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Facebook Launches Be Bold: Stop Bullying Campaign During Bullying Awareness Week in Canada
TORONTO, Nov. 14, 2012, 2012 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) --
Awareness campaign encourages teens, parents and educators to make a
personal commitment to help stop bullying
Facebook in partnership with Family
Channel, PREVNet, Concerned Children's Advertisers, Kids Help Phone,
MediaSmarts, Free The Children and STOPcyberbullying.org announced
today the launch of the Be Bold: Stop Bullying campaign during Bullying
Awareness Week in Canada. The campaign centres around an interactive
social media pledge app that enables teens, parents and educators to
make a personal commitment to help stop bullying and recruit their
friends to join them in this commitment.
The new social pledge app, accessible at facebook.com/beboldstopbullyingca, represents the latest development in Facebook's long-term commitment
to partner with leading organizations to inspire thoughtful
conversation and share useful information and resources about bullying
prevention. It is aimed specifically at inspiring bystanders who are
witnesses to bullying. The campaign enables teens, parents and
educators to take a pledge to specific actions that will help stop
bullying, share their pledge and stories with friends and family,
recruit others to join them in this commitment, and start their own
school-based bullying prevention groups on Facebook.
"Promoting safety, online and off, is a top priority for Facebook," said
Jordan Banks, Managing Director, Facebook Canada. "Our goal with Be Bold: Stop Bullying is to raise awareness of the simple, yet powerful, actions that teens,
parents and educators can take to prevent bullying. With over 18
million Canadians active on Facebook each month, we hope to inspire
millions of bystanders to take action by speaking up when they see
bullying occur and help grow a community committed to stopping
bullying."
Other elements of the campaign - available on the campaign's Facebook
Page (http://www.facebook.com/beboldstopbullyingca) include:
-- A heat map that enables people to see how many others have
taken the pledge in their Province.
-- A resource centre that provides additional support and
information for teens, parents and educators on ways to prevent
bullying.
-- An easy-to-use widget that enables people to embed the pledge
on their websites.
-- Information on creating groups within a school community to
share information about how to promote safety and stand up
against bullying.
"Bullying is a relationship problem and those who stand by and watch or
listen are part of the problem -- we need them all to be part of the
solution," said Debra Pepler, Co-Scientific Director, PREVNet."The Be
Bold: Stop Bullying campaignprovides both youth and adults with
resources, as well as strategies to become part of the solution by
speaking up, advocating, being a positive role model, and letting
others know about their commitment to stop bullying. Partnering with
Facebook on this campaign is a very positive step in our efforts to
prevent bullying and promote healthy relationships in Canada."
In September 2011, Facebook and Time Warner joined forces to raise
awareness for bullying prevention in the US, launching a similar
campaign that saw more than one million people like the Page. The
campaign has since launched in Latin America and Australia.
The Toronto Raptors, Rick Mercer, Craig Kielburger and Family Channel's
Lindsay Hamilton have been among the first Canadians to officially take
the pledge to speak up against bullying and are asking others to follow
their lead. These celebrities are sharing what we can do to prevent
bullying through videos airing on the page: http://www.facebook.com/beboldstopbullyingca. Students and adults can take the pledge on the campaign's page for
Canada: http://www.facebook.com/beboldstopbullyingca.
Additional quotes supporting Facebook's Be Bold: Stop Bullying campaign:
Mrs. Laureen Harper, Prime Minister's Office, said, "What recent incidents have highlighted for us, is that we are
losing too many children to bullying. Bullying is a serious issue - it
is very complicated and if good intentions could solve the problem it
would be fixed. Facebook's Be Bold:Stop Bullying program is an important part of anti-bullying campaigns that will help
raise awareness and open the lines of communication with anyone who is
being bullied and those who want to help. I encourage anyone who feels
victimized by bullying to talk to an adult or to call Kids Help Phone,
and to remember that they are not alone."
Hon. Laurel Broten, Ontario Minister of Education, said, "We all have a role to play to make our schools and communities
free from bullying and accepting places for everyone. When we act
together, we can send a strong message that bullying is not ok -
wherever it happens - whether at school, in the community or online.
That's why I'm so proud to join Facebook's "Be Bold Stop Bullying"
campaign and to take the pledge to take a stand against bullying.
Because by working together we can make it better."?
Paul Taillefer, President, Canadian Teachers Federation, said, "educators deal with the after-effects of bullying every day. We
regularly see kids who are often already struggling on the social
margins and even more emotionally vulnerable than most, wrestle with
plummeting self-esteem, failing grades, and depression. Sadly, some of
them lose the battle. As educators, we believe that the welfare of
vulnerable students in every community warrants collaborative and
pro-active effort on their behalf. That is why we applaud Facebook for
launching this campaign and we encourage teachers, parents and students
to sign the social pledge and take a stand against bullying."
About Facebook
Founded in 2004, Facebook's mission is to make the world more open and
connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and
family, to discover what's going on in the world, and to share and
express what matters to them. Facebook® is a registered trademark of
Facebook Inc. All other brand or product names mentioned may be
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
About PREVNet
PREVNet (Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network) is
Canada's authority on research and resources for bullying prevention.
