Cyberbullying Health
How to protect your child online
forwarded messages are also diffi cult to control and leave a digital footprint that can come back and haunt both perpetrators and victims in much later life. “When you consider the
prevalence of technology and how embedded it is in young people’s lives, then clearly this is a subject that we need to be dealing with,” says Will Gardner, CEO of Childnet, who points out: “Young people often don’t take cyberbullying seriously because it’s not physical,” but it can be just as, if not even more damaging, to those it aff ects.” So what can be done to prevent it? Childnet is a non-profi t organisation that works with others to promote and educate pupils, parents and schools on the positive use of technology. Its award- winning fi lm, Let’s Fight it Together, which appears on
digizen.org, a site built to encourage responsible digital usage, aims to sensitise people to the hurt that can be caused by cyberbullying, showing the ways in which
it can occur and what can be done to prevent and respond to it. In addition to its online support, evident on sites such as
digizen.org,
kidsmart.org.uk and
chatdanger.com, Childnet visits schools on a weekly basis to give seminars and lessons on digital responsibility. “We like to get children to do role plays, so they can experience things from the other side,” says Gardner. “You might send a message in one way, but it can be interpreted another way. We try to show them that there are implications in communicating using technology and that once you’ve shared something, you’ve lost control of it.” As a result, schools are becoming much
more active about educating pupils about cyber safety, says Gardner, who recommends teaching proper use of technology as soon as children start using it. At Downe House, Berkshire, Childnet gives two lectures a year on cyberbullying: one to parents and one to pupils. In addition, girls aged 11 to GSCE level have one hour a week, in their PSHE class, where they learn about cyberbullying and friendship issues. “T ey learn about texting, Facebook and emailing etiquette and also about password safety and so on in their IT class,” says Nicola Riddle, Head of PSHE at Downe
● Try to keep a watchful eye on your child’s social media and internet usage. ● Learn how to use the most popular social media networks, like Facebook and Bebo, and make sure your child adds you to their list of friends. This way you can monitor their usage from your own account. ● Make your child aware of the dangers of being online, ensuring that
they don’t give out personal details like their surname, school name, address and phone number to anyone they are chatting or engaging with. ● Encourage your child to share their experiences of surfi ng the web. ● Children should be urged to listen to their conscience and that if they don’t feel right about something to immediately tell a grown-up.
House. “It’s about making pupils aware of the repercussions.” Paul Spencer-Ellis, Headmaster at the
Royal Alexandra & Albert School in Reigate, Surrey takes incidents of cyberbullying very seriously, but says that schools need to be “proactive rather than reactive” by educating pupils about safe internet usage. “Any half-intelligent 14 year old knows how to get round the fi lters and blocking systems on most schools’ internet networks,” he says. “We use Sescurus a brilliant ‘passive watchdog’ which simply monitors all screens that a pupil accesses and then reports
unacceptable usage to my network manager. We also have an annual prize for the pupil who has done the most to promote internet safety among pupils.” Educating pupils is one
Being aware of the rules attached to social
networks such as Facebook, as well as utilising privacy settings can help parents to protect their child from cyberbullying. Meanwhile, conversations with parents should be positive, says Gardner – it’s not about scaring them. “Technology has a whole range of
I was able
to talk to my kids to say that if it ever happens, I will help them
step towards better internet practice, but it is also important to talk to parents, says David Smith, Head of ICT at St Paul’s School for boys in London. In a series of parental seminars that take place throughout the year at the school, Smith gives one on Technology and Children in which he encourages parents to create an open atmosphere of
confi dentially
benefi ts, but it’s important to be aware of the potential risks. It’s about opening the channels of communication so that children know that they can come and talk to parents without fear of their mobile or computer being taken away.” Communication is key, agrees Alison Myners, who has two children, a son, aged 15, at St Paul’s, and a daughter, aged 13, at Godolphin & Latymer, London. “You have to keep their trust so they can come to you with all problems. T at means no overreactions and accepting that sometimes you need to hear but not act.” She has found the
communication, while setting boundaries. It’s worth remembering, he says, that incidents of cyberbullying “depend on the context” and that “if a child is unhappy, it is unlikely that this is going to be due solely to digital communication.” Children have a huge “quantity of knowledge” that they’ve gained, “just by growing up with this stuff ,” says Smith. T ey still need help learning how to conduct themselves through technology, but often, he says, a parent’s “fearful reaction” to them being online is “borne out of misunderstanding.”
lectures a great help in understanding cyberbullying. “Because of the lectures at St Paul’s, I was able to talk to the kids to say that if it ever happens, I will help them confi dentially,” she says. “Schools and parents must learn from the Little Gossip experience,” commented Melanie Strickland in an article posted on T e Independent Schools Council website. “E-safety education should be embedded into the curriculum and children should be supported to become more resilient. Behaviour and acceptable-use policies should be reviewed.” T ese measures will not only “help schools and pupils to cope better when a successor site to Little Gossip emerges,” says Strickland, “but equip them to prevent and deal with all other incidents of digital irresponsibility.”
Summer 2011 FirstEleven 51
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