After watching Brene Brown's talk, my friend Patti Agatston, a counselor with a school district in the Atlanta area and co-author of Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age, added some helpful background: "I loved the talk as well. [Brown] alluded to my favorite quote from the psychologist Rudolph Dreikurs, "Have the courage to be imperfect." He studied under the psychologist Alfred Adler … [Read more...] about Addendum: Wisdom from a school counselor
cyberbullying
Attorneys sanctioned for cyberbullying
I hope no parent thinks cyberbullying is just "kid stuff." Before we can really expect our children to put a stop to it, we adults will have to stop modeling social aggression ourselves! Case in point (no pun intended): "Two Florida lawyers who called each other a 'retard' and 'scum sucking loser' in escalating email insults [over six months] have been sanctioned by the state supreme court," the … [Read more...] about Attorneys sanctioned for cyberbullying
A look at Facebook’s ‘hate & harassment’ triage
This will give parents an idea of what's involved in keeping things civil in a site with 500 million+ members: Facebook's “hate and harassment team," which is "part of a virtual police squad charged with taking down content that is illegal or violates [the site's] terms of service," handles about 2 million abuse reports a week, the New York Times reports. Facebook took writer Miguel Helft behind … [Read more...] about A look at Facebook’s ‘hate & harassment’ triage
Ally Pfeiffer’s ordeal … and ingenuity
Two things struck me about University of Hartford student Allison Pfeiffer's cyberbullying story: First, there was the smart parting advice she left with the Today Show's viewers last week after being interviewed about the cruel fake profile two fellow students created about her in Facebook: "Don't fight with the bully, fight for yourself." The second thing is how intelligently she went about … [Read more...] about Ally Pfeiffer’s ordeal … and ingenuity
For our kids’ sake, more than accountability online, pls
Maybe Plato was wrong. Or maybe he just frames the challenge we face in promoting digital citizenship and weakening the disinhibition factor online. A thoughtful opinion piece about online trolling, mean comments, flaming, etc. in the New York Times reports that, "even in the fourth century B.C., Plato touched upon the subject of anonymity and morality in his parable of the ring of Gyges. That … [Read more...] about For our kids’ sake, more than accountability online, pls