Cyberbullying is a huge problem across the nation. It is often framed as a new problem even though the phenomena is close to 20 years old. However, it is still recent enough that the parents of today’s middle and high-schoolers probably never had to deal with it themselves. Cyberspace is also an ever-changing and evolving entity, so whatever knowledge parents do have could be obsolete with the next update or the next app.
Facebook has stepped in to help. The National PTA and Facebook recently announced that they are partnering together to organize community events around the country.
According to the PTA’s national website, Digital Families Community Events will:
- Give parents a safe space to network, share successes and worries about parenting in a digital world
- Promote research-backed best practices for parenting in a digital age and tools to foster the parent-child interaction
- Empower parents and families with resources and research to equip them to be safer online
Local PTAs are eligible for $1000 Facebook grant to host one of the events. They simply need to be in good standing with their state PTA, commit to hosting an event, acquire volunteers to work the event, and submit the evaluation results.
The events are not limited to one per state. The goal is that once PTA members are trained, they can then go on to host other events.
Read more here. (USA Today)