Kids Read Mean Tweets

[AnnaMarie]

Based on the Jimmy Kimmel series, this PSA shows cyber bullying isn't funny.


Here's the news article.

'Kids Read Mean Tweets': Group raises awareness about cyberbullying | CTV Toronto News

"We wanted to use the 'Mean Tweets' model because in a way, those videos give the message that cyberbylling is OK -- even funny," president of the Canadian Safe School Network, Stu Auty, said in a blog post this week. "But adult celebrities have the maturity and confidence to overcome these hurtful words. Children don't. For regular kids, words can cut like a knife."

 

[AnnaMarie]

While I do agree Kimmel's videos could be viewed as giving the message cyber bullying is OK....what I always thought when I saw them was it shows if you can take control of the words, they lose their power.

 

[CoriSCapnSkip]

The other day I had an enlightening discussion with a 15-year-old and he and I might beg to differ about kids vs. adults on this subject. He said these trends don't make kids more likely to say horrible things but they definitely build up a resistance when horrible things are said to them. That doesn't make it all right or mean some kids aren't affected worse than others. In my case I was an adult, message board moderator and a bunch of sophomores who'd been let loose by their English teacher opened up on me. When contacted she merely made excuses for them and they said they were used to trying to one-up each other. They were never made to apologize or make amends in any way and became more abusive as I removed some of their worse excesses. I was reduced to a quivering nervous wreck and had to check into a hotel room out of state and out of reach of a keyboard for several days. The next year I was afraid she would give her class the same assignment (posting to the board) but apparently she learned her lesson and they haven't been back!

 

[GNTLGNT]

While I do agree Kimmel's videos could be viewed as giving the message cyber bullying is OK....what I always thought when I saw them was it shows if you can take control of the words, they lose their power.

...exactly...

 

[AnnaMarie]

As a mod, I get a fair bit of abuse on-line. Some directed at me, some just the in general against the forum.

When it is a stranger that just pops in and trolls, that doesn't bother me. When it's a member it can hurt. In one instance, it got to the point where I had decided I could not moderate anymore. I think one of the big differences is, the famous people are being trolled by strangers. Teens are being bullied by people they go to school with. In the worse cases it goes viral....but it starts with peers and it goes back to peers.