Cyber bullying was in the news over the weekend, with every teenager talking about a teenager who was secretly videotaped in Temple Bar late at night

Cyberbullying incident:

This weekend your teenagers have all been talking about the KPMG girl video. A 16 year old girl who was drunk was secretly videotaped on a smartphone as she boasted about her dad’s high salary and she insulted low earners as ‘losers’. The video went viral as it was forwarded on Facebook and Twitter throughout Ireland and abroad.

Our teenagers are vulnerable and cyberbullying is something we need to talk with them about. Here are a few suggestions – however I’d like if parents share their experience so we can all learn from each other.

What is Cyber Bullying:

  • Cyberbullying is bullying using a phone/Internet where you take make fun, humiliate or embarrass another person.
  • 24/7 – no escape
  • Impact –  huge audience/speed of contact
  • People are more cruel online – as you cannot see the impact of your words
  • Bystander effect – unintentional complicity
  • Home is no longer a safe haven

Bullying and Cyber Bullying Prevention:

Advice teens of Netiquette – how to behave online

  • Respect – Treat self/others with respect
  • Netiquette  – respect privacy & request consent
  • Don’t post photos/videos/comments that humiliate others
  • Think b4 you post of the impact of your words
  • Don’t leave yourself vulnerable to being bullied in your behaviour/words
  • Recognise when someone’s being bullied & reject it

Your teen’s digital fingerprint

  • What they post online, is there forever, you cannot get it back.
  • Could it be passed to thousands of people (like the KPMG one)?
  • Ask: ‘Am you hurting someone’?
  • Fun today – but will you be embarrassed in the future?
  • It may be seen by people you had never imagined
  • What does it say about you?

Cyber bulling – What to do

The teenager this weekend deleted her Facebook account, got the YouTube video taken down and went offline.

  • STOP – Go offline
  • Block The Sender
  • Report
  • Talk.

Cyber bulling in Schools – response of victim

  • Be unwilling to go to School
  • Experience face to face bullying
  • Use alcohol/drugs to block/numb
  • Self-Harm/Depressed
  • Poor Grades

Empathy

Have you ever made a mistake? I certainly have, therefore I have compassion for this girl due in School this morning. How difficult it will be to go into School and face hundreds of people who have been talking about her. I only hope she encounters some kindness. We have all made mistakes, I guess we are glad they were not recorded and sent around the country.

We need to take Cyberbullying seriously and Recognise it, Reject it and Report it.