This keynote will teach participants to:

• Realize the prevalence, scope, and frequency of cyberbullying, sexting, sextortion, digital dating violence, and digital self-harm among youth

• Recognize the best ways youth can respond when they or others are harmed

• Help students learn how to live a great story with their lives through their choices

• Comprehend the value of formal peer-led initiatives that tap into their unique talents and abilities

• Realize how moral development, empathy, and resilience can be built to reduce offending and victimization

• Learn new ways to understand student experiences and include their voices in your policies and programming

• Think through ways to promote positivity and help make kindness go viral across your campus

• Discover how anonymous reporting systems can help

• Understand the critical importance of creating and maintaining a positive school climate to promote healthy interactions

This presentation is designed for school administrators, educators, and others who desire a deeper understanding of (and action plan to deal with) technology misuse among youth today. We first share updated research findings, as well as important correlates and consequences. With regard to prevention, we emphasize the importance of developing kids with moral compasses, compassionate hearts, and resilient mindsets to bravely face social adversity and overcome it. We also encourage educators to marshal the powers of peer influence and school culture to curtail peer conflict, harassment, and other problem behaviors. In this capacity, we share specific, pragmatic school climate initiatives such as social norming, youth grassroots campaigns, peer mentoring, data-driven action plans, and multi-pronged policy and programming approaches by adults. The overall goal is to help administrators address key intrinsic and extrinsic components of youth development, not only to enhance student achievement, success, productivity, and connectedness, but also to produce students who are safe, smart, honest, and responsible both offline and online.