Cyberbullying: What Can Be Done?

As I've recently discovered, the Amanda Todd story is not one for the faint-hearted. The video above displays her story that she told, just using small white sheets of paper. There is no sound on the video, which makes the emotional story even more powerful. It is absolutely mind blowing and disturbing to realize that these types of things happen every day to children and teens in schools. This is the type of video that makes the viewer want to stand up and do something to end all types of bullying ASAP. But...do what exactly?

Many schools have adapted a zero-tolerance policy for bullying, and I think that should be implemented in every school. There could be a position in each school that approaches these types of situations and knows the warning signs to look for. Obviously teachers and school officers can intervene when a student is getting beat up or there is a fight, but what happens when the student is alone at home every night with their computer? I don't see anyone there to stop what is happening.

With the new cyber-bullying trend on social media sites, it seems almost impossible to implement something that could stop these kinds of posts. There are ways to blocks friends and posts, but the user has to be the one to do the blocking. And if they don't know how or they don't think it'll help, then the harmful messages will keep coming.

Since I am in college, it's been a while since I've been going through the public school system. But I can almost promise that a majority of schools do not have a strong education in reference to cyber-bullying. We should be hosting seminars, classes, and have speakers come into schools to make sure that students know what to do if they are being bullied. They also need to know that there are resources to go to in order to get help, especially when they feel like they have nobody else. On the college level, programs like GreenDot have become enormously popular and beneficial, and they have started to change the statistics.

It's much easier said and done, but I bet that with an issue like this one, every little bit helps. It sounds like Amanda Todd suffered those months with nobody to share her pain and fear with, so she put it on YouTube for everyone to see. Perhaps if someone had been there to tell her what to do on social media, or if she had a person she could trust at school, something would have gone differently. We can only hope that with future cases, the victim will have the knowledge to seek help. To start, we can be on the lookout and be there for those people.

If you read this entire post, consider yourself a trouper. I don't think that this can begin to cover the issues of cyber-bullying, but I hope it was at least thought-provoking.