Education Minister Peter Fassbender released the following statement at the start of Bullying Awareness Week Nov. 17-23, 2013. Parenting is by far one of the hardest jobs on the planet. Cyberbullying and other social media issues are not making this job any easier. To anyone with kids, keeping up with the latest apps, privacy rules and online tools can seem overwhelming. The good news is that through education, we can help parents help their children navigate the online world.

This Bullying Awareness Week, I’m happy to announce a resource that I believe will help parents gain a better understanding of their child’s online life.

As part of B.C.’s ERASE Bullying strategy, Jane Thornthwaite, parliamentary secretary for student support and parent engagement, will soon be working with student safety experts Theresa Campbell and Jesse Miller on videos for parents. Through these videos, parents will be able to learn the preventative actions and techniques they can take to protect their kids, and they will also find out what to do if their child is the target of cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying is an issue that many parents did not face growing up. We are fortunate that B.C. is home to some of the world’s leading experts in student safety. Theresa is the president of Safer Schools Together and the lead trainer for ERASE Bullying. She is an international expert on student safety and improving school climate and culture. Vancouver-based Jesse is a respected international authority on social media safety issues.

Our goal is that Theresa’s and Jesse’s experience, knowledge and advice will give parents some of the tools and information they need to both educate themselves and help their kids. The videos will be hosted on ERASEBullying.ca for people to view, share and use at parent meetings.

Bullying Awareness Week was created to prevent bullying through education and awareness. For more information see: bullying.org

To learn more about the B.C. Government’s provincial bullying strategy visit: erasebullying.ca