subject: Cyber Bullying and How to Help Your Children [print this page] Cyber Bullying and How to Help Your Children
What is Cyber Bullying?
Per Wikipedia, Cyber-bullying is "the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, which is intended to harm others. As it has become more common in society, particularly among young people, legislation and awareness campaigns have arisen to combat it."
Examples of Cyber Bullying:
Disrespectful and harassing text messages or e-mails
Creating a website dedicated to hurting someone
Making threats in a chat room
Furthermore, per Wikipedia, "the National Crime Prevention Council reports cyber-bullying as a problem that affects almost half of all American teens. Unlike physical bullying, electronic bullies can remain virtually anonymous using temporary email accounts, pseudonyms (a fictitious name used by a person or group) in chat rooms, instant messaging programs, cell-phone text messaging, and other Internet venues to mask their identity; this perhaps frees them from normative and social constraints on their behavior."
A Few Tips:
Make certain your child understands what cyber bullying is and what to do if they are bullied.
When your child comments about being bullied, act immediately and never make them feel they are the blame.
Report the bully to the service provider where the bullying occurred. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc. have simple reporting features for kids and parents.
Block the bully from further communication with your child and avoid chat rooms, etc. where it is known the bully will be.
Make certain your child avoids participating in or visiting a cyber bullying site, for example, "vote for the ugly boy.com"
If your child has Facebook for example, make certain their page is secure and make sure they do not "friend" someone they don't know.
Explain to your children the importance of never sharing personal information such as home address, social security numbers, and details about schedules and whereabouts with someone they don't know.
Let your child know that if they know of someone being bullied, tell someone. If faced with an extreme emergency, call 911.
Keep In Mind:
Developing a comfortable communication environment for your children is key. Be approachable so it is easy for them to come to you when something is wrong and even when they may be ashamed or embarrassed. Remind them that you will always love them, have their back, and be in their corner no matter what.
We'd Love to Hear from You!
No one knows everything. In order to conquer cyber bullying, we must come together and help each other by providing ideas, giving advice, and sharing our stories.
Have you experienced cyber bullying with your children or a child that you know? What are some of the things you've experienced and how did you help them through it? We'd also love to hear what you've done to help avoid cyber bullying.
We are certainly looking forward to hearing from you!
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