Addressing Cyber-Bullying?

Cyber-bullying is an issue that I'm quite unfamiliar with but have unfortunately read more and more about as of late. I'm sure there are multiple approaches to addressing this issue but have heard very few solutions to this problem.

As I do every morning when I roll out of bed, I grabbed my phone and read my twitter feed. As I was reading my feed, I came across an article via csnchicago.com about Bears right guard Kyle Long addressing bullying at the elementary school level. In fact, Long starting riding the bus with an elementary school student who has been bullied all school year.

As I continued reading, I came across photos of Long with the elementary school boy at Chucke- Cheeses, on the bus, on the school playground, etc. At first, I thought how great this was to addressing cyber-bullying, but the more and more I thought about it, I thought this was the worst possible way of handling the situation. In fact, it makes the bullied kid even more pron to bullies. Let's face it, the kids dad and even older brother, or even Kyle Long, can't be around the kid 24/7.

One solution I suggest to limiting online bullying, is by making parents' attendance to at least 3 sessions a year to how bullying effects children and what solutions have worked best for alleviating students who have been bullied, but more importantly to stop children from being bullied.

Clearly punishing the bully doesn't work, in fact it just makes them want to bully kids more. Most bullies are ones that are neglected by their parents and their parents are usually not the best role models. Either they spoil their children or never give them the attention they deserve.

To conclude, bullying is a serious issue that is very delicate. While there are no answers to how to solve this chronic dilemma, adults, and even children need to be aware of what the wrong tactics to bullying are.