Rachel+S.+H’s+Final+AmEx+2015+Speech


 * Title of Speech **

= Kids will be Kids =

So, some day last week, my little brother got an instagram account. He’s only 10 years old, (i know ugh) and day after day he’d post like 10 ridiculously random videos of him fooling around, playing video games, or beatboxing. I can tell my constant, “why do you even need an instagram? better yet, why do all you tiny weebs have iPhones?”s were getting old. He claims that it’s because “all the other kids at my school are getting instagram accounts,” and then proceeds to count off a list of other 10 year olds that signed up for this app, and to this I cringe.

I’ve seen enough 12 year olds on instagram, tumblr, and youtube to see where this is going. 8th grade boys making out with puny 6th graders, these 6th graders trying to show off things they yet don’t have, 7th graders taking bathroom selfies with unnecessary vulgar captions that just perfectly illustrate their incredibly immature, prepubescent personalities. That’s why, for most websites, there’s a rule that you have to be 13 years old or older to sign up. From their irresponsibility and immaturity, delivered upon these adolescents comes the new blossoming idea of cyber bullying.

Do we all remember those days, sitting in our 6th grade classrooms, getting lectured about the pros and cons of the internet, it’s safety, the “think before you post” motto we promised to uphold? Those lectures had great intentions, and it’s undeniable that that hellhole of hormones, aka middle school, makes students want to act as obnoxious as possible and do stupid things. But do they really work? Why do so many kids continue to send or post such horrific things against others, even after being told not to? For “humor”? Just for kicks? To set some atmosphere of middle school supremacy? Are they just being immature babies? After all, “kids will be kids!”

Last Friday, I came home and scrambled to get at least some work done before the weekend of procrastination. However, while all this was happening, there were two 10 year olds fuelled by two vanilla lattes, running around and screaming, a little too excited for their sleepover. Every minute, between their video games, my little brother thinks of another hilarious video idea for instagram and begs me to watch the extraordinary filming process before hitting the blue “post” button. Eventually, I just kinda stop caring, though i never really cared in the first place.

All was dandy and well, the kids were having fun. My little brother was voice calling one of his soccer friends through the xbox. This kid also happened to just recently make an instagram account, so my brother decided to go check him out and give him a follow. He only had one post and turns out it’s a video. My brother’s friend through the xbox was urging him to hurry and watch it cause it apparently was the funniest thing ever. So, excitedly, my brother called his other friend over, turned up the volume and hit play.

“You’re fat, you’re ugly. Nobody likes you and you should probably kill yourself.”

I did a double take. Did I seriously hear a 10 year old’s voice telling me I should kill myself?? I was, needless to say, shocked. No, I was shocked, enraged, and honestly hurt that a 10 year old would think this is funny.

I’ve unfortunately seen too many innocent individuals attacked, threatened, and/or verbally harassed through the internet for years. But thankfully, the internet also has a very supportive side. And with the wonders of technology, it’s even possible to track down the hater’s IP address and block them, even if they select to be an anonymous user. But that doesn’t get rid of them 100%. They’re still out there, they usually continue to find other ways to hurt people.

Usually, I don’t think of the haters as much. They’re probably some lame ass living some sad life that doesn’t have anything better to do, right? But my little brother’s friend got me thinking, how many of those vile bullies have I met in person without knowing? How many have I been friends with? How many have been in my house?

I’ve met my little brother’s friend countless amounts of times, his family members are incredibly friendly and supportive people. Our families have gone out to eat lunch, they’ve come to my skating shows, they’re just regular people. So my question still stands, what if those haters aren’t all lame asses behind a computer screen like I thought they were? What if they’re just regular people that hate the same classes I do? What if they’re people that love the same bands as I do? Heck what if they’re kids? What if they one of them’s just a blonde, xbox loving little kid who happened to recently get an instagram account?

His post was in so many levels of wrong that I was dumbfounded, I was speechless. He’s a kid! I couldn’t just start yelling through my little brother’s xbox mic, telling him how much of douche he was being. I looked at my brother in shock, and before I could say anything, he puts his phone down and his mic up.

“Dude that’s not funny! That’s really mean and people can get hurt. What if people saw that? They’ll kick you off of instagram! People can get hurt by that, dude that’s-that’s…”

“Cyberbullying.”

My little brother and I don’t agree on much, we too easily get into arguments and bicker about literally everything. But for once, I was in awe. For, what seemed like, the first time ever he was being mature about something and this time he was right.

“Yeah that’s cyberbullying dude! That’s not nice. Delete your post right now, or I’m unfollowing you!”

At this point, his friend was finally getting his feathers ruffled. He didn’t want to lose a precious follower out of the few he had, yet he still insisted that it was just for laughs.

“Take it down right now! Or else I’m reporting you!” “People can take you down for videos like that, I’m not trying to be mean but people won’t like that. Post a selfie instead!”

Whether his friend followed up on his directions to post a selfie, I don’t know. But he finally was able to convince him to delete the video. I honestly can say that I have never been more proud of my little brother in my life and that my respect for him went from .2 to 200.

Sure kids on the internet or social media can be really immature and awful, especially if they’re new to the world of the web and they don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into and the boundaries from right and wrong. I don’t want to live in an America where 20% of kids consider suicide due to anonymous hate mail or videos like the one I told you guys about. I want to live in an America where people know cyberbullying is real. Where people are educated enough to know the right ways of handling it, and where the haters behind the screen aren’t 10 year olds or 14 year olds that doesn’t know any better. If they’re taught correctly, they’ll be able to recognize these boundaries and how to deal with situations like my brother’s. To our 6th grade selves or 6th graders right now being lectured about internet safety, it may seem like obvious logic and a waste of our time. But they do work. They do give a fair insight that problems and people like these haters exist, and that it may not always be a complete stranger like you may think.


 * Cite your sources **

http://nobullying.com/bullying-suicide-statistics/