You Just Discovered Your Kid's The Cyberbully … Now What?
by Paul Crowson
Photo Courtesy Cyberlawlaya.blogspot.com
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing”! Janice was saying to us…”he had recorded it, it was less than a minute but it was on Youtube! It was over a month ago, I was getting bits and pieces of the story from school, and only by emails, they didn’t have the decency to call me either!"
Jan said it seemed harmless, until she finally saw it on YouTube. Dennis, her son, 13, baseball all star, A plus student, was caught up in the frenzy. She thought it was an email circulating about making fun of a girl at school, who was in a wheelchair.
Getting to the bottom of it, she discovered Dennis and several of his friends had been publishing YouTube videos of all kinds for months! Most all of them were baseball, out at the lake, just typical boy stuff.
But the school, and some other parents, are not letting it go, for now.
We aren’t going into details here out of respect and I don’t have more permission than that from Janice.
Janice thought she was taking all the precautions she should, and Dennis was doing great in school and everything else. She was his friend on Facebook, but didn’t say much or go to his wall, she was just there occasionally.
It was posted as a link on his facebook, but she never saw it there…
Jan is my neighbor, we are good friends, this was a year ago, it is still lingering. It comes up in our conversations now, or we are thinking about it anyway.
Dealing with this issue after the fact was crazy she said!
So what, if anything, could have prevented this, and how do you deal with it when it happens?
As far as Youtube is concerned, did you know that at the bottom of EVERY video is a little flag that you can check if you feel it is inappropriate. Youtube staff monitors that comment and notification system with real live staff members 24 hours a day seven days a week. All flagged videos are addressed. You can check it out further right here.. just look for the flag under the Youtube video (click on the right hand side of the video where it says You Tube and you will be taken directly to YouTube.com)
That PSA announcement was so corny that 11,000 plus views were made of it, but it draws a lot of comments, especially from kids.
Also, if you come across an inappropriate Youtube video that needs immediate attention, all local law enforcement official have direct communication with youtube officials. Ask for the cybercrimes division when calling. Don’t just turn it over to them however, you will need to followup in that regard. So much of what we do now days is online, that we must have consciousness of our interactions. Think before you hit submit!
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