Bullies go digital

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In class last week Glynis introduced us to icybersafe.com a website powered by Ivanhoe Grammar School. It deals with the cyber bullying trends of social media, managing online behaviour and gives a comprehensive guide to managing online time, activity and advice on how to stop cyber bullies. It endeavors to equip students with the capacity to survive and thrive in cyberspace which will be increasingly an important part of their lives, now and in the future.

Cyber bullying is defined as the use of social media, e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, mobile phones, or other forms of information technology to deliberately harass, threaten, or intimidate someone. The problem is compounded by the fact that a bully can hide behind an electronic veil, disguising his or her true identity. In this digital age it has surpassed traditional methods of schoolyard bullying and is deemed more detrimental to the victim due to its immediate and anonymous manner.

Phrases such as ‘digital reputation’ and ‘digital footprint’ refer to the online activity traceable through the collection of footprints left in the ‘digital environment’, in other words - an accumulation of personal information, content shared or other data which can be accessed by other internet users.

It is here that the responsibility falls to parents and educators to ensure that

children conduct themselves in accordance with the rights, duties, and privileges of being an offline inhabitant not just of a geographical location but of an online citizen of the globe.

I strongly suggest you sign up for regular updates from this website on the trends of such bullying.
Oh and btw, check your privacy settings on all of your social media accounts! And just for fun perform a Google search on your name and see what images you find.... Lucky for me my name is as common as bad hair cuts in the 80s!!