Being a child is not always easy. Being a popular child in school appears to be a tedious accomplishment. Children, who are popular among their peers, have a more pleasant school and learning experience. They enjoy waking up in the morning and being taken to school to meet their friends and mingle within their established social network.
However, not every child is naturally an outgoing person. Many have timid personalities or are generally shy or quiet. For these children, socialising is a difficult task. They often appear to be outsiders – detached from the rest of the children. Perceived as weak personalities, they regularly become victims of bullying. "Traditional" forms of bullying usually start from early teen years and involve mocking, insults, verbal and physical threatening, etc. All lead to decreased levels of confidence making the victim feel worthless which ever so often results in the victim's complete withdrawal from the social world.
New age technology has added yet another threat to the victims of bullying. The internet can be a useful tool for young people. However, it also bears dangers and further sources for bullies such as chat rooms, social networking sites, emails and instant messaging. Bullies can easily get hold of their victims and attack them on a larger scale as the internet has a wide reach. Social networking sites function as platforms for spreading lies about the victim, sending out nasty, threatening emails and instant messages, setting up websites which solely aim at the emotional destruction of the victims of cyber bullying by mocking their appearance, social background, style of clothing in order to harm their reputation.
Parents should always encourage their children to inform them when they are being bullied. Children frequently underestimate the pure cruelty they are exposed to or fear that their parents will overreact. If you as a parent sense that your child may be a victim of cyber bullying, stay calm and be of emotional support for your children. Suggest that the bully is blocked from the contact list and that any potential or existing bullies are deleted from your child's social network friends list. That way, bullies will not be able to post rude comments on your child's profile. If your child repeatedly receives harassing emails, then delete that account and set up a new one.
Should you feel that your child is exposed to physical threats, then do not hesitate to contact the police. Stalking as well as repeated harassment should in any case be brought to the attention of the police as to prevent further and more severe attacks.
Further information and advice can be found here.
1 comment:
The problem is that the Internet is a safe haven for bullies because of the anonymity. There is not a more cowardly way to bully someone then from behind a curtain. But parents are the key. Parents need to get involved in helping solve the cyberbullying problem. If parents cared enough about their child being the bully or passing along the material as much as they care when their child is a victim, it would be a huge step forward. But then, of course, how do you know if your child is involved in cyberbullying? You need to monitor their Internet activity. Monitoring software like our PC Pandora records everything that happens on the PC. If your child is a victim, you will know; if they are a bully, you will know. Whatever the case may be with your child (victim or bully), you need to intervene. Check us out at http://pcpandora.com to see how you can be a part of the solution instead of a passive part of the problem.
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