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Cartoon Network does anti-bullying *intelligently*

June 4, 2010 By Anne 2 Comments

Cartoon Network, which is more the middle-schoolers’ network than any TV network, plans to involve that key demographic in the fight against bullying. In the fall, it teams up with CNN to launch “an ambitious campaign to enlist them as foot soldiers in the fight against bullying,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. What I think they mean by “ambitious” is really smart: in several ways:

  1. It’s aimed at bystanders, the kids who know the bullying or cyberbullying’s going on, usually don’t do anything about it, but can really help turn the situation around if they do. The Journal-Constitution says “about 85% of bullying incidents are witnessed by bystanders, yet only about one-fifth of the time do the witnesses intervene on behalf of the target.”
  2. It’s got some leading bullying experts on the advisory panel informing the campaign.
  3. This is not just a series of public-service ads. “The anti-bullying campaign includes content in the cartoons themselves, in public service ads, in an online curriculum and on CNN,” with programming aimed at parents.

The approach apparently makes sense to the very people it’s trying both to help and enlist: kids. Last summer Cartoon Network surveyed an audience about what worried them, according to the Journal-Constitution. “War and the economic woes of their parents topped the list, but the children said they were powerless to resolve those problems. Bullying, in contrast, surfaced as a problem children felt they could help combat.” [See also “Clicks, Cliques & cyberbullying: Whole school response is key.”]

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Filed Under: bullying, cyberbullying, Risk & Safety Tagged With: bullying, Cartoon Network, cyberbullying

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Comments

  1. Erin says

    June 5, 2010 at 9:20 am

    I’m skeptical. Cartoon Network has been part of the problem. Heavy-handed PSAs added to their usual fare of mockery and put-downs won’t do much good. I’ll be interested to see if this approach is carried through on all their programs, or if they undermine their own efforts.

    Reply
    • Anne says

      June 5, 2010 at 2:42 pm

      Except that it’s not just PSAs this time and there are some really good advisers behind it this time. Think it may be along the lines of MTV’s intelligent campaign about dating abuse and “sexting” last December>. Tx for commenting.

      Reply

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IMPORTANT RESOURCES

Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
CASEL.org & the 5 core social-emotional competencies of SEL
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

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