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WESTCHESTER COUNTY SUMMIT ON CYBER-BULLYING - STUDENTS, PARENTS, TEACHERS AND POLICE ATTEND FEBRUARY 8TH EVENT
 View Video on Cyber-bullying (6:07 mins)
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IM-ing...the Internet...cell phones - teens and pre-teens would say they are crucial to their lives. But these same technologies are being used by a new breed of bullies to harass, tease or spread harmful or illegal statements or materials about others. Call them cyberbullies.
Perry Aftab, a national expert on cyberbullying hosted the summit, which addresses the growing threat of using technology to bully and intimidate kids.
"Westchester County is the first municipality in the country to take on the growing national problem of cyberbullying," said Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano. "New technology can be wonderful, but innovation sometimes has down-side as well. In this case, we see a variation on an old theme - the schoolyard bully. Here in Westchester there have been some highly publicized and disturbing cases of cyberbullying. We decided we wanted to take a leadership role on this national problem."
He added, "Kids, parents and schools need to know when to ignore it - just as school yard bullies are sometimes best ignored - and when to report it to law enforcement. And police need to know how they can track down cyberbullies. At this summit, we raised awareness about cyberbullying and discussed different strategies to address it."
The summit was made possible with financial help from Cablevision's Power to Learn along with Verizon and Motorola.
The summit featured a short video developed by the county's Communication Office and discussion by leaders from the Internet and cell phone industries, including AOL and Verizon Wireless. In addition, teens known as "teen-angels" talked about their efforts to educate their peers. The program was developed by the country executive's office and Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org (the world's largest online safety and help group) and the author of The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace. Aftab has lectured nationally to schools and police, as well as other groups.
Aftab said, "Children as young as nine years old are finding themselves harassed via blogs, websites, text messaging and instant messaging. And many retaliate by becoming cyberbullies themselves. Cyber bullying can take many forms. It can be a website where children can vote for the ugliest, most unpopular or fattest girl in the school. It can involve sending private and very personal information or images to others or posting them online for the public to see. It can be annoying but otherwise harmless - or it can be dangerous, such as when it involves stalking and pornography."
The cyberbullying summit began with a general session for all participants in which they heard from a panel of experts, including students, as well as from Spider-Man. Following that, there were "break-out sessions," where teams addressed steps that schools, counselors, parents, middle schoolers and high schoolers can take to prevent cyberbullying, and how to properly address incidents of cyberbullying that may occur on or off school grounds.
For more on this summit visit www.westchestergov.com/cybernet
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