Sending cyberbullying to detention

Posted October 6th, 2008 at 12:02 pm by Catherine Davis Teitelbaum, Privacy & Policy

 5 Comments / Filed in: Yahoo! For Good

We’ve been educating children about online predators for years, but it turns out our kids are more endangered by classmates than by strangers these days.

Social networking, mobile phones and new communications tools are taking old-fashioned bullying to a new level. Gossip, embarrassing stories and photos spread quickly on the Internet and follow children at school and at home.

That’s why we hosted over 200 teachers, principals and administrators from across California on campus last Friday — to talk about the complex challenges for kids, parents and school leaders around cyber-citizenship. Co-hosted by the California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) Region V, the CyberCitizenship Summit connected educators and national child safety advocates around how to implement policies to prevent cyberbullying.

These educators arrived bright and early to hear from Chris Lehmann, an innovative principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. The high school encourages use of Web 2.0 tools and actually brings the mores of social networking into the curriculum. He cited how the students discussed caustic comment threads generated by adults and what they learned from them. Seems more productive than sweeping social networks under the rug.

School leaders also asked questions about the rights and responsibilities of the schools –- and what district policies can be put in place to help empower students to create a positive online community. And law enforcement representatives shared examples of model community partnerships in the schools.

Hosting this summit is just one of the ways we work to help foster a safer experience for children. To learn more about cyberbulling and tips for prevention, visit safely.yahoo.com.

Catherine Davis Teitelbaum
Director of Policy for Child Safety

Tagged: Yahoo! For Good

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5 Comments Add your own

Karin Marshall | October 6th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

How wonderful that Yahoo is actively dealing with these issues!

Erni Isnaniar | October 8th, 2008 at 2:03 am

I think Gossip Girl takes some part in forming this cyberbullying. It’s hard for students to walk proud and safely in school environment, especially when you can’t equal your economy level with your classmates. It is great knowing Yahoo! is involved with social issue like this. Keep on!

Matt Claypotch | October 13th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

Just a minor correction. I believe the word you were looking for was “Mores” and not “Morays”.

RS | October 22nd, 2008 at 3:02 pm

You should incorporate this mentality into Yahoo Profiles. Its present (ie new beta) form is terrible — “all or nothing”, and no aliases. Sad to see such nice ideals compromised with bad software.

Jacques Snyman | Website Design | April 13th, 2009 at 12:28 am

The increasing social aspect of the internet also brings social and moral issues with it. I’ve just been firsthand witness to how teenage girls can tear into each other on facebook, and believe you me things can get ugly pretty quickly! Cyberbullying definitely must be addressed, and I am thrilled to see attention being paid to this issue.