could cause? To consider both the positive and potentially negative sides of Instagram, USA TODAY has created a primer on using the app, why you should worry about your kids using it, and how you can protect them.

Common Sense Media has posted a list of new social media apps that you should know about that could be stirring up trouble at your child’s school. While many of them are similar in ways to apps you are probably already familiar with, such as Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp, some of them have new features such as live streaming and group video chatting.  While you cannot keep up with every single detail of how every new app works, it is good to familiarize yourself with the names and intents of these apps. Of course, the most important thing is just to keep talking to your kids about what they are seeing and doing online.