Radio Rookies is hosting an in-class live chat to coincide with a new story about sexual cyberbullying airing on WNYC Tuesday morning. Rookie Reporter Temitayo Fagbenle will host a facilitated online conversation for high school students to discuss the issues her story brings to light.
16-year-old Temitayo Fagbenle is troubled by the fact that her Facebook newsfeed is inundated with sexually explicit photos and videos of other teenage girls that are posted, commented on, and shared countless times by her peers. Teens targeting and shaming each other isn’t new but in the past the messages written on bathroom stalls only scarred a girl’s reputation during high school. Temitayo brings listeners inside the cyber world of teenagers to explore how using the internet as a tool to ruin a reputation has repercussions far beyond the schoolyard.
Radio Rookies will facilitate an in-class live chat with students from classrooms around the country to talk about the cyberbullying issues Temitayo’s story brings up, including:
—The atmosphere of judgement and criticism associated with photo sharing and commenting on social network sites, and the double standard that applies to boys and girls
—Strategies for controlling your online reputation and what teens can do to clean up their digital footprint
—The repercussions of sexual cyberbullying both in school and in the courts
—What can teenagers, educators, policy makers and social media sites can do to help stop cyberbullying
The live chat will take place from 1 pm to 2 pm.
In order to take part in the conversation, students will need to have internet access. Temitayo, the Rookie Reporter, will host the chat with Radio Rookies producers facilitating the discussion and moderating comments (each comment will be read and vetted by an adult producer before it goes live).
Educator Resources:
Common Sense Media created this Gender and Digital Life Toolkit and this Cyberbullying Toolkit to help educators take an effective stance against harassment online and help teachers broach sensitive subjects in their classrooms.