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On March 3rd, I will be presenting at the National Conference on Youth Cybersafety in Dallas.  I’ll be speaking about Cyberbullying Prevention and Response, and there are a number of really bright and seasoned experts covering a variety of other topics at this event.  Adolescent brain development, legal issues, sexting prevention, social media use among youth-serving professionals, online reputations, school-based walled-garden social networking approaches, and student-led initiatives will all be addressed and discussed in detail.  If you are in the area, I encourage you to come out and meet me there!  You can learn more about the conference here www.youthcybersafety.com.

On Friday, 25th of November, I will be participating in a discussion at Birkbeck’s School of Business, Economics and Informatics at the University of London. (for more information about the event, click here.)  There I will talk about what I have learned about how teens are using technology to cause harm to their peers, along with prevention and response strategies for adults who work with them. Other participants include Iain Coyne (Nottingham University), Andy Phippen (University of Plymouth), Jette Kofoed and Jessica Ringrose (University of London), and Peter Smith (University of London). The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Andreas Liefooghe who heads the Department of Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck. I am looking forward to this interdisciplinary and international panel. We can learn a lot from one another and cyberbullying is a problem that crosses borders.  Stay tuned to this blog for a follow-up post with information gleaned from the conference.

As regular readers of this blog will know, Sameer and I have had a long partnership with Jostens. When I was in high school in the mid-1990s, our class rings and yearbooks came from Jostens, so I knew of the brand. About four years ago, Charley Nelson, who is the director of educator services for Jostens, contacted me to talk about our cyberbullying work. Little did I know that in addition to their yearbooks and rings (they designed the 2011 Super Bowl ring!), they also coordinate a number of professional development activities for educators, mostly centered on cultivating a positive school climate. Their Renaissance Program emphasizes academic achievement, encourages student and staff recognition, and promotes school pride. We’ve worked with them over the last year to develop materials for “Pause Before You Post” – a campaign to educate teens about responsible personal publishing (online and off). See our “Student Guide to Personal Publishing” here.

The flagship event for Jostens Renaissance each year is their national conference, which draws over 1000 educators and student leaders from around the United States. I have been fortunate to have been a presenter at this conference for the past three years and I will tell you that it is flat out the best educator conference that I have been a part of. The positive energy is palpable and I leave the conference inspired and reinvigorated. There is a lot of learning and networking, infused with A TON of fun. This year, the conference is in Anaheim (July 15-17) and both Sameer and I will be there, presenting on issues related to cyberbullying, sexting, and responsible social networking. Headline speakers include Bill Walton (basketball Hall of Famer) and Liz Murray (Homeless to Harvard). If you have never been to this conference, you need to attend – and there is still time to sign up. I personally guarantee that you will not be disappointed. If you have attended in the past, leave a comment with your experience. If you will be there this year, stop by and say hello. If you are a Facebook follower, find me and mention this blog and I’ll give you a gift (while supplies last!). Hope to see you in Anaheim!

On Thursday March 10, 2011, the White House convened a conference to address the issue of bullying. First Lady Michelle and President Obama welcomed parents, students, researchers, industry leaders and others to discuss the negative effects of bullying and highlight some of the best-practices and promising approaches in prevention and response. I was honored to be invited to be a part of an expert panel to share with attendees what we have learned through our efforts at the Cyberbullying Research Center. You can see video of the proceedings and my contributions here.

Other researchers on the panel were Sue Swearer (University of Nebraska at Lincoln), Catherine Bradshaw (Johns Hopkins), and George Sugai (University of Connecticut). We spoke about noteworthy efforts to address bullying in general, and I focused on the unique characteristics and strategies associated with cyberbullying. Additionally, Sameer and I – along with these and other researchers – wrote topic-specific white papers for the conference. All of these documents can be found here.

Overall, it was a great experience. I enjoyed being at the White House and seeing many friends and colleagues from around the country who are as passionate as I am about addressing the problem of bullying and peer harassment. A lot of great ideas were shared, and I am hopeful that attendees will continue to work together to develop and implement comprehensive anti-bullying initiatives.

I was also reassured by the number of laypersons in attendance who identified needing additional research as essential. Especially needed are more systematic evaluations of bullying policies, programs, and curricula. If nothing else, I am hopeful that this event raised national and even international awareness about a problem that some still dismiss as lacking import. Try telling that to Tina Meier, Sirdeaner Walker, Kevin Epling, or Kirk and Laura Smalley, all of whom were at the White House because they had lost a child to suicide linked to bullying. We continue to have so much work to do, but I remain encouraged and undaunted.

New Hampshire is one of the states whose cyberbullying law (passed earlier this year) we applaud. Specifically, House Bill 1523 asserts the following:

I. Bullying or cyberbullying shall occur when an action or communication as defined in RSA 193-F:3:

(a) Occurs on, or is delivered to, school property or a school-sponsored activity or event on or off school property; or

(b) Occurs off of school property or outside of a school-sponsored activity or event, if the conduct interferes with a pupil’s educational opportunities or substantially disrupts the orderly operations of the school or school-sponsored activity or event.

The language discussing cyberbullying that is initiated offline but still affects the school is extremely important, as educators are demanding clarity as to when they can intervene once a student of theirs is victimized. We particularly like the way this is worded – and every state needs to include language like this in their bullying/cyberbullying statutes.

This law and its application will be discussed in detail at an upcoming New Hampshire cyberbullying conference in Meredith on November 1st. I will be presenting, as will colleagues from the Attorney General’s Office and the Internet Crimes Unit, the State Trooper’s office, and the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC). I encourage you to attend if you can!