I am the Regional Office of Educations Internet Safety Coordinator and for the past two years, have spear-headed online safety education and awareness not only in my school, but entire region. I have developed and implemented personalized Internet Safety curriculums as well as presentations I give to parents and educators. I also write a regular column on said issues, am a mother of two teenagers, and work with over 500 children every single week in a computer lab environment.

Cyber bullying happens to be a “pet project” of mine, so I’m very interested in all the media of late. I have been working on an anti-cyber bullying policy for my school district–which I am patiently waiting on for approval(or not).

Cyber bullying, as I am sure you know, is rapidly increasing and the effects may be longer lasting than traditional bullying. This has happened to a friend of the family, actually. Alarmingly, most children do not tell a trusted adult if they have been a target, or know someone who has, and many parents are unaware of cyber bullying.

I conducted a cyber bullying poll on my blog, that had some surprising results! If you have a moment, please stop by and take a look!!

Thanks!

Now, maybe I did take a flying leap down that slippery slope. I’m not sure. You make a good point about the message of the video and the way I interpreted what you said. If we were sitting across a table from one another, any questions about “what do you mean” could be quickly answered. When I said I thought you were blaming the victim, a lively discussion would have ensued and in short order we would have really understood one another better. But a lively discussion did take place and that’s great. You put your ideas out there, and I put my ideas out there and I think we both understand one another better. Thank you for taking the time to clarify your position.

I look forward to the discussions about the topics you invited readers to ponder. Second Life is going to raise some interesting questions that will need to be answered.

What about children who lack the guidance, who choose to wear clothes that attract negative attention? If they were to be assaulted, we would all be up in arms about the attack. This is true in virtual space as well.

However, if a man/woman posts images of him/herself online, then worries later about how they will be used, that’s a different story. No laws were broken by either the poster or those who view the pictures. (certainly not in this video)

I’m still not getting the connection being made between being prepared to deal with the comments regarding one’s willfully posted online images–the “thicker-skinned” remark–and the concept of blaming the victim.

In fact, the poster in the “Think Before You Post” IS NOT a victim, but rather a content producer. Her picture was not inappropriate (view the video), but she should have thought twice about posting the picture in a public place if she was going to second-guess herself later when it attracted attention. I do not see this as bullying, or cyberbullying at all. The message of the video is, Think Twice Before you post content about yourself. And, that’s a valuable lesson in itself without clouding the issue with “cyberbullying.”

These points aside, you do raise some excellent points regarding relational aggression and cyberbullying and what schools should be doing.

For many, I wonder if they are even having the conversations about what should be posted, what shouldn’t be, and the implications.

Thanks again for the conversation,

Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://www.mguhlin.net