EEP Group

Seán Kelly MEP to host Cyber-Bullying Forum in Bray

Published: Mon, 27 January 2014

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Sean Kelly MEP will host a major CyberBullying Forum in the Wilton Hotel, Southern Cross Road, Bray on 7th February, 2014 – in order to raise awareness and inspire action to prevent Cyber-Bullying in all its forms (Mobile – via Smartphones, SMS, photo-sharing Apps –  Instagram, Snapchat, and also anonymous sources taunting children on Social Media and online/emails).

One in four children in Ireland now admit to “sexting” – sending or receiving inappropriate texts or photographs through social media. Therefore school-children, parents, teachers, guidance councillors need to keep updated about User-Safety guidelines and social media tools and procedures to better protect themselves or their friends from Cyber-Bullying behaviour.

Cyberbullying, or Bullying by social media, mobile or online – is a problem of epidemic proportions affecting mostly young people.It is a very serious challenge for parents, teachers, mental health and youth/community workers. It has fuelled a national and Europe-wide debate on how to best to tackle the issue. The common problem is that parents often don’t understand issues, such as, how photo-sharing apps or social media works, and often feel threatened by new digital technology. This upcoming “Combat Cyber-Bullying” event in Bray, will offer advice for parents and teachers, on how to make some simple immediate changes to childrens online behaviour patterns, for example; supervising the amount of time younger teens spend online or sharing access passwords and keeping one common mobile phone recharger in the house, these easy first steps can make monitoring of young teens online behaviour more effective for parents.

Sean Kelly, MEP will launch this major Cyber-bullying Forum on February, 7th, 2014 and provide an overview on the problem of Cyber-Bullying across the EU, as well as focusing ón EU Data Protection Reform. The event will also cover good digital citizenship for users, including tips for parents monitoring their childrens digital usage, and norms for appropriate, responsible behaviour in relation to social media, mobile and technology use

Ireland is the European Head Quarters for many global social media companies, such as Twitter, and Patricia Cartes, User Safety Domain Expert at Twitter, will be joining our speaker panel to discuss Twitter’s User-Safety Rules (Twitter content boundaries which you can find here.), and also take the audience through the team working behind the scenes (Twitter Trust & Safety team and how they are organized), how to report content to Twitter (reporting mechanisms) and what happens after you click report.

In very real and shocking terms, over 1,700 young Europeans are at risk of death by suicide this year due to bullying and cyberbullying according to research by a leading charity, Beat Bullying UK. Unfortunately, many tragic deaths of young people have already been linked tcyberbullying in Ireland already. Therefore educating people of all ages on the subject is vital. The Cyber-bullying Forum in Bray, Co.Wicklow is aimed at: Parents, School principals, school councillors, teachers, Youth groups, child psychologists, and community liaisons in particular and all those interested in this issue.

Sean Kelly said: “We cannot allow any more young people to be tortured and negatively impacted through online taunting and bullying in this way anymore, and we certainly do not want any more lives lost tragically because of it. Parents and Schools should also be supported in rolling out updated anti-Bullying programmes.I am also a strong advocat for the establishment of an EU wide, digital Anti-Bullying Support Programme, which is easily accessible online to Teenagers, Parents and School Principals and which must be updated regularly to keep abreast of new digital technologies.”

 

Speakers


Patricia Cartes

As the Head of User Safety at Twitter in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Patricia Cartes works to define policy and to ensure user safety and security in the challenging realm of modern social media. Patricia’s team works 24×7 to defend and respect the voice of Twitter users and to fight online abuse. Prior to joining Twitter in 2013, Patricia was one of the founding members of Facebook’s operations in Europe. As their head of safety she was responsible for maintaining relationships with online safety organizations, Law Enforcement & Military agencies, government hotlines and data protection authorities across EMEA focusing on issues such as the prevention of child exploitation and cyber-bullying.

 

Dr. James O’Higgins-Norman

Dr. James O’Higgins Norman is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in the School of Education Studies where he is also Chair of the Professional Diploma in Education. He is an International Associate Editor for the Journal of Pastoral Care in Education. Since coming to DCU he has been responsible for the development of post-graduate programmes in teacher education, guidance and pastoral care. He has authored a number of books on aspects of equality and bullying in schools and he has presented conference papers on his research in Ireland, Australia, the UK, Finland and the USA. Dr. O’Higgins-Norman was also a member of the NCCA Sub-Committee on Interculturalism in Education. He is Director of the Anti-Bullying Centre.


Jim Harding

Jim founded Bully 4U in 2010. It is used as an online resource to help tackle bullying behaviour and is currently accessed on a daily basis in more than 65 countries. Bully 4u have acquired an excellent reputation for their student workshops, parent/guardian information seminars and teacher in-service in Irish primary and secondary level schools. Bully 4u also provide workshops and training seminars in the areas of Residential Care, Foster Care, Adolescent Psychiatric Services, Community Training Centres, the National Learning Network and youth services.

 

Newsletter

Please see my recent Cyber-Bullying Newsletter here.

 

Event Details

The Cyber-Bullying Forum, organised and hosted by Sean Kelly MEP, takes place in Wilton Hotel, Bray. Co Wicklow on Friday, 7th February 09:30 am – 12:00 pm.

The forum is targeted at parents, school principals/teachers, youth groups, and community liaisons in particular, and all those interested in this issue.

 

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