March 11th, 2011 
davidguide 
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The White House and social networking site Facebook joined forces Thursday to battle bullying.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama opened a White House conference on bullying, while Facebook launched two new safety measures that will allow members of the site to privately report content to parents, teachers and other support groups.
Obama recalled that with his big ears and a funny name, he was also bullied during his student days. His audience of about 150 students, parents, teachers and advocates of anti-bullying included the kin of two 11-year old boys who killed themselves over the last two years due to bullying.
The president said that to disseminate government efforts to stop bullying, a new website, StopBullying.gov, will be launched. The portal is a step further by Washington to protect students from bullying based on race, ethnicity, disability or sexuality after the Education Department sent educators in October a letter that it is their legal duty to protect students from bullying.
Among Facebook’s planned safety features is the relaunch of the improved Safety Center in a few weeks that will have educational videos, articles and other online content to help adults address the bullying problem.
The Obamas, in a video posted on the safety page, encouraged Facebook members to join in battling bullying, online and offline. The president said that while bullying was long considered an inevitable part of growing up, it could be grow into something more harmful because technology allows bullies to follow their victims from schools to phone and computers.
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