BASSETERRE St. Kitts, November 9th 2011 - In our visits to the schools in the Federation we commonly have concerns raised from the students about “Bullying”, as such Operation Future has decided to try and address this concern.  We have declared November Anti-Bullying month, we have designed a new presentation aimed at children addressing bullying, what it is, who it impacts and how to deal with it.  It is our goal to visit every school in the Federation by the end of November and make this presentation.

As we often find when we pursue new avenues, we begin by scratching the surface and it is not long before we realize how much work needs to be done.  In our presentations in the schools of the Federation we have learned that bullying goes beyond the schools and as such it is our goal in the New Year to prepare new presentations specifically targeting parents and teachers. 

Part of our presentation to the students addresses the issues of cyber-bullying, this is the new face of bullying.  We generally start this area of the presentation by asking the students who can define “cyber-bullying”, we have yet to be disappointed in each school students have stood and given an accurate definition of what cyber-bullying entails.  Further, the looks on the students face’s also makes it clear that it is a problem in our schools. 

Often when children define ‘cyber bullying” they give examples of websites where you can post things to embarrass classmates.  Recently, while in a primary school students began calling out websites where things could be posted, among the websites were the expected, You Tube, Hi5 and other common social network sites.  Then, there was the unexpected, the children began calling out pornographic websites . This was not the odd child as when the sites were named, the reaction of the class clearly demonstrated that many were familiar with the content of the sites.  The names of these sites did not disclose the content as the names were often relatively innocuous, in many cases the members of Operation Future were not familiar with the sites and the children explained the content.  Again this was primary school, grades 4, 5 & 6, and we were shocked.  But it again it highlights an area of concern.

Our youth are living in the computer age, they are familiar with online technology and apparently accessing such technology without supervision.

The moral fabric of our youth is commonly being called into question today, however, who is at fault.  If we give a child a dangerous weapon without proper supervision and the child hurts themselves who do you blame, who is the one that is being irresponsible.  The computer, for all its gifts, comes with many problems.  An example is cyber-bullying, once upon a time when something embarrassing happened on the school ground it was usually forgotten in a couple of days as there was no record of the event beyond memory and tales from those who saw the event first hand, today thanks to cellular phone cameras the same event finds its way to You Tube to be shared with the world for eternity.  Thus an embarrassing moment becomes a lifetime. 

The technology is being utilized as a weapon in the case of cyber-bullying, and clearly as a tool for moral corruption.  Our children are accessing material on the internet that may not be appropriate for adults let alone tender developing minds.  They are able to do this because we are not providing the appropriate supervision, nor are we keeping up with the changing time.  I am reasonably certain that many of those who are allowing their children unsupervised access to the internet in their day would not have thought of carrying a playboy magazine into the house for fear of their mother finding it.  Now their children are carrying, in the form of a harmless computer, a library of pornography and offensive material that make playboy look tame.
 
If we are concerned about the moral fabric of our children then when we make available the technology of the computer age we have to ensure that we are also responsible enough to supervise how this technology is utilized.  Otherwise, we are to blame for the consequences.    

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