A really interesting podcast from Flipswitch lets Kira, an Australian high schooler with bipolar condition talk about what she suffered at the hands of cyberbullies and how she actually fought back.
At the 5:20 mark she recounts a situation where she was attacked on a Haters' Club made on a Facebook group, (which she was able to get taken down) and a Rating Site on Formspring, a social media site that allows anonymous opinions to be posted. She left Formspring's community at that point. At the 6:25 mark Kira tells teens these are several ways to fight back against cyberbullies. Her advice:
1. Print out copies of every cyberbullying comment or incident before it gets deleted. This is saved evidence for the police if need be.
2. Make your Facebook privacy settings only viewable to see your name, your country and your profile picture. Don't give cyberbullies access to information that can use against you.
3. Avoid social networking sites that don't protect your privacy --or--to echo another comment she made, avoid sites that only allow anonymous posters (like Formspring).
4. Be friends with your delete button. In other words, she says, delete any person from your social networking site who ever belittles you, insults you or is mean in any way, even if you consider them friends. Real friends don't behave this way online.
Interestingly, her comment on what schools are doing about bullying/cyberbullying echos a lot of what I've heard from American kids. That schools don't take it seriously; that consequences are rarely strong enough to deter a bully and that this does nothing to encourage bystanders to stand up for a target or report it.
Finally, her last comment about teaching kids resilience is more important than teaching prevention has a bit of a sad ring to it. In the real world, prevention won't stop them all. In the end, you have to be your own best friend and stick up for yourself. Never believe what they say about you is true.
Get all of the tactics in one book and prepare your child to recognize and defuse certain types of cyberbullying. Sale: $12.50 Buy The Book
At the 5:20 mark she recounts a situation where she was attacked on a Haters' Club made on a Facebook group, (which she was able to get taken down) and a Rating Site on Formspring, a social media site that allows anonymous opinions to be posted. She left Formspring's community at that point. At the 6:25 mark Kira tells teens these are several ways to fight back against cyberbullies. Her advice:
1. Print out copies of every cyberbullying comment or incident before it gets deleted. This is saved evidence for the police if need be.
2. Make your Facebook privacy settings only viewable to see your name, your country and your profile picture. Don't give cyberbullies access to information that can use against you.
3. Avoid social networking sites that don't protect your privacy --or--to echo another comment she made, avoid sites that only allow anonymous posters (like Formspring).
4. Be friends with your delete button. In other words, she says, delete any person from your social networking site who ever belittles you, insults you or is mean in any way, even if you consider them friends. Real friends don't behave this way online.
Interestingly, her comment on what schools are doing about bullying/cyberbullying echos a lot of what I've heard from American kids. That schools don't take it seriously; that consequences are rarely strong enough to deter a bully and that this does nothing to encourage bystanders to stand up for a target or report it.
Finally, her last comment about teaching kids resilience is more important than teaching prevention has a bit of a sad ring to it. In the real world, prevention won't stop them all. In the end, you have to be your own best friend and stick up for yourself. Never believe what they say about you is true.
Get all of the tactics in one book and prepare your child to recognize and defuse certain types of cyberbullying. Sale: $12.50 Buy The Book
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