SWEET AS SOCIAL MEDIA CHARITABLE TRUST
YOUTH WEEK CELEBRATION OF TECHNOLOGY’S
POSSIBILITIES EVENT & CAMPAIGN LAUNCH
Volume 2, Issue 1 | May, 2011
Progress on the “Youtube Booth” & live
video feed campaign..!
Bullying has this year been
making headlines again, with
the schools being the ones
struggling most (from media
perception at least). Yet we
feel a real disproportioned
number of parents don’t feel
comfortable about talking to
their kids about technology.
We had a crack at a bit of a viral
script which we though might be
worthy of being passed around and
recorded for a YouTube campaign...
We got a friends six year old, Shizzi
Bowden, read it out for us, as well as
recording one ourselves & asked
everyone else to do the same, but
we think it might be too intimidating
to get such a long script for...
Using a template type script we
hope to encourage a mixture of high
profile figures and general New
Zealanders recording & uploading
their own versions (with “Be Nice
Online” in the titles). Once a collec-
tion has formed, we will be using the
various representations of New
Zealand to make a edit & clip for TV
& Radio campaigns to be run later
Parenting in a Digital World: Kids & Social Media
For these kids, issues like
"sexting" and cyberbullying
are a reality they are living.
Problem is that while they get
it, the “adults” don’t and the
kids have no way to compre-
hend what this will mean to
them yet...
We have had these kids come to us
with issues, usually in a mix of cyberbull-
ing and sexting type issues often at
the same time, and very rarely do the
parents have any idea. And the worst
part is there is very little we can do to
help. But unfortunately too many par-
ents seem to already have their hands
full or appear overwhelmed by the tech-
nology so we have instead turned to the
kids themselves to help us find the
answers.
We had the emphasis on parents mak-
| Working in conjunction with AssistNZ Ltd
NEXT SHOWCASE OF THE YOUTUBE BOOTH:
on the 4th of June we will be at Zeal, 20 Alder-
in the year. This cam- man Drive, Henderson - Ft. Diesel Phoenix
paign was launched
with the video recording from 6yr
old Shizz Bowden. She helped us
for the first video and now we
launch the next phase of our cam-
paign with prizes for entries!!! To
get in the draw, simply take a
recording of yourself, family or
friends reading through the script,
upload to YouTube with “Be Nice
Online in the title and post us a
link on our site or Facebook page.
we know many kids are not telling
parents, and being that, in our
experience at lest, most parents
have no idea. While we know
that many children feel they must
suffer
alone with
t h e s e
issues,
reportedly
because
they are
scared of
having
access to
t h e s e
technolo-
gies re-
voked.
ing sure they approach these issues
about the online world with their kids the
same way they would with offline issues.
We suggested following the "3E's";
• Educate (the parents should be
informing themselves of the technolo-
gies the kids are using & children
need to be explained the dangers &
risks to them and others
from their conduct or content online),
• Engage (interact with your kids
on their level in concern to these
technologies, get them to teach or
show you what they are doing, talk
about how they use technology and
the internet already) and
• Empower (Lee Chisholm, from
Netsafe put it best when she said,
"just like teaching them to drive a car,
at some point your going to have to
hand over the keys".
The idea of parents using monitor-
ing software etc is redundant as
the one thing we know is that
“digital natives” will always know
more than us about these tech-
nologies.
But kids can be cruel. And some-
thing about the internet really
plays to the nastier side of peoples
natures, its a matter of balance &
we hope to get people talking
about this by using a viral cam-
paign on YouTube recently
launched, called “Be Nice Online”.
www.sweetassocialmedia.com
For parents
who are
concerned
about their kids use online, we would
recommend them to look at & moni-
tor their kids online for;
• Content - What kind of
content is your child creating,
what kind of digital footprint is
there going to be left?
• Conduct - How are they
interacting with others online? If
they are inappropriate in their
conduct online it sticks!
• Context - where are they
posting online? Who are they
talking to & protecting them-
selves?
See more at http://
www.sweetasparents.tumblr.com/
TRUE OR FALSE
• Victims of cyberbullying are at
an increased risk for tradi-
tional bullying victimization,
substance use, and school
problems
• Most victims of cyberbullying
tell an adult (parent or
teacher) about their experi-
ence
• Research has shown that vic-
tims of cyberbullying suffer
from anger, frustration, and
sadness
• Cyberbullying does not result
in physical harm to victims
because it occurs (and is con-
tained) completely online
• Traditional schoolyard bullies
are also likely to be cyberbul-
lies
• Victims report that they are
primarily cyberbullied by
strangers
• Boys are more likely to be
victims of cyberbullying than
girls
• Research has shown that util-
izing blocking and filtering
software decreases the likeli-
hood of experiencing cyber-
bullying
See reverse for detailed answers
and discussion —>
“Awareness & Education are
the key preventions to cyber
bullying” Bullying.org
CAMPAIGN LAUNCH FRIDAY
27/5/2011 3pm-630pm
Massey Community House
WHERE TO GET HELP
Despite the focus of "social media" professionally being
primarily still only accepted when it takes a marketing
or sales focus, we both have seen first hand the poten-
tial in other areas much broader than many are willing
to yet accept. And in my recent experience despite
these kids being the only ones who appear to really
appreciate the significance of this, they are also still the
"victims" of the system in a way and largely the most at
risk too. In fact, we could be blamed for overload-
ing parents ourselves with the range of different options
and answers available out there once you have them
concerned enough to take a proactive inter-
est... Netsafe have a range of valuable and un-
der utilized sites and services out there for anyone
willing to take a proactive stance on the kind of issues;
In My Day (http://www.inmyday.org.nz/) is must see for
any parents out
there, but it is also
worth mention
of their cyberbullying
site (http://www.cyberbullying.org.nz/), ICT policy gen-
erating service for businesses on the site The What's It
(http://www.thewhatsit.co.nz/) and the reporting service
for online crimes The Orb (http://www.theorb.org.nz/)-
just a few of those available through their main site -
http://www.netsafe.org.nz/. The packs we made for
attending parents had the brochure which outlines each
of these sites and services from Netsafe as just one of
the many options available to them that we had found
freely available ourselves.
Project Team Members “Close Up” - Series 1
Jess Maher
Project Coordinator
jess@assistnz.com
My Motivation in this area:
After my father died late last year very
suddenly and unexpectedly, I found out
first hand how little rights we have online
when Facebook deleted every post my
Dad made to my wall or on anything I had posted as soon as I reported his death to them.
It seems that even in my position, where my fathers death was highly publicized and
talked about and despite my professional knowledge & experience, being that I had less
than a year earlier also completed my post graduate Dissertation research paper on
"Social Networking Sites in NZ Small to Medium Businesses" I continue to find myself not
able to do what he would have wanted. I asked him a week before he died what he
thought about the topic of death in terms of Facebook etc and so I think it is a rather
unique position to be in, yet I still continue to have ongoing correspondence
with Facebook on a regular basis about the state of his account. It was also ironic that
despite my father being well connected, the ones who were there for me the most espe-
cially initially where the "kids" of my family friends, the ones who are teenagers now. I
think maybe parents are afraid of admitting they don't know everything to their kids yet if
you were able to "Google" all those questions and answers your parents gave you when
you were a child, imagine how different you ideas about life would be! - Jess Maher

