Awareness, Education and Prevention - Is this not enough?

Multiple articles out today reported on StlToday.com, bnd.com and Wired.com another Missouri incident of cyberbullying by a ninth-grade girl is now in the limelight.  The offender is in deep trouble with her school and the law for bullying another Missouri youth by using the Internet.

The ninth grader created a website containing inappropriate content and hate speech. The victim in the case reported the website to school authorities and they in turn notified law enforcement. For a school to call law enforcement the website had to contain some serious offensive content. The ninth grader faces serious consequences from the school which could be potential expulsion and possible harassment charges in Juvenile Court.

Is the message getting through to parents? These types of instances can be prevented with the right resources and tools in place and creating a dialogue with our children.

Are we doing the things we need to do to protect our youth? We've read the research, seen the statistics that cyberbullying among youth is out of control and overwhelmingly damaging to some youth. I just wonder if the message isn't getting out there to parents or are they ignoring it?

It is very easy these days for anyone to create a simple website and it's free. There are open source platforms that make web creation as easy as typing three paragraphs on a page. I encourage parents and educators to educate themselves, create an open dialogue with students and children, recognize the warning signs. If the above-mentioned youth had such hatred for another classmate in her school, there had to be signs of the conflict at home. Girls are not necessarily the silent types.

If the simple act of paying attention is too much, then put safeguards in place.  Parental control software and educational resources are widely available and reasonably priced and one company provides it to parents for free!

It can really be that simple. Paying attention is key to prevention. Schools have had bully prevention policies and classes in place for quite some time, but we can't leave it all up to the schools.

Parents have the ultimate responsibility for the actions of their children, especially when there is deliberate intent to harm another.