There is no educational benefits to being bullied

Obviously you are comfortable in the digital world and you’ll be able to help your kids navigate social networks. Your son’s principal wrote his letter to alert all the parents, even the ones less comfortable online or aware of social media subtleties, so that might be why the message felt awkward to you. Your alternate proposal is a good one.

However, I want to point out that while you write As a parent, it is my job to provide a safe environment for my children to grow up in, I feel like the rest of your text is in contradiction with this sentence. You write Hurtful comments are, unfortunately, a part of life and you extrapolate from you ability to take criticism.

Firstly, while we are all very reactive to social feedback (much more than we want to admit), teenagers have a VERY HIGH sensitivity to peer comments. Being able to take a step back and assess if a criticism is really meaningful : this is a learnt skill.

Secondly, being mocked builds up stress. Stress induces dopamine and cortisol release in our brain. On short event, this allows us to react faster and focus on a “danger” (the source of stress). If the stress is sustained and repeated, however — think being mocked everyday on public forums, online and offline- these hormones build up and create numerous nasty side-effects. They include suppression of immune system and damage the prefrontal cortex, responsible for self-control, memory and other cognitive functions critical for learning.

In other words, getting your kids exposed to cyberbullying (not a one-time snarky comment but repeated online abuse) puts them in danger from both physical and developmental standpoints. On the other hand, providing a safe environment actually let them build up their cognitive functions and become more resilient in the future.