Cyberbullying and Sexting

Parenting the Cyber Generation

Designed for: Parents and their middle school age children

A recent study found that teenagers are spending an average of 7.5 hrs/day using technology. Parents are often unaware of the extent to which their children interact with others on the Internet and feel ill-equipped to offer guidance or structure for using these websites and navigating the web. Another study showed that 18% of students in grades 6-8 said they had been cyberbullied at least once in the past couple of months and 11% said they had cyberbullied another person. Parenting the cyber generation presents many challenges.

This workshop is designed to help parents and guardians understand how teens are using the Internet, particularly Facebook, and other social networking sites. Participants learn how youth and parents can work together to make social networking sites as safe as possible and decrease cyberbullying. Legal ramifications of sending messages and photos via the Internet and cell phone are also discussed.

Our goals are to help parents and guardians:

• Learn why social networking websites are developmentally compelling to adolescents
• Understand how social networking websites work and how to talk with children about using them safely
• Explore strategies for helping children balance face-to-face social interaction and Internet use
• Discuss uses and abuses of other technologies such as text messaging, Instant Messaging and camera phones

Average Length of program: 90 minutes

Recommended number of participants: 20-100

Our goals are to help participants:

• Learn strategies for helping children set limits and use technology safely
• Identify the types of cyberbullying that are being used
• Name 3 things that victims can do to help stop the bullying
• Learn how to apply safety settings to social networking sites