#ERASEbullying Twitter Town Hall - Nov. 13th {How-to's}

On the eve of the ERASE Bullying Summit in Vancouver, and in the wake of the Amanda Todd tragedy, I'm taking the time to reflect on what this means to my family and how it affects us.  We have a pre-teen in grade 7, a 3 year-old in preschool and 5 month old in our household, so we definitely have a wide range of maturity to deal with.  I'm also wondering why it took so long for a summit like this to happen - does someone have to die and garner international attention before the government takes action?  Are they just riding the storm or will this initiative be long-term?  Hopefully, tomorrow's ERASE Bullying Summit and Twitter Town Hall will provide some answers.

About a week before the Amanda Todd incident, my husband had PVR'd an interesting documentary about sexting called Sext-Ed.  We watched it together in amazement and horror, and we showed it to Miss S and talked to her about the dangers of sexting and how it can result into bullying.  I couldn't believe the ages that this was starting at and we both couldn't believe the magnitude and negative connotations that can result in one, small act.

I then look at Lil J and Baby Z, and am afraid for them.  The world they are growing up in seems to be a much faster pace than the world we grew up in.  Rewind back to grade 9 when mobile technology was just becoming popular, and the must-have accessory was a pager, or "beeper", stuffed in your front jean pocket. We would send numerical messages such as "hello" or "I love you" or simply a number to call back.  If you remember those simple times, I can see you laughing and nodding your head.  Fast-forward to present day and we're in a world of Facebook, Twitter, picture messaging, emails - you name it.  And once something is on the internet, there's no taking it back.  Thankfully, it seems that ERASE Bullying is taking the initiative to help educate our educators on the effects of bullying and the internet.

Hopefully ERASE Bullying will continue to help educate parents, children, teachers and educators, friends and family about the effects of bullying and how we can get together to help prevent bullying incidents from happening.  We can no longer ignore the fact that our kids are being bullied or perhaps are the bullies, neither can we ignore the fact that it still happens long after high school, college and university.

Help the children of our future and participate in the Twitter Town Hall before and during the ERASE Bullying Summit tomorrow, November 13, 2012 between 9:00am - 4:00pm.  Premier Christy Clark {@ChristyClarkBC} and ERASE Bullying {@ERASEbullyingBC} will be on hand to answer any questions during that time period.  When tweeting your questions, please use the #ERASEbullying hashtag and feel free to include @ChristyClarkBC or @ERASEbullyingBC in your tweet.  For more how-to's on this Twitter Town Hall, click here.

We'll be tweeting throughout the day in support of #ERASEbullying and can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts!

What questions will you be tweeting to @ChristyClarkBC and @ERASEbullyingBC #ERASEbullying tomorrow?