Rutland Middle and Intermediate students and parents learn social media safety

“Most of the parents today did not grow up with social media. So raising awareness around the dangers helps them understand how to react to the dangers,” Peisner said in an interview following the presentation on Wednesday. “For the kids, they really need to understand that social media, as much as it’s fun, it’s not that social, and it can be very harming to you, to your mental health and maybe to another person.”

On Wednesday evening, Peisner told a crowd of parents how he became an “accidental activist” after his son was victim to a brutal attack perpetrated by fellow classmates for a social media challenge.

Realizing the prevalence and normalizing of social media-motivated violence, Peisner took to lawmakers to help draft Jordan’s Law — a deterrent to filming violence for social media — and founded OfSMS.

In addition to sharing facts on the addictive nature of social media — including that most teens spend an average of nine hours a day online — Peisner also held interactive presentations for the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders during the school day.

He shared with parents that a Pew Research study determined 34% of tweens report having experienced cyberbullying.

“Our survey, however, which is self-reported from all kids (we speak to) shows about 45% to 50% of fifth-graders on up are self-reporting being cyberbullied. Today, it was greater than 50% in every class. I think the numbers were 55% or 60% every time I asked,” Peisner told parents.

In addressing social media use, Peisner advised parents that the best proactive measure is to teach kids to “buckle their seat belt” when using the information superhighway that is the internet.

Having discussions with children about social media dangers, instilling rules on social media usage and controlling the content children have access to are some of the best ways to prepare children to be “social upstanders,” rather than social bystanders.

Peisner also advised both parents and students that two of the most important actions you can take when encountering violence, hate speech or other inappropriate content online are to block and report.

“First, block the offending user. Block them from being able to post on your platforms or send you a message that could be violent or cyberbullying. And then report it to the platforms. By reporting, you’re doing two things: You’re helping to stop that video or (post) go viral and you’re bolstering your mental defenses against that content,” Peisner said.

Rutland City Public School Superintendent Bill Olsen said a reason behind involving middle school-aged students in this conversation about social media safety is because of how present these issues are for young people.

“Kids and parents (need) to be aware of how this social media world works, what goes on in it, what the benefits are and also what the risks are. For kids, this is completely their world. They’re involved with it all the time, and they have to become good consumers of that media,” Olsen said. “And just as students are trying to learn and navigate these skills, adults have to as well.”

RMS Principal Pati Beaumont told audience members that the presentations to students were quite powerful, adding that she hopes parents will spread the word about social media safety to community members.

In addition to his visit to RMS, Peisner also visited Poultney Elementary on Tuesday, Proctor Junior Senior High School on Thursday, and will visit Rutland Town School on Friday.

For those unable to make it to the events, courses in social media safety are available on OfSMS’s website, www.ofsms.org online.

“I’m fighting for this curriculum in schools,” Peisner said. “My job is to make sure what happened to my son doesn’t happen to anybody else.”

sophia.buckley-clement

@rutlandherald.com