Anyone who teaches in a school knows that cyberbullying is the new rumor mill, especially in middle and high schools. Combined with pictures, it can crush those both in and out of the "popular" crowd. Just as with cheating, students refuse to tell those in authority or ask for help. This attitude needs to change. Such treatment on an ongoing basis can, and has, pushed the vulnerable over the edge to suicide.
Do preteens and teens know that such messages fall under "Internet Crimes Against Children"? Only if they hear it from school presentations or parents. Google and Facebook aren't going to tell them.
However, as an article in last week's P&C reported, all students know such agression goes on in our community, and most have been touched by it in one way or another.
The problem of "sexting" becomes even more serious. It is appalling to suggest, as one recent article in the P&C did, that "they're going to do it, so let's show them how to do it safely." What planet does the author live on? There is no "safely" with pictures that can live forever and attract the attention of adult predators.
Ask yourself why a preteen boy would text a girl to send nude pictures of herself and why she wouldn't tell her parents about the request. Every parent or guardian should be vigilant in monitoring media use by his or her child. It's not a joke any more.
And don't think it doesn't happen here every day.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
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1 comment:
Thank you for taking the time to address this. I bet the so called "experts" running these "seminars" don't even have children. As a parent of 4 teenagers who don't have free use of a cell-phone, I assure you their "privileges" would be taken away in a heartbeat if we ever discovered anything inappropriate being communicated with them.
Where has common sense gone?
Children are with us until the age of 18 (at least) because they need us to be PARENTS. Good grief.
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