The younger you are the first time your parents let you have any sort of social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.), the more likely you are to not be completely aware of the dangers. Social Media can be a great thing, a place to connect with friends and family, but it can also be a very risky place. So many
young people, especially girls, trust social media to be an outlet for their feelings. You have to be careful about what you are willing to post. There are a few things you need to ask yourself before you press that permanent “post” button.

Before posting, ask yourself these things:

•  Will I be ashamed of this a few years from now? Think about a job you might really want or a college you’ve dreamed about since you were a child. It is becoming more common to check a possible recruit’s social media as a part of the application process. You do not want to be the person who loses something you really wanted because of a post from three years ago. Do not assume that because your profile is “private” this does not apply to you.
• Would I feel comfortable showing my parents this? This applies to both “private” message and public posts. If you think your parents would freak out over something you are about to send out into the world wide web, you should rethink it. Remember when you send anything over private
  message that even if you delete it from your screen, you’ve sent a copy to someone else to use as they please. Through private message, it might only be one person, but if you post it to your wall or feed, someone could easily screen shot and save it.
• Would I get in trouble with my school? Another thing that is becoming more common is the suspension/expulsion of children for what they do on social media. Most students think the school has no control of what they do outside of school, which is not completely true. If you post something and they decide it applies to the school’s safety, the school can take it into their own hands. In both my junior and senior years of high school, three students posted incriminating pictures of guns on their social media accounts with violent captions. Those pictures may not have had anything to do with the school or anyone in the school, but they showed a violent tendency in the students who posted them. If a school sees that, they are required to take precaution.
• If you are about to post an opinionated/controversial statement, ask yourself “Am I willing to argue with someone over this opinion?” It’s becoming popular to debate on social media, but you also see people post about controversial subjects and then get mad when people post their opinion in retaliation. If you post something on the internet, it’s no longer your property. If you post an opinion on Facebook, be ready for other people’s opinion.

If you ask yourself these questions every time you are about to post something, you are on your way to having a safe and clean social media experience. Remember that nothing you put on the internet is ever really “private,” no matter how many blocks you put on your profile. Do not trust profiles of people you’ve never met, based on what you see on their profile. If you’ve never met a person in real life, you probably should not accept their friend invitation at all. But if you do, remember that just as easily as you can make an account for yourself, they can make an account with information that is not truly theirs.

I encourage everyone to watch the video “The Dangers of Social Media (Child Predator Social Experiment) Girl Edition!” by Coby Persin. In this instance, it was to teach the girls a lesson, but it easily could be real and any of us could be taken from our families into a life we don’t want, because of who we trusted on
social media.

The post When Privacy Isn’t Private. appeared first on Fact Not Fiction.

By Arreyah.

Bullying is a common topic among modern teenagers, and there are different types of bullying—verbal,
physical and cyber. Out of all the different types of bullying, I think cyber is the most prominent. For some reason, people think their words do less harm from behind a keyboard. Those “keyboard warriors” don’t think about the connection between bullying and the growing numbers of young people committing suicide. “Simple” words can change someone’s life forever.

Whether it’s cyberbullying or a kid being overpowered and beaten up by someone undeservedly, if you see it in front of you, don’t turn away and pretend it’s nothing. Sometimes all someone needs before they give up is to know they aren’t alone and to know that they were worth someone standing up for them. There is
no such thing as an innocent bystander in the case of bullying. If you stand by and watch, you are a part of the problem. Don’t be the problem, be the solution. Whether it’s typing out a defense for someone on Facebook or telling someone to back off from their unnecessary physical violence, you’ve done something. Once you do something to help a victim of bullying, you have become a part of the solution.

The post #FNFRealTalkTeam: Don’t Turn Away and Pretend It’s Nothing. appeared first on Fact Not Fiction.

No one deserves to feel disrespected, mistreated, or afraid to walk down the hall at school, but everyone deserves to feel safe in school and on social media. Unfortunately, bullying is a trend that, for some, makes simple tasks like walking home or going to school more difficult than it really has to be. Not to mention that the consequences of bullying can be very detrimental to many victims. The truth is that bullying is real whether or not you’ve personally experienced it, and many victims of bullying experience depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, and poor school adjustment. In addition, bullying also has strong ties with suicide rates among young people in the United States. A study conducted by Yale University found
that bully victims are 2 to 9 times more likely to commit suicide, while another study in Great Britain found that half of suicides among young people are to be blamed on bullying.

Oftentimes, young people refuse to speak out about their experiences with bullying because of the fear of retaliation; however, not saying anything gives the bully the implication that what he/she is doing is right. Often, there are situations where other students witness bullying taking place and they have to choose whether to interfere or ignore the issue. Of course, in some cases there could be some risks with interfering, but we should never walk away from someone in need. So here are a few things you can do if
you witness another friend or student being bullied.

Intervene

It should never be easy to sit back and watch another person get bullied. Too often we see videos on social media of bullies using their aggression and power to belittle and scare their victims. This is not okay, and
although it may feel like what’s happening to another person is not your business, you should take a moment and place yourself in the victim’s shoes. Would you be ok if someone seriously injured you while bystanders stood there videoing it? Would you want someone to stand up for you? How would it make you
feel if someone just walked past you while a bully punched or choked you for your lunch money? These are all things to remember when you cope with the complexity of standing up for someone else who’s being bullied. Studies have shown that more than half of bullying ends because a concerned bystander
intervened.

Four Steps for Intervening

1.     Remain calm

The most important step when choosing to intervene is to remain calm and don’t allow the issue to overwhelm you. It is so easy for us to become shaken up, so take a moment to breathe and gather your thoughts

2.     Ask bully to stop

Approach the situation quickly to disperse the altercation and tell the bully that this is not the way to handle this situation and demand him/her to stop or be reported for their actions.

3.     Check on the victim

Once the altercation has ended, the victim may be really upset about what has taken place. Be sure to check on the victim and make sure that he/she is ok and ensure that there isn’t any physical harm done.

4.     Report the issue

No bullying incident should go unreported. If the bully is doing this to one person, then he/she could very well be doing the same to someone else. If the incident has occurred at school, be sure to seek assistance from an administrator or teacher and be very descriptive when reporting what has happened. If the incident occurs outside of school, then be sure to report it to your parent or someone who can effectively handle the situation.

Intervening can be difficult, but bullying will never end if we just continue to sit back and do nothing. Bullying can have very serious long-term physical and emotional consequences on the victims, so we need to make sure we are doing what we can to help them. Everyone deserves respect, and we all must be willing to step in and help when others are not getting treated the way they deserve to be treated.

The post #FNFRealTalkTeam: Bullying appeared first on Fact Not Fiction.

Clifton and Ajai are back in our latest Fact Check episode to discuss the warning signs of emotional, physical and digital abuse.

The post #FactCheck appeared first on Fact Not Fiction.

Always remember: You’re perfect just the way you are.

The post Bullying is NEVER Acceptable appeared first on Fact Not Fiction.

In person, from a computer, from a phone – all mean words hurt. #BeKind

The post #BeKind appeared first on Fact Not Fiction.