octobermcr:

so. im 17. (in like a week but still.) i am old enough to handle being talked about negatively. i am old enough to handle not being liked, or even being hated. i am old enough to cope with getting anonymous hate. i am and have been old enough to learn from & correct my mistakes, as well as to monitor my own behavior for bigotry. when people point out bigotry or prejudice in my actions that im not aware of im more than happy to calmly correct it. when people come into my inbox to say that im an annoying whore or a stupid bitch, i can just laugh it off. and if you’re my age or older, you probably can, too.

but you know who is NOT capable of all of that?

younger kids.

i remember being 13 or 14 and saying something stupid (i don’t remember what exactly but it wasnt, like, slurs or anything like that) and just being BRUTALLY come after by kids who were 3-4-5 years older than me, who had thousands of followers. i got tons and tons of hate. i was extremely depressed for quite some time, because i felt like everyone online hated me and my life was ruined forever.

if you’re a junior or a senior in high school—or an adult!!!!!—it is not appropriate to respond to an 8th grader making a mistake with the worst hate you can conjure up. sorry. it’s just not. that’s a middle school kid. go crazy with your peers, i guess, but you need to remember that some of these kids are much younger than you and don’t have the knowledge and wisdom that you have as an older person. if a younger kid says or does something that they might not KNOW they shouldn’t say or do, just message them and calmly let them know that what happened wasnt cool.

keep in mind that middle school is a very difficult time and lots of young kids are very insecure and desperate for the approval of older, “cooler” people. keep in mind that younger kids don’t know everything you do, haven’t been socially conscious as long as you have, and have not learned from previous experience the way you have. keep in mind that young kids don’t have the coping skills or self confidence to deal with a fleet of cruel messages from people they look up to.

ask yourself as an older teen or young adult: if an 8th grader irl said something like “all the hot guys are gay,” would you scream insults at her, try to tear her social circle apart, and have all your friends scream insults at her as well?

probably not.

so don’t do that online.

not that hard.

children online are still children. just because you can’t see their babyfaces doesn’t mean they aren’t children.

people my age (and older, of course) need to be mindful of how they interact with younger kids in online settings. be kind to kids. theyre still learning. before you say something to or about a young kid, think about your thirteen year old self and ask how you at that age would respond to hearing something like this.

tldr; older people need to think about how they interact with kids in online sj settings