Facebook

I received a phone call at 7.00pm tonight that made me immensely proud but raging angry.

My daughters head of year called me to tell me that there had been a massive Facebook row between the girls and boys of her year which had become abusive, bullying,  ( and his words) horrendous and disgusting. 

Now, I was with Skye when it was all erupting over our favourite social networking site last night.  And I offered a bit of guidance and bit of support but basically advised her to not get involved and to walk away.  Which she did. 

It turns out however, that she did make a comment on this abusive rant of adolescents to say that it should stop.  It was bullying and it was making one particular person feel small and that's no way to behave and no way to make a person feel.

Having read the offending page on Facebook I am stunned that children of this age can abuse, swear, belittle, laugh, taunt and mock....all whilst sat in front of a computer screen.  In my opinion it's cowardly.  Because behind a computer screen you can be whoever you want to be and you can say whatever you want to say without someone punching you straight in the face.

I am amazed at this new twist that social networking sites have brought to bullying. 

Its a new side of ugly to children.  And I am learning that it exists.  A lot.

I monitor Skye's internet use a little.  I have had the internet "talk" that 5 years ago I never dreamed I would have to have.  But I am slack.  I don't monitor as much as I should but I am lucky that Skye talks to me.  She confides most things and I offer advice where I can.  But even I am running out of ideas on how to fight this new wave of internet bullying.

Its unbelievable and it makes me so mad.

I am enraged that a school teacher was still at school at 7pm, not because he was working on lesson plans or marking exams but because he was phoning 17 SETS OF PARENTS to tell them their son or daughter had been involved in an horrendous bullying rant on Facebook.  Is that the work that we need our teachers to be doing?  Is that how we need them to be spending their time?  What happened to plain old simple teaching?

I have ranted a lot on Facebook about Skye's school but in my experience their stance on bullying has been spot on and their quick interactions and dealing with these pupils has been more than acceptable. 

I am not here to judge these children or their parents.   We have all said and done things in life that have made us look utter idiots.   And these children have time to change.  Hopefully, they will apologise, learn from it and move on and never let it happen again.  Hopefully.

The phone call to me tonight was to tell me that Skye had done well.  She had spoken common sense and not been part of the bullying.  She was right in what she had said and her head of year was pleased that she had made sensible comments and then removed herself from the conversation.  Other parents tonight weren't so lucky.

Children are dying in this country because of bullying and internet bullying is an easier form of it.  Something has to change to make this stop.

I am scared about this.  The nasty comments and viciousness that I have seen on Facebook myself makes me more enraged that the very network we use to socially connect is the very network that is enabling children to think life is so bad that they don't want to carry on. 

THAT is the harsh reality. 

If you take anything away from reading this blog, anything at all, then please monitor your child's internet use.  Find out what they are doing, what they are saying and what sites they are visiting. 

Because if all parents started to do it then maybe, just maybe, we may stop just one child from thinking that life just isn't worth living....