Students at schools across the Maritimes took a stand against bullying on Wednesday — in person and online — as part of the annual Pink Shirt Day.
Matthew Johnson is the director of education for MediaSmarts, an Ottawa based not-for-profit that’s done research on cyberbullying.
"The actual fact is that the majority of young Canadians don't engage in cyberbullying," said Johnson.
But if someone does see cyberbullying, his number one piece of advice is to first privately contact the person being bullied.
"Let them know that you care about them, and that you think it's not alright what's happening to them,” said Johnson. “Then, you can ask them if there's something else that they would like you to do."
"We can make things better without making things worse for the target, and of course, not putting ourselves at risk as well."
Marc Botte helps run a social media marketing and advising company in Sydney, N.S. He says there have been plenty of examples of cyberbullying in recent history that have not set a good examples for kids.
"We just had four years of a former president of the United States cyberbullying literally everybody he could find. Right now as we're speaking, you have 50 Cent, one of the most powerful people in the music industry being cyberbullied for his appearance.”
"We as adults have to correct our own online behavior, because that's the cue that our kids are drawing from.”
Johnson says there's a tool on the MediaSmarts website called ‘Impact’. He says it walks the user through a cyberbullying situation, gives them a series of yes or no questions, and hopefully makes the user better-equipped for a real-life situation.
