Nov 20, 2008 7:21 pm US/Eastern
Local Teens Take Stand Against Cyber-Bullying
Students At Ursuline School In Launch Online Program To Teach Kids About The Dangers Of Internet Attacks
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (CBS) ―
In Los Angeles, a woman is now on trial accused of "cyber-bullying" a teenage girl, who later committed suicide.
Megan Meier's tragic death prompted some New Rochelle teens to start a nationwide campaign to save other kids.
Megan Meier was 13 when she hanged herself, after being cyber bullied on her MySpace page for two and a half hours by someone posing as a teenage boy.
"It's a hidden but deadly epidemic," said Parry Aftab, executive director of wiredsafety.org. "We've had at least 14 kids in the United States commit suicide because of cyber-bullying. This has to stop."
Students at the Ursuline School in New Rochelle are called "teen angels." They're educating students and parents about the dangers of cyber harassment, which is when any technology, including cell phones, is used to target, embarrass or hurt another person.
"It can be as simple as a mean text message, or a threat on the computer," teenangel Casi said. "It can be stealing someone's password. It can be breaking into someone's account and changing their information."
The teenangels started Megan's Pledge in honor of Meier. It's a promise to take a stand against cyber-bullying and not to consider suicide as an option.
They visit other schools to spread the word and the pledge, and they teach kids tactics to deal with cyber-bullying.
"Stop, block and tell," said teenangel Stephanie. "
Which means stop what you're doing and step away from the computer, block the person who is cyber-bullying you, and tell a trusted adult.
They also encourage parents and kids to sign an Internet contract, so students can feel comfortable telling their parents if they're cyber-bullied without the threat of having computer privileges taken away.
Everything is available online, including Megan's Pledge.
In nine months, 400,000 students have signed Megan's Pledge nationwide. The teenangels are hoping to have 1 million signatures by the end of the year.
If you would like to learn more about the dangers of cyber-bullying and Megan's Pledge, please click
here and
here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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