words hurt | Tournesol dans un Jardin

National Bullying Week passed 3 weeks ago but the issues are still alive unfortunately. Every day is a time to create more awareness of what goes on month after month, year after year especially with children, youths and young adults in school, high school, college and university. We know it goes on at work as well. If it is not addressed in schools, why wouldn’t it continue at work? Right?

Sexting, cyberbullying, bullying and making a youth`s life a living hell is NOT what being a youth is all about. Students, parents, school staff, bus drivers, cafeteria employees, janitors, daycare workers, school principal, school counsellors, school nurses…we are ALL in this together. It is systemic and each person is part of that fabulous puzzle.

I know I wrote about this on my blog Stop the Stigma, but it merits to be repeated; sorry to those who read, heard it and are doing something about this…just click on to another fabulous post on WordPress {smiles}.

– Please, do not forward any email or social network posts, that can hurt another person, even if you think it’s funny at the time. Just ask yourself, “How would I feel if this was shared?” BEFORE clicking share.

– Always pause and think before you post and click “enter”.

– Adjust your settings so you have to actually point your mouse on “reply” rather than just “enter”. That can save YOU and another person lots of grief. This is good advice to adults too by the way. How many times have you accidentally hit the enter button by accident? I have clicked it by mistake and half my message went through before I was actually finished. So lesson learned, right?

– Always report cyberbullying to network administrators.

– If you see any sexting (photos of a sexual nature etc.) forward to http://www.cybertips.ca to prevent the spread of child pornography. Did you know that even if the person is a teenager, spreading any photos of a sexual nature is STILL considered Child Pornography. Do you want your teen to be involved with this? I didn’t think so {smiles}

– If you are a Bystander / Witness to cyber-bullying, take a stand.

– If you click “like” or “share” you are actually part of the problem and only perpetuating the bullying. So think TWICE before clicking.

– Even adults can report. I reported a few times to Facebook for “hate comments” , “racist” and pages that use the “R” word on public pages as a joke. If you see something that is offensive, try not just ignore it…report it.

– Parents, kindly sit down with your children/teens and show them how to remain safe from predators but also how to be respectful and learn on-line courtesy. Granted your teens will probably NOT want to have this little causerie (discourse). Check the links below and have them check it out. Better still ask them to come up with at least 2 or 3 sites that offer advice on internet safety. What Teens Need to Know by PrevNet (the Guru of bullying training, they trained counsellors at Kids Help Phone, work with the Red Cross and Scouts Canada)…have a great page on this.

Here is my humble attempt of saying this in rhymes.

Don’t click share
If you care,
Think before you click
on ANY of those pics
Clicking LIKE is very serious
Clicking SHARE spreads like a virus.
Sometimes silence,
translates compliance
If it’s cruel don’t add to the pain
by clicking SHARE again and again.