Coping with Cyberbullying

Here are a few link that further explain different forms of cyberbullying and why some kids do not tell. Cyberbullying is anonymous. Cyberbullying is relentless. It can be appearing constantly on the phone and computer that a young person uses on a regularly. Cyberbullying assaults privacy boundaries in a way that magnifies the horror as it makes damaging material public to an infinite audience that can instantly download, save or forward to others.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/how_to_cope_with_cyber_bullying
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/blogs/coping-cyberbullying-use-technology-terrify
http://www.keepyourchildsafe.org/bullying/cyber-bullying-help.html

Deleting Cyberbullying

Becoming A Part Of Cyberbullying Solution

Cyberbullying is a public health issue that continues to go through its own kind of social daze as schools, parents, students, and law enforcement attempt to establish some common guidelines in dealing with episodes of online harassment.

You can help create the process. Rather than criticize the school or the police department for being “behind the tech curve,” you can be part of creating a better process to keep kids safe online in your community. Simply being committed to bringing the issue to light is critical.

Remain calm. Regardless of your emotion around a cyberbullying incident you can get to a resolution sooner with a calm manner rather than frustrated demands. It’s easy for these conversations between parents and officials to go bad quickly if one party doesn’t see the other resolving the problem fast enough. Be kind, calm, and politely persistent.

Be prepared before it happens. The best way to deal with a cyberbullying incident when it arises is to be prepared before it arises. This means staying alert to your child’s online life, reading publications (like this blog and others), and keeping online safety a conversation point in your home.

React appropriately. If someone simply makes a rude comment or posts an inappropriate photo, don’t over react. It’s simply time to block that person. If there’s a pattern of such posts aimed at one person or if the comments escalate to threatening, slandering, intimidating, or become sexually explicit, then it’s time to take action.

Maintain perspective. While cyberbullying is a huge threat to the physical and emotional health of kids today, the reality is that the perfect process has yet to evolve. Wrangling the issue with any degree of success will take parents, students, schools, and law enforcement developing long-term guidelines. In the interim, it’s everyone’s role to commit to increased awareness and growing skills around the unpromising task of helping teens communicate, and manage conflict, in the online world.

Where To Start: Reporting Cyberbullying

Reporting and resolving a cyberbullying incident will vary depending on your awareness and understanding of the issue. However, this list provides the necessary steps to help stop cyberbullying online.

Save the evidence. Print copies of messages and websites. Take screen shots of posts or comments on social networks.

First offense (if minor in nature): Ignore, delete, or block the sender. Instant message programs, e­mail, social networking sites, and cell phones all have blocking features.

If a fake or offensive profile targeting a child is set up on a social networking site, report it to the site. Go to the site’s Help Center for further details.

Make sure to copy the URL link (the website address) to the site to report.

Investigate your child’s online presence. Search your child’s name through search engines.

If the person doing the bullying is another student, share evidence with the school counselor.

Report the cyberbullying to the police or cyber crime unit in your area if the cyberbullying contains threats, intimidation or sexual exploitation.

Check to see if any additional bullying may be occurring at school.

If a perpetrator is known, and cyberbullying is continuing, contact the perpetrator’s parents and share your evidence. Ask that the cyberbullying stop and that any posted material used to be removed immediately.

If your child expresses emotional distress or thoughts of self-harm seek help immediately.

Cyberbullying

Today’s bullies have moved from the playground to the Web. Cyberbullying has grown into a big problem among middle and high school aged youths. 43% of kids report being bullied while online. About every 1 in 4 children have had it happen more than once. Exactly what is cyberbullying and how can parents protect their kids?