LI kids talk about social media bullying

Credit: Kidsday staff artist / Matt Faraci, Sayville
Social media is the hottest thing, and it seems almost everyone uses it. The most common social media are Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter. We have these apps. There are great things about these social media and bad things.
There can be bullying on social media. There are ways to help stop a bully or to stop bullying. One way is to block that person. Let’s say someone puts a comment on your post that really hurts your feelings. You tell them to stop, but they might just keep doing it. There is always a way to stop the person from writing mean comments: Block that person. Blocking a person on a social media platform is taking them away from your page. Taking them away from your page means they won’t be able to post mean comments or hurt you in any way.
Another way to stop these bullies is to confront them. By confronting you can reply to their comment and tell them what they are doing is wrong. You can also tell a parent. Telling someone can help you with the problem.
There is also something called “report” or “flag it” on some social media. They both help the app tell which person to ban or give a warning to, such as telling this person what they are doing wrong. Flagging is a little different from reporting someone. When you are reporting someone, you must give a report about this person and explain what they are doing. Flagging is just pressing a flag and picking from a list what they are doing. You can choose bullying, copyright, acting weird and more.
These are some ways to stop bullying. You can also go to the National Bullying Prevention Center for more ideas: nwsdy.li/pacerbully
Mary Ralph’s fifth-grade class, South Oceanside Elementary School, School #4