👭 National Bullying Prevention Month

💻Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated or has the potential to be repeated over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.

In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:

• An imbalance of power: kids who bully use their power, physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity, to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
• Repetition: bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.

Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

💻RISK FACTORS FOR BULLYING

No single factor puts a child at risk of being bullied or bullying others. Bullying can happen anywhere—cities, suburbs, or rural towns. Depending on the environment, some groups, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered (LGBT) youth,  youth with disabilities, and socially isolated youth, may be at an increased risk of being bullied.

Generally, children who are bullied have one or more of the following risk factors:

• Are perceived as different from their peers, such as being overweight or underweight, wearing glasses or different clothing, being new to a school, or being unable to afford what kids consider “cool”
• Are perceived as weak or unable to defend themselves
• Are depressed, anxious, or have low self esteem
• Are less popular than others and have few friends
• Do not get along well with others, seen as annoying or provoking, or antagonize others for attention

However, even if a child has these risk factors, it doesn’t mean that they will be bullied.

💻This holiday season, many kids and teens will receive their first digital device. This will no doubt be a joyful moment for our little loved ones, but as the saying goes, “with great power, comes great responsibility.” While these platforms can foster learning, encourage play and bring us closer together, they also present the potential for trouble when children are able to connect with the unfiltered, wide world of the web. Parents need to pay attention to and communicate with children about all applications they are using on cell phones, tablets, computers and any other device with internet access.

This time of year is a good one to sit down and talk with your child about cyberbullying.

Approximately 7 percent of students in 6-12^th grade experienced cyberbullying last year, according to the latest statistics available at stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying. For high school students, 15 percent reported electronic bullying in the past year. Research on cyberbullying is growing. However, because kids’ technology use changes rapidly, it is difficult to design surveys that accurately capture trends.

💻How can I monitor my child’s technology?

Some things to do to help monitor your child’s online usage:

• Know what social media sites your child is on
  • Snapchat – a mobile app that allows users to send photo/videos, both of which will self-destruct after a few seconds of a person viewing them
  • Facebook – a social networking site that allows users to connect and share photos, videos, articles, links, etc. with friends and family
  • Instagram – an online mobile photo/video-sharing social networking service that allows users to share either publicly or privately, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr
  • Twitter – a site for friends and family to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages up to 140 characters of text
  • Tumblr/Flickr – popular photo/video/quote/link/etc. sharing service that where people share and explore each other’s posts
  • Musical.ly – a platform for creating and sharing short videos
  • Whisper – an app which says that it allows users to send messages anonymously, and to receive replies
  • Ask.fm – an anonymous question and answer platform website that allows anyone to post comments and questions to a person’s profile
  • Kik Messenger – an instant messenger software application
  • Voxer – combines the best of voice and text messages with walkie-talkies for a powerful, modern personal and group messaging tool
  • WhatsApp – a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS
  • Audio Manager/Calculator% - Apps that have nothing to do with controlling your child’s phone audio or calculator. These apps look like a normal audio controller or calculator, but when you push a button within the app they can hide whatever they are looking at on their phone.
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• 💻Have the passwords to each site and frequently check to see if cyberbullying is occurring

• Take the time to look at and ask specific questions about online usage
• Set clear ground rules (when and how much screen time is allowed; where children can use their decide; who they have to tell if they want to download a new app or create an online account; etc.) and be aware of your child’s interactions online
• Add your child to your iCloud account so whenever a new app is downloaded, it will automatically be downloaded to your phone as well

💻What should I do if I think my child is being bullied online?

• Find out where the cyberbullying is happening – at home, school, or both
• Block/unfriend the cyberbully
• Discuss and communicate the harms of cyberbullying

The main thing to consider is to keep the lines of communication open with your child. Simply talking to them usually will produce good information for you to work from.

For more information and online resources, visit www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying.

Standing Up Against Hate, Racism And Discrimination.
Changing The Culture With Inclusion, Equality, Civility And Unity Becomes Our Destiny.

👭STOMP Out Bullying is the leading national nonprofit dedicated to changing the culture for all students. It works to reduce and prevent bullying, cyberbullying, sexting and other digital abuse, educates against homophobia, LGBTQ discrimination, racism and hatred, and deters violence in schools, online and in communities across the country. In this diverse world, STOMP Out Bullying promotes civility, inclusion and equality. It teaches effective solutions on how to respond to all forms of bullying, as well as educating kids and teens in school and online. It provides help for those in need and at risk of suicide, and raises awareness through peer mentoring programs in schools, public service announcements by noted celebrities, and social media campaigns. 

STOMP Out Bullying™ is recognized as
the most influential anti-bullying and cyberbullying organization in America and beyond.

For More Information On Preventing Bullying, Follow Link:

https://www.stompoutbullying.org/?gclid=CjwKCAjw3qDeBRBkEiwAsqeO7gmFGZzcS7cXXCc5nPfx5tDCdwZ1czE9-EkwGbNnN32jVGoy4j98ixoCHooQAvD_BwE

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