I’ve just attended (and presented at) a really important conference, Friday and Saturday last week (9-10 April): The 4th National Centre Against Bullying Conference.

This national conference brought together a range of the world’s leading experts, along with government, industry and the education sector, to examine the latest research and strategies to address cyberbullying. It was opened by Deputy PM Julia Gillard, so the issue clearly has the government’s attention.

For me, the most interesting outcomes from the conference could be summarised as:

- cyberbullying is a complex issue and requires a complex solution. There is no single or ‘quick fix’.

- don’t demonise the kids. Cyberbullying is a learned behaviour and in the vast majority of cases, can be ‘un-learned’.

- don’t blame the technology. It is children’s and young people’s behaviours that are the issue and dealing with cyberbullying by removing or restricting the technology just won’t work.

- parents hold the key to cyberbullying. Parents need to use the same good parenting techniques they employ in the ‘real world’, to guide and help their children in their online lives.

- children don’t distinguish between off-line and online, as we as adults do. For children, it is simply ‘my life’.

- cyberbullying is running at about 10% in Australia (1 in 10 kids will be bullied online) and its prevalence is growing annually. We are a few years behind the US and UK where cyberbullying occurs more.

- it is going to take a whole-of-school and parental approach to stem the incidence of cyberbullying and whilst we are never going to eradicate it for good, Australia is in a good place to lead the world in responding to the phenomenon.

Take a look at the outcomes (you can pick up much of what was said here – http://www.amf.org.au/NCABConference) and let me know: are you confident about our abilities and strategies to help fix this issue.. or not..? What do *you* think we need to do?

@family [+]April 12th, 2010, 19:46