A recent Facebook post that went viral cost an Atlanta man his job and opened\u00a0an important conversation for families around individual responsibility online.<\/p>\n
Gerod Roth, a white man, was fired after he posted a picture of himself with his co-worker\u2019s four-year-old African American son to his personal Facebook page. In response, Roth’s Facebook friends began posting a string of derogatory, racially charged comments beneath the photo.<\/p>\n
That cruel, bullying digital exchange went viral. The fallout cost Roth his job (and reputation for the moment) and the child\u2019s family obvious heartache.<\/p>\n
Roth\u2019s social wreckage is an acute reminder that we are all publishers<\/em> \u2014 young or old, child or adult. And, as publishers, that makes each of us\u00a0responsible for even the\u00a0associated content<\/em> that lives on our pages, in our feeds, and on our websites.<\/p>\n Roth later apologized and claimed he tried to intervene and end the offensive string, but\u00a0that portion of the conversation wasn\u2019t captured in the viral screenshots.<\/p>\n Still, the fact remains: As the owner of the Facebook page rather than try to temper the conversation he could have quickly deleted any offensive comments. But he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n There is an upside to this disturbing story. Sydney Jade, the child’s mother, graciously responded to the event by creating the hashtag #HisNameIsCayden along with a gallery of photos that immediately put a very human, very beloved face on her innocent son. The positive, public support for #HisNameIsCayden demonstrated the growing power victims of any type of cyberbullying and hate can have online. This is progress in the vast, faceless superhighways of the Internet.<\/p>\n The conversation for families around this incident is an important one. Take some time this week to make sure your kids understand both the responsibility<\/em> online and potential consequences that come with each and every post.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Toni Birdsong is a Family Safety Evangelist<\/a> to McAfee<\/a>. You can find her on Twitter @McAfee_Family<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A recent Facebook post that went viral cost an Atlanta man his job and opened\u00a0an important conversation for families around…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":642,"featured_media":202051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[100,2205,321],"coauthors":[3359],"class_list":["post-45620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-safety","tag-facebook","tag-protecting-kids-online","tag-social-networking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDiscussion points for families:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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