When is it OK to stop having cyberbullying conversations with my teen?

When is it OK to stop having cyberbullying conversations with my teen?

March 30, 2012generationtextonlineLeave a comment


So you spoke with your teen last week about cyberbullying….Congratulations! I am excited that you are using these lessons. So that’s it, you are good to go. Check that off your list!

But wait… since that talk, has your teen been using FB? I already know the answer…Of course they have! So FYI… your teen is witnessing cyberbullying on a daily basis. Do you need to have the “cyberbullying” talk again?

A teacher at a high school was introducing me the other day, and I liked his analogy. He told his students they were going to take part in my workshop that day, even though many of the students had participated in my workshop the previous year.

You can just see the eyes rolling and the yawning, right?

He said, “the presentation about internet safety and cyberbullying is going to be different every year, because technology changes every year. The lessons and examples are different each time you see it…depending on how old you are. Different ages are exposed to different things.”

He asked the kids, “Do you go to math class every day and know everything there is to know about math? No, you go to math class everyday because in order to be good at math and get better, you need to study it on a daily basis.”

This teacher is right.

I mean, how many times do you ask your teen to clean their room before it actually gets done? :)

As your teen sits down to dinner tonight, hand them this Pop Quiz!

Today’s Pop Quiz!

You get in a fight with your friend at school. You feel she doesn’t understand your point of view. Should you:

a. Send her a text explaining your feelings

b. IM your other friend to tell her about the fight

c. Go to her Facebook page and tell her your side and why you feel the way you do

d. Call her and tell her how much you hate being in a fight. Set a time to get together and talk about it in person.

Discussion questions:

1. Have you seen someone do something like this?

2. Tell me about a situation in your life or your friend’s life that started with this reaction to a fight.

3. What were the results?

4. What are the possible things positive or negative things that could happen if you were to handle the situation by each of the choices?

5. Do you have other ideas of how to handle this situation?

6. Does it make sense to talk to an adult about how to handle this?

7. Do you think it might make sense to ext her and tell her how much you hate being in a fight. Set a time to get together and talk about it in person.

– Jill Brown