The dangers of Cyberbullying are presented very effectively in this video from Childnet International. While it seems their solution is to arrest the children involved, I do not think that to be an adequate response.

Making bullying or cyberbulling illegal is a flawed response. Bullying or cyberbullying by definition is subject to the interpretation of the target. It won’t be too long before we see an explosion of accusations of ‘bullying.’

Is writing a harsh review of a movie bullying? What if the same critic dislikes every movie a director puts out and writes about it on various social media sites. Is that cyberbullying?

While I understand the emotional appeal of the anti-bullying effort, what’s missing is personal responsibility. The video shows a kid who hides the bullying from everyone, and only because his mom discovered his video journal, does the issue get addressed.

Is that the message we want to send? That the target of bullying does not have to be responsible for their emotional fitness or taking action to remedy the situation. They should just let someone else find out about it and then arrest the perpetrators, even if they are children.

Bullying has a cast of characters involved in every incident. Here are some of my observations from this video that stand out.

Parental Supervision

Mom is portrayed asking her son about his welfare, but is not shown really getting involved or reviewing what he’s doing. Parents can and should be more involved with their children. They should ask specific open ended questions to inquire as to their child’s treatment by others at school and elsewhere. Parents are responsible for supervising their children and are one of the supporting cast members of bullying incidents.

Emotional Fitness

The boy in the video is represented as a hapless victim. Other like-minded children will watch and not learn from him. They will see that it’s okay to keep to yourself, that someone else will do it for you. In addition, approximately 90% of suicides, a consequence blamed on bullying, are conducted by individuals with other psychological problems. Bullying alone can not be solely responsible for someone taking their own life. The boy is not demonstrating an emotionally fit response to the bullying.

Life is Unfair

Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. This is one of the realities of the world we live in. Life is not fair nor can everything be equal. The perpetrators in this video (girls) acted inappropriately toward this boy. Is it a crime? If so, lock up most people since few have not acted abusively toward others.

I would have liked to see other kids step in, or teachers who witnessed one of these episodes, speak up and let all involved know it was unacceptable behavior.

“It ruins lives…”

This statement concerned me a lot. Bullying ruins lives? No, how someone interprets the actions of others can ruin that person’s life. Again, this statement is about transferring responsibility for one’s own welfare to someone else.

Should it be illegal?

What happened to the kids in this video, did they go to jail? That’s the message sent when we see the police office show up, and the target walking down the stairs happily afterward.

Is the message, send mean kids to jail? The problem is with the word ‘should.’ Things ‘should’ be different. People ‘shouldn’t’ act this way (or that way).

The challenge with this approach is that everyday we are all doing things we ‘shouldn’t’ be doing. People can be mean. Young boys and girls pick on other kids. Governments pick on citizens and corporations pick on other competitors.

The message I’d rather see taught to individuals is how to stand up to inappropriate or unwelcome behavior, and how to help others defend themselves. This approach is about empowerment and personal responsibility, not dis-empowerment and victimization.

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Childnet International – Cyber Bullying

This video illustrates the dangers of cyber bullying and offers solutions to the problem. Hi, this is Kent from Kls Support Services. In cooperation with Childnet International – Please watch this video and please comment. Cyber Bullying has got to s…

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Note: When you sign up for our newsletter on the right-hand side of this page, you’ll gain access to several Special Reports. One is entitled “7 Effective Ways to Deal with Bullies.”