PARENTS NEED TO KNOW

Attention Indiana Parents

DID YOU KNOW?

During the 2022-2023 school year:

5460 Indiana students reported being bullied

38% reported verbal bullying

31% reported physical bullying

11% reported  social bullying

11% reported a combination

 10% reported electronic bullying

Could one of those students who was bullied be your child?

Could one of the students who was bullying others be your child?

GET INVOLVED. GET INFORMED. 

Because silence speaks volumes and perpetuates the problem.

Call us today at 219-334-5804 to get help and support. 

Email: bullyingfreefuture@gmail.com

Do you know what your kids post on social media?

WORDS HURT MORE THAN YOU KNOW

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a 40% increase in cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is generally defined as "hurtful, willful and repeated harm inflicted through electronic devices (such as cell phones, computers, tablets, etc." (The Cyberbullying Research Center, 2021).  Basically, this occurs when hateful, hurtful, embarrassing, mean, or threatening posts are made a comments or messages via social media. This also includes text messages.  Although many parents don't realize this, even gaming platforms have the capability to send messages / post messages and this is also used for bullying. 

Impact of cyberbullying:

• Many victims of cyberbullying report low self-esteem, social anxiety, depression, which can lead to more severe effects such as self-harming, or even suicidal thoughts.

• Many victims of cyberbullying may demonstrate an unwillingness to go to school, have physical symptoms including headaches, stomach aches and withdraw from others.

Due to the frequency of  new social media sites being created, as well as the fact that adolescents tend to use them more than adults, many parents may not even be familiar with half of the social media sites their child / teen uses. 

Here is a list of many popular social media sites:

Facebook- This site allows users to post pictures, announcements, messages and has option of making any posts public or private.

Twitter - This site allows users to send Tweets, which are brief text messages. Users can follow other users. This is used a lot to follow celebrities. 

Instagram - This site is for users to post pictures and / or short videos  for either public or private viewing. 

Snapchat- This is a messaging app that is notorious for the time limit users can put on the videos or pictures they send out. The popular belief is that whatever is posted on Snapchat disappears in as little as 24 hours.

Discord - Originally a site for gamers to connect while they are playing video games, but has morphed into a much larger site. Now users can send texts, have audio-message chats, and even video-chats on just about anything. There are public and private discussion groups too. 

TikTok - This site is where users can make the equivalent of their own music videos. Most often users lip-sync to popular songs or create dances to popular songs. 

Tumblr - This site is sort of like a blog - users can stream text, pictures or videos and other users can "follow" them (like on Twitter). 

WhatsApp - This is a texting app that has no limits or fees, so users can send texts, photos even audio messages to a single person or a group of people. 

Group.Me - This is a texting app that doesn't have limits on group messages. There are no fees either so users can text constantly, or even send videos or pictures constantly. 

Houseparty - This is a group live video chat site that - 2-8 people can chat at same time. 

Musical.ly - This site allowed users to create their own brief music videos and upload them for sharing, which ultimately became TikTok. 

YouTube-This site is used for posting and sharing videos. Users can click the thumbs up or down to show they"like" the video, comment about it, even share it. Users can also use it ti upload their own videos.

Live.me - This is a live video streaming site that allows kids to watch other people's live videos as well as broadcast their own live video. 

YouNow - This is another live video streaming site like Live.me, except that in addition to watching or broadcasting live video, it allows users to comment. 

Whisper - This app is basically an open microphone for users. It is sort of a "tell your secrets.. confess everything" site that typically is not all thumbs up and happy. Kids aren't posting about their good grades or best memory of Disney World. Here, they post their dark desires, or darkest secrets. 

Omegle- This is basically a site in which users have a choice of being paired up with another user via a text chat or a video chat on a topic or interest they share. 

Yubo- This site was marketed as a way to make friends, and works like a dating app. Users can swipe right or left if they like the profile they see. Once a user is then selected, the two can make contact via Snapchat or Instagram.

Yolo - It is an app that can send anonymous messages to snapchat and the receiver has no idea who sent the messages. Snapchat was working on banning anonymous messaging capabilities in 2022. And, just to clarify, YOLO means "You only live once".

Reddit - This is a social media / news site that contains different community forums that a user can participate in. Reddit is a term coined from the phrase "I read it". 

Bullying no longer stops at the edge of the playground. It continues via social media and texting. There is no place to hide for the person being bullied.

As a parent, ask yourself these questions: if you are not following your child's or teen's social media pages, then how do you know they are using the sites responsibly?  Does your child  / teen block you from their snapchat? Are you following your child on facebook? Have you seen your child's latest TikTok post? Most parents have no idea what their child / teen is sending or receiving on their cell phones until it's too late.  

Get involved. Get informed. 

You may just help save someone else's life.