Parents can play a role in stopping online bullying

On Monday, Falcon Ridge Elementary School in New Prague kicked off its “Red Ribbon Week” with a program featuring Minnesota Vikings Mascot Viktor. The theme for this program was “Viktor’s Quest to Stop Bullying.”

The program talked to students about various forms of bullying and talked to the students about what they should do when confronted about bullying. One of the forms of bullying is online and social media bullying.

The internet and its social media applications have so many great and useful tools to help people in our modern world, but they also have proven to be a breeding ground for people to express themselves in ways that they would not normally do in person. The anonymity of the internet emboldens people to make them think that there will be no consequences to their behavior. They feel safe in harassing and slandering people. One only needs to spend a few minutes on social media applications such as Twitter or Facebook to see this kind of behavior in action. Some people think nothing of writing things on these sites that they would never say in person.

The consequences of this kind of behavior can be devastating, especially for young people. We live in a different world from the one we grew up in. Bullying has always been a problem, but the ways in which bullying takes place has changed greatly. Parents whose children use these applications need to talk to their children and monitor their internet use to help prevent this kind of behavior. They should talk with them about appropriate comments and the damage a rumor or an insult can do online.