Tech Tip Tuesday: #eCubSafe - Walking the Walk with Kindness!

#eCubSafe: Walking The Walk Lesson Adapted from Google’s Be Internet Awesome Lessons Modeling expected behavior online is vital to the success of having students interact appropriately online too.  I found this awesome article online: 4 Ways to Cultivate Kindness Online.  I hope it helps  you spread kindness and model for others that you truly walk the walk online!    Why does kindness matter?  Itʼs important to remind ourselves that behind every username and avatar thereʼs a real person with real feelings, and we should treat them as we would want to be treated. When bullying or other mean behavior happens, most of the time there are four types of people involved.  • Thereʼs the aggressor, or person(s) doing the bullying.  • Thereʼs also someone being bullied – the target.  • There are witnesses to what’s going on, usually called bystanders.  • There are witnesses to what’s going on who try to positively intervene, often called upstanders.  This isn’t just happening with students, this is an issue occurring daily in the lives of adults too.  As parents, educators, and most importantly, as adults, we need to model appropriate online behavior for our youth.  We need to walk the walk.   If you find yourself the target of bullying or other bad behavior online, here are some things you can do:  If Iʼm the target, I can…  • Not respond  • Block the person (This can be done on most social media platforms, such as: Snapchat, Tick-Tock, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.) • Report them – If I’m a student, I can tell my parent, teacher, sibling, or someone else I trust, and use the reporting tools in the app or service to report the harassing post, comment, or photo.  If you find yourself a bystander when harassment or bullying happens, you have the power to intervene and report cruel behavior. Sometimes bystanders don’t try to stop the bullying or help the target, but when they do, they’re being an upstander. You can choose to be an upstander by deciding not to support mean behavior and standing up for kindness and positivity. A little positivity can go a long way online. It can keep negativity from spreading and turning into cruelty and harm.  If Iʼm the bystander, I can be an upstander by…  • Finding a way to be kind to or support the person being targeted  • Calling out the mean behavior in a comment or reply (remember to call out the behavior, not the person), if you feel comfortable with that and think it’s safe to do so  • Deciding not to help the aggressor by spreading the bullying or making it worse by sharing the mean post or comment online • Getting a bunch of friends to create a “pile-on of kindness” – post lots of kind comments about the person being targeted (but nothing mean about the aggressor, because you’re setting an example, not retaliating)  • Reporting the harassment. Tell someone who can help, like a parent, teacher, or school counselor. Whether standing up for others, reporting something hurtful, or ignoring something to keep it from being amplified even more, you have a variety of strategies to choose from depending on the situation. With a little kindness, anyone can make a huge difference in turning bad situations around.