Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet [PSMag.com]

Very timely post. I'm working with an individual who presents on digital citizenship and preventing bullying/cyber-bullying in school settings nationwide. We will soon launch a teacher professional development course that offers schools a number of resources for preventing and responding to bullying in all its forms. Schools often mistake "conflict" for "bullying" scenarios because relational aggression applies to both kinds of scenarios. However, to meet a bullying definition (as per CDC) there must be particular elements. Student conflict or disagreement does not constitute "bullying" - BUT, it also means that true "bullying" can never be dismissed as some form of "conflict."

One of the items I had just included in the course this morning was from Stopbullying.gov resource that said,  

Bullying is a form of victimization, not conflict.

It is no more a “conflict” than are

child abuse or domestic violence.

This article helped remind me of why we are working so hard to help schools prepare even our youngest learners to embrace socially responsible ways of interacting - regardless of in real-world or virtual spaces. Simply put,  21st century character and integrity are tethered to our ground and cloud behaviors. We can't have integrity in one and not the other.  We continue to see evidence that adolescents are engaging in destructive behaviors that inflict harm on others through digital means. We need to help educators understand thatACEs 2.0 - with cyber-bullying at the core - is needed because we fail to appreciate the very real toxic stress caused by online victimization. This is a real threat to the safety and well-being of every student in our care who cannot write it off as being "some guy in a basement in Nebraska." For our students know, in most cases it is the student sitting right beside them in 3rd period.