ROTC Students Rally to Bring Awareness to Cyberbullying

Bullying has been around forever, but in an age of technology like Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter, it has taken on an entirely new platform. Gone are the days of coming home from school to get away from the terrible actions of some, because now bullies are showing up on social networking sites and text messages.

To raise awareness about cyberbullying and its associated dangers, Junor ROTC cadets at Park High School Air Force took the pledge to not talk for a day and all forms of communication were turned off.

According to the South Washington County Bulletin, this was a COMM OUT, a military tactic in which all communications are shut down.

The ROTC students urged other peers to get the word out about suicide prevention and cyberbullying.

“I got involved because members of my family have had issues with depression,” said one of the students, Bri Peschke, the report cites.

A Consumer Reports survey conducted in the US in early 2011 reveals that one million children were harassed, threatened, or subjected to other forms of cyberbullying on Facebook in the past year.

Cyberbullying Research Center says that approximately 20 percent of students report experiencing cyberbullying in their lifetimes. Mean or hurtful comments (13.7 percent) and rumors spread (12.9 percent) online are the most common types of cyberbullying. Adolescent girls are significantly more likely to have experienced cyberbullying in their lifetimes.

Many schools, school districts, and after-school clubs have established protocols for responding to cyberbullying and all vary by district and state.

Some tips to prevent cyberbullying include getting involved in your child’s online activity, set limits on Internet use, encourage children to report any incidents of cyberbullying and use filtering or blocking software on your computer.

The best weapon, of course, is awareness. Talking about the issue forces it to come out of mobile phone inboxes and computers, and into the open.