True or False: the facts about Cyberbullying...

• Victims of cyberbullling are at an increased risk experiencing cyberbullying. While the cyberbullying have "done their part" in safeguarding their child's par-
for traditional bullying victimization, substance alone probably did not cause the suicide, it clearly was ticipation online. This is naive and unwise. It is really
use, and school problems. | True an important contributing factor in several incidents. important to actively participate in your child's online
According to an article published in the journal Devi- • Victims report that they are primarily cyberbullied by experiences, establish rules, and informally monitor their
ant Behavior, victims of cyberbullying were signifi- strangers. | False activities. Software solutions only go so far in controlling
cantly more likely to report experiences with tradi- According to Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Prevent- certain actions in cyberspace, and can be circumvented
ing and Responding to Cyberbullying, 21.1% of victims
tional bullying, to use illicit substances, and to have by a motivated adolescent.
other problems at school. said the cyberbully was a friend, 20% said it was an ex-
• Most victims of cyberbullying tell an adult friend, and 26.5% said it was someone else from school.
(parent or teacher) about their experience. | Only 6.5% said the cyberbully was a stranger.
False • Traditional schoolyard bullies are also likely to be
According to Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Pre- cyberbullies. | True
venting and Responding to Cyberbullying, only According to an article published in Deviant Behavior, OPEN: 10am—6pm Mon-Fri
about 40% of middle school victims of cyberbullying traditional bullies are 2.5 times more likely to be a cyber-
told their parents and less than 30% told a teacher. bully than someone who does not bully offline.
The book also points out that these numbers are • Boys are more likely to be victims of cyberbullying
sweetas@assistnz.com
much improved from just 4 years ago when fewer than girls. | False
than 15% of victims told an adult. While there are some differences found in the research,
PO Box 79042,
• Research has shown that victims of cyberbullying overall it appears that girls are slightly more likely to Royal Heights,
suffer from anger, frustration, and sadness. | True report being the victim of cyberbullying than boys.

WWW.SWEETAS
According to a study published in the Journal of More studies have reported either that girls are more
School Violence, victims of cyberbullying were angry likely to be victims or that there are no gender differ-
(30.6%), frustrated (34%), and sad (21.8%). ences in cyberbullying. When looking at lifetime experi-
• Cyberbullying does not result in physical harm to ences versus more recent experiences, the prevalence
victims because it occurs (and is contained) com- rates are even higher for girls.
SOCIALMEDIA.COM
pletely online. | False • Research has shown that utilizing blocking and filter-
While most of the harm associated with cyberbully- ing software decreases the likelihood of experienc-
ing is emotional, relational, or psychological (all ing cyberbullying. | False
important harms to prevent) there are many exam- According to an article published in Journal of Child
ples where cyberbullying has resulted in very serious Psychology and Psychiatry, using filtering software is
physical consequences for victims. The most ex- not significantly related to a decreased chance of Inter-
treme example of this is the several cases reported net harassment victimization. Some adults believe that
in the media of adolescents committing suicide after by simply purchasing and installing such software, they