I am sharing this because it really is a whole new world of bullying than when I was a kid. Recently I watched a Dr Drew show on CNN or some other station about bullying and he said something that really struck me. I may have even mentioned it here before — that bullying today doesn’t stop at the school yard. It’s 24/7 digitally reaching more and digging in deeper. As a parent, I am very sensitive to it and if I even think my kids are bullying – I’m all over it. It’s so sad — kids are already going through such change in their lives and then add to it how mean kids are and give them the tools of the digital age. It really can be a recipe for disaster.
According to current statistics, one out of every four teenagers across America is bullied in their neighborhoods and schools; 160,000 students stay home from school every day because of their fear of being bullied; and each month, nearly 300,000 students are physically attacked inside their secondary schools.
Online, things are even worse: 43 percent of kids are cyber-bullied, while 53 percent admit to having said something mean and hurtful to another kid online.