I really liked this article on “Cyber-Mentors”, a relatively new program from BeatBullying (based in the UK) that is gaining traction. Justin and I believe strongly in the power of older students and youth to provide guidance and advice to younger students as it relates to peer conflict (especially the online variant). Many of the mentors who participate in this program have experienced or witnessed cyberbullying, and are therefore in a unique position to offer counsel as they are personally and emotionally invested in helping the target of harassment in cyberspace. BeatBullying is working to become a 24/7 resource, and provide help to American youth as well; they currently work with hundreds of kids a week in a direct, physical capacity and thousands in a virtual capacity. They have recently elected Professor Tanya Byron to be their president. This is really encouraging to me because she believes in the importance of rigorous research as the foundation of any program.
hello,
my name is Luke Rolfe I am 16, and i am the founder of beat bullying kids UK (BBKIDS UK) a youth run anti bullying network, we work with young people aged 11-21 with any 'bullying' issues they may have, from our research, not a lot of them had herd of our program @ http://bbkids.co.uk until they 'googled' us. why is it that when our organisation started evry person who came to the site was there for a positive reason weather it be for advice or to support us? now well, half of the people we get are either spammers trying to get free advertising or people taking the mick out of what we do? I really like what cyber mentors do, I will soon be a fully trained cyber mentor however, why do 'grown-ups' as they have been refered to, just seem to say why are you doing this? You have no right, you don't know what you are doing? I was abused as a child and I am only 16 now, I think i have the experience and I have 500 members who agree.
It is very interesting to see what other countries are doing to combat cyberbullying. Having buddy systems for new school children sounds like a great idea since a lot of new kids at school usually feel like outcasts and are prone to bullying and cyberbullying more than a kid who has always been at that particular school. Placing boxes around the school for anonymous bully reporting is also a good idea to encourage students to report bullying while staying anonymous. I currently work for the Crime Stoppers Unit and we have an anonymous student crime stoppers program. Presently students can only anonymously report narcotics or weapons at schools, but I think it would be a great idea to incorporate bullying into the program. Students never want to be perceived as “snitches” so rather than telling a teacher what is happening they'd rather stay quiet. If we had more programs or ways to keep the students anonymous but at same time encouraging them to report cyberbullying I think we’d get more student participation.