Cyberbullying

If you are being bullied or just need someone to talk to click on this link www.teenline.ie  or call 1800 833 634

Bernardos also have a great list of places to access help here: http://www.barnardos.ie/information-centre/young-people/teen-help/finding-help.html

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Words are powerful. We must never forget that.

That was about five or six years ago. I don’t remember a single question about the internet or social networks. A few of them were using bebo – back then facebook was still considered the old person version of social networking. Ask.fm didn’t exist. If we had exactly the same class today things would be very different. I teach a TY module on digital media and I know last year we looked at cases where young people lost control of their online identity, or were harassed and bullied by online trolls. But those cases were American – those of Phoebe Prince and Kiki Kannibal. We should have looked closer to home. We need to start connecting what happens to ‘other people’ with what we do, or don’t do, or don’t try to stop others doing online.

I know as a teacher I have a huge responsibility to educate my students about the world they live in; to do my utmost to teach them how to be safe online and how to be a good online citizen. I like to think I lead by example but for the past few days I’ve been asking myself ‘am I doing enough?’ The thing is, I really like my students, all of them. I find it hard to believe that any of them would engage in the kind of horrendously cruel behaviour which led to the tragic suicide of Erin Gallagher last Saturday night and Ciara Pugsley in September. Yet to deny that these things are happening would be the ultimate betrayal of my students, of my role as a teacher and of my heartbreak as a parent when I think of the families who have to live through the most awful experience life can inflict – the loss of a child.

So please, please, if you are being hurt online tell someone. If you are hurting others online, stop.

Words are powerful. We must never forget that.

http://www.spunout.ie/about/Blog/BLOG:-Time-to-stamp-out-cyberbullying

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/10000-pupils-go-to-school-in-fear-of-bullies-212849.html

http://donalomahony.edublogs.org/2012/10/29/teaching-them-to-walk-away/

http://www.thejournal.ie/erin-gallagher-online-bullying-654305-Oct2012/

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/1031/1224325940071.html

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/how-a-teen-and-his-mother-hit-back-at-the-online-bullies-3243751.html

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gardai-speak-to-erin-bully-suspects-as-texts-checked-3278601.html

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/far-from-being-typical-victims-these-were-smart-girls-with-bright-futures-3278627.html

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/website-linked-to-two-deaths-here-has-over-20-million-users-3278600.html

http://www.thejournal.ie/erin-gallagher-cyberbullying-support-653945-Oct2012/

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