If your child needs a phone, get your child an old-school cell phone — “burner” phone if you will — with no camera and no internet. BAM! Protected from predators, porn, and social media bullying in one fell swoop. If they can get text messages on said phone, CHECK THEM EVERY DAY. If someone sends bullying texts, get a new burner phone with a new number. Ooh! Or better yet, tell your child the phone is for texting with parents and siblings or a few pre-approved friends only. Get a home phone, and only let them give out that number to new “friends.” It’s a LOT harder to work up the nerve to tell someone to kill themselves when you have to call the home phone and you don’t know who is gonna pick up. Just sayin’.
And yes, I know kids can get social media account on other devices. Have an iPad or tablet at home? Check it like a BOSS. Every night. It’s your job now. It could save your child’s life, or, if your child is the bully, another child’s life.
If you think I’m exaggerating the dangers, here’s another quote from the NJ.com article (my commentary will be in BOLD.)
“Suicide is the second leading cause of death for children between the ages of 10 and 14, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide, the suicide rate rose from 0.9 to 2.1 per 100,000 middle schoolers from 2007 to 2014.”
Guess what else rose during those years? Smartphone and social media use among kids ages 10-14! That stuff barely existed in 2007. The first iPhone was released June 29. 2007.
“In addition, bullying has a “clear relationship” with suicidal ideation and behavior among children, according to a review of 31 studies conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics.”
Bullying has been a thing for centuries, but online bullying or cyberbullying did not exist before the late 1990s and social media bullying did not exist until after 2007, because social media did not exist before then. And since then, the suicide rate among middle schoolers has more than doubled? NOT A COINCIDENCE.
Mallory Grossman was not the typical target of bullying that we all might think of. She was a talented gymnast, a blonde cheerleader, a smart kid who had several close friends and got good grades. She wasn’t a geek, an outcast, overweight, poor, a slow learner, smelly, or anything a child might have been teased for when I was a kid.
Mallory had it all. Including social media accounts and a vicious peer group with social media accounts.
Parents. 1) Teach your children EMPATHY AND KINDNESS. If they bully someone, punish them severely. 2) Don’t give your middle schoolers social media accounts. If these two things would have happened among the kids involved in this, Mallory would still be alive. Please, moms and dads, let’s do better for our own kids.
[ATTENTION PARENTS] Prevent Bullying, Avoid These Apps
