{"id":370,"date":"2011-03-10T21:38:51","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T05:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/internetsafety.trendmicro.com\/?p=370"},"modified":"2011-03-10T22:00:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T06:00:42","slug":"new-fb-anti-bullying-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/blog\/new-fb-anti-bullying-services\/","title":{"rendered":"If Facebook Had Launched Its New Anti-bullying Services in 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Lynette Owens<\/p>\n

Facebook announced that it will soon unveil new services to help victims or witnesses of cyberbullying.\u00a0 As part of the White House summit on bullying prevention, Facebook hosted a panel at the White House today to announce some of these new features, but also to discuss the state of bullying, showcase relevant initiatives undertaken by each of the panelists, and answer questions from viewers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I watched the broadcast, I couldn\u2019t help but think of how much had changed since 2010 began.\u00a0 Just over a year ago, the international spotlight was right here in Massachusetts after the horrific bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide of Phoebe Prince.\u00a0 It was on Facebook that she was dogged by her aggressors (in addition to other places), and also on Facebook that she was ridiculed after her death.\u00a0 It is hard to imagine how things may have differed for Phoebe and for anyone bullied on Facebook before or after her if these capabilities had existed.\u00a0 Would it have helped?\u00a0 Or would nothing have been different?<\/p>\n

In the coming weeks, Facebook will be offering an expanded set of anti-bullying resources for kids, parents, teachers, and communities within their Safety Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another new Facebook feature on its way is the ability for a user to more easily capture and report content that is harassing, threatening, or troublesome in any way to a trusted party (such as a parent).\u00a0 Kids are usually advised to share evidence of bullying with an adult or authority so it can be investigated accordingly, but the process to do this can be cumbersome.\u00a0 Facebook will allow users to capture the communication and send it on with just a few clicks.<\/p>\n

The problem is it\u2019s not enough.\u00a0 This is no fault of Facebook\u2019s; I give them credit for finding ways to stand up to bullying and help their users do the same.\u00a0 But the issue is what happens after something is reported.\u00a0 Phoebe\u2019s mother allegedly notified the school of what was happening, but nothing was done. \u00a0Countless other cases have gone the same way.\u00a0 No reporting tool \u2013 however simplified \u2013 will fix this. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Bullying intervention today can be complicated when cell phones and social networks are involved. \u00a0Early signs of cyberbullying can be harder to detect (though presumably easier to track), and the Internet is not bounded by the playground fence, so schools and parents are unclear of who should or can take action and when.<\/p>\n

Here in Massachusetts, and as a result of Phoebe’s death, we enacted a law that has fueled an enormous amount of action to solve this problem at a community level \u2013 students, parents, schools, religious groups, and law enforcement are all involved.\u00a0 But law or no law, communities everywhere need to come together if they really want to deal with bullying.\u00a0 It shouldn’t take a tragedy before taking action.\u00a0 It takes a zero tolerance culture, shared definitions of bullying and cyberbullying, clear roles and responsibilities among all involved and empowered youth to keep bullying in check.<\/p>\n

I do think today\u2019s White House summit was aptly named.\u00a0 Our goal as a society should be on prevention not intervention, and on getting us as closer to never needing Facebook\u2019s anti-bullying ‘report’ button.<\/p>\n

For more information on dealing with cyberbullying, go to www.trendmicro.com\/internetsafety<\/a><\/p>\n

For a great way to engage youth and let them speak out and take action against bullying, enter the “What’s Your Story?” Internet safety video contest @ whatsyourstory.trendmicro.com<\/a>\u00a0(entry deadline April 5)<\/p>\n

For other great resources, go to: www.connectsafely.org<\/a>, www.facebook.com\/help\/?safety<\/a>, www.stopbullying.gov<\/a>, www.commonsensemedia.org<\/a>, www.webwisekids.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook has announced that it will soon unveil new services to help victims of cyberbullying. As part of the White House summit on bullying prevention, Facebook hosted a panel at the White House today to announce some of these new features. <\/p>\n

As I watched the broadcast, I couldn\u2019t help but think of how much had changed since 2010 began. Just over a year ago, the international spotlight was on the horrific bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide of Phoebe Prince. It is hard to imagine what might have been if these Facebook capabilities had existed then. How would things have been different?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,7,8,6,16,5,11,10,23,12,21],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-anti-bullying-laws","tag-cyberbullying","tag-digital-citizenship","tag-education","tag-facebook","tag-internet-safety","tag-kids","tag-online-safety","tag-privacy","tag-social-networking","tag-teens","wpautop"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}