PREVNet is an umbrella network of 65 leading Canadian research
scientists, more than 90 graduate students, and 52 youth-serving
organizations. Launched in 2006 with the Networks of Centres of
Excellence, PREVNet's mission is to stop bullying in Canada and to
promote safe and healthy relationships for all Canadian children and
youth. Led by Scientific Co-directors Dr. Debra Pepler of York
University and Dr. Wendy Craig of Queen's University, this national
network is the first of its kind in Canada, providing an unprecedented
national opportunity for social-cultural change. For more information,
tips on bullying prevention and resources visit www.prevnet.ca. You can find PREVNet on Twitter: @prevnet and Facebook.
About Kids Help Phone
Kids Help Phone is a Canadian and world leader, known for our expertise
in providing vital, innovative, and professional counselling services
to children and youth. Since 1989 we have offered children, teens and
young adults in Canada a critical lifeline of hope and support, through
our free, anonymous and confidential service. Our professional
counsellors support the mental health and well-being of young people
ages five to 20, in urban, rural, and remote communities, by providing
one-on-one counselling, information and resources online and by phone.
Our internationally recognized, award-winning websites are considered a
model of child-focused interactive design, and offer online counseling
forums and engaging, therapeutic games, tools and information to
encourage resilience and self-care. A community-based national charity,
Kids Help Phone receives no core government funding and relies on
community and corporate support to keep our essential service
available. We're available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in English
and in French.
About MediaSmarts
MediaSmarts(formerly known as Media Awareness Network) is a Canadian
not-for-profit centre for digital and media literacy. Its vision is
that young people have the critical thinking skills to engage with
media as active and informed digital citizens.MediaSmarts offers
hundreds of digital and media literacy resources for librarians,
parents and educators on its websitewww.mediasmarts.ca.
About Concerned Children's Advertisers
Concerned Children's Advertisers (CCA) is a unique non-profit
organization and model of corporate social responsibility. Our 19
Canadian member companies are committed to understanding and
contributing solutions to challenging issues that impact children,
including bullying prevention, self-esteem, healthy active living, and
media literacy. The organization is also supported by numerous
partners, including child-centred advertisers, broadcasters and issue
experts. As a committed group of Canadian advertisers, CCA's mission is
to be the credible, caring and authoritative voice of responsible
children's advertising and communications.
www.cca-arpe.ca
About STOPcyberbullying.org
Home of "Don't Stand By, Stand Up," StopCyberbullying was the first
cyberbullying prevention program in North America. Its specially
trained young volunteers design and deliver community programs to help
their peers address cyberbullying. StopCyberbullying's founder, Parry
Aftab, calls them her "cyberarmy" empowered to tackle this important
issue. These teens and tweens staff their own text messaging support
line for other young people, build apps to promote kindness, and
provide student peer support in their schools. The free
StopCyberbullying Toolkit is packed with $1.5 million of resources for
K-12 students and parents to learn how to prevent, address and stop
cyberbullying. Learn more at StopCyberbullying.ca.
About Family Channel
Family Channel is a premium, commercial-free network offering the best
in family television entertainment in over 6 million homes across
Canada. Dedicated to celebrating family life and providing a fun
experience for all, Family airs a unique mix of series, movies and
specials, with a large portion of programming supplied by Disney.
Family Channel also offers Family OnDemand, a television-based
Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) service and Family OnLine, an
Internet-based, broadband service. Both of these services offer hit
Disney movies and series, top-rated Canadian series to subscribers when
they want it, where they want it. Visit us at Family.ca.
Family Channel is a member of the Astral family. Astral Media Inc.
(TSX: ACM.A/ACM.B) is one of Canada's largest media companies. It
operates several of the country's most popular pay and specialty
television, radio, out-of-home advertising and interactive media
properties. Astral plays a central role in community life across the
country by offering diverse, rich and vibrant programming that meets
the tastes and needs of consumers and advertisers. To learn more about
Astral, visit astral.com.
SOURCE: Facebook® Canada
To view this news release in HTML formatting, please use the following URL: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2012/14/c7903.html
SOURCE: Facebook® Canada
Press Contacts Facebook Claire LaRocca, High Road Communications on behalf of
Facebook Canada:claire.larocca@highroad.com / (416) 368-8348 ext. 207 PREVNet Karen
Richardson, Communications: karen.richardson@queensu.ca / (613) 533-6000, ext. 75014
Kids Help Phone Pascale Guillotte, Director
Communications:pascale.guillotte@kidshelpphone.ca/ (416) 581-8974 MediaSmarts Maya
Shoucair, Communications Officer:MShoucair@mediasmarts.ca / (613)224-7721ext.231
Concerned Children's Advertisers Bev Deeth, President:bdeeth@cca-arpe.ca / (416)
484-0871 ext. 1 STOPCyberbullying.org Parry Aftab,parry@aftab.com/ (902) 316-3355 /
(902) 370-1234 Family Channel Jaime Werby, Communications Manager,
Kids:JWerby@astral.com / (416) 956-8584
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