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On Saturday I was saddened when reading the New York Times article about Rebecca Ann Sedwick, the 12-year-old girl who committed suicide last week. According to the article, “Rebecca became one of the youngest members of a growing list of children and teenagers apparently driven to suicide, at least in part, after being maligned, threatened and taunted online, mostly through a new collection of texting and photo-sharing cellphone applications.”
As an educator, I was most surprised how “her suicide raises new questions about the proliferation and popularity of these applications and Web sites among children and the ability of parents to keep up with their children’s online relationships.” After all, I just mastered FaceBook & Twitter and I thought I was “cutting edge” because I knew about SnapChat! But, tragically it was when Rebecca, only a 7th grader, “signed on to new applications — ask.fm, and Kik and Voxer — in which the messaging and bullying” haunted her.
As a school district, we are committed in making sure our students feel safe and comfortable to learn. We will also be holding a special parent/student social media night in October under the leadership of our high school principal and select staff members. Clearly, this is an important topic, especially as the emerging technologies change as fast as they do. (Incidentelly, to keep on top of these new apps, I always rely on the superb educator/parent resource called CommonSenseMedia. In fact, the hyperlinks above are the Kik & ask.fm reviews from CommonSenseMedia website.
