Everything you (and your kids) post on the internet is for the public to view.
So your 17-year-old son has been arguing with his basketball coach for weeks on end. He’s one semester away from graduating high school, on his way to attend college and maybe even law school. But one post on the social networking site Facebook gets him expelled because he was “using threatening language” towards his coach.
Okay, so maybe YOUR son isn’t dealing with this, but a boy named Taylor Cummings from Tennesse is. His post read, “I’ma kill em all. I’ma bust this (expletive) up from the inside like nobody’s ever done before.”
Of course, that drew attention which eventually got to school officials who didn’t want to take any chances on the “threat.” The solution? Expulsion. Because apparently, that solves all the problems…
Parents, it’s important to know what your child is doing online, no matter how old they are. Kids from all over the country are dealing with cyberbulling and anything said on the internet can reach millions and millions of people in seconds. Help your kids realize that even though something is meant to be a joke, it might not come off that way.
There are many things you can do such as set up your child’s privacy settings on their page, or what the hey, make a page yourself to monitor. I know, I know, it’s a pain to deal with the “this is a total invasion of privacy!” thing with your kids but I know plenty of moms and dads who have befriended their children.
Going back to the explusion story, I think that’s a little too harsh. To me, the solution that the school came up with didn’t solve anything. The student may have had some anger issues, but come on…expelling the student? Was that necessary? What do you think?
Think Before Your Click: Teen Expelled For Facebook Post [Examiner]
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Cyber bullying can be very dangerous. We recently had a lecture at my son’s school about the dangers and as it turns out there are worse things that can happen to you than being expelled from school. We were told about some kids who committed suicide because they were bulllied by their friends online!
One of the ways to deal with this problem is parental control software. There are many options out there but we tried out a product called “puresight” which seems to work. It lets you decide on how many hours each kid can spend online and at what times during the day. And it can track your kids online conversations.