Teaching Your Kids About How to Deal with Cyberbullying

Bullying isn’t anything new, but technology has made it advanced. What was once just reserved for school or public places has reached homes through social media. Cyberbullying is a new form of bullying which is affecting kids and adults at almost equal rates now.

Adults know how to take care of themselves and ignore such situations but kids are the point of focus now. They just like to jump into such situations for no apparent reason. Parents must teach about how to deal with cyberbullying if they want to protect their kids.

Prevent Cyberbullying Now

What is Cyberbullying?

“Cyberbullying is the use of digital technologies with an intent to offend, humiliate, threaten, harass or abuse somebody”.

When someone makes rude comments about you in a public area like school, you feel hurt and sad. These feelings turn into anger and depression with time but soon you leave school and head home which is a safe place.

But if someone makes fun of you on online platforms, the situation gets worse. There is this feeling that everyone everywhere is watching, reading, or listening to that humorous post about you right now. And since you have your phone everywhere with you and the internet is available around the globe, this embarrassment is hard to let go.

The next time you wonder about what is cyberbullying, open up the internet and see thousands of kids making fun of each other. It looks like fun on the bright pages but it has disastrous effects.

Effects of Cyberbullying

Written words hurt more than the spoken ones because of the permanency. You know when there is something written on the wall of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any other social media platform, it stays there forever. When a kid thinks like this, for him, his life is over the moment his secret went on viral on those platforms. The effects of cyberbullying are much more harmful than what we can comprehend.

Teens’ minds are vulnerable and they are filled with weak emotions. When they encounter such situations, it is most likely the situation of life and death for them. It is very difficult for them to handle the pressure and embarrassment. This is how cyberbullying affects teens’ minds:

Their self-esteem is reduced to an extinct level.
You will see that they like more and more time alone now.
They have started harming themselves physically.
They are now more shy, afraid, and less confident.
They hardly trust anyone now.
You might encounter some dangerous weapons in their rooms.
They have suicidal thoughts.
They are now more vulnerable and weak than ever.
Whenever you try to get them open up, they are reluctant and aggressive.

And there are many more things that parents can notice readily. Since parents are the closest relationship to the kids, they can notice little changes in their attitudes and work on them. It is very important to keep a keen eye on your kids at this stage as just small negligence can cause big troubles.

Some Examples of Cyberbullying

If you are not sure that your kid is being cyberbullied, then you must know that there is no single approach to cyberbullying. There are plenty of ways to achieve the goal that the bully sets. Cyberbullying on the internet in various forms. Look for these forms there. Here are some of the common examples of cyberbullying forms:

Dedicating a complete website or blog to a person to harass. If you type your kid's name on Google and find a website associated with it, your kid is hurt then. Many bullies use this way to humiliate their targets properly.
Teens are vulnerable. They share stuff and enjoy sharing secrets. But, among those, there are the ones who use that information to tease the other person. This is how personal chats, videos, and images are exposed on the internet.
There are some bullies out there who impersonate the target child and post weird stuff from this profile. They make the kid so embarrassed that he never thinks of using the same account again.

There are a lot of other types as well, you just have to keep a keen eye on your kid’s internet usage to make sure he is not being trapped.

How to Deal with Cyberbullying

You can protect your kids through your help and stuff, but in the end, it is they who have to handle this. The wise choice here is to teach them how to deal with cyberbullying at its worst. They must know they can handle whatever they want. Here are some tactics that you can teach your kids:

Never retaliate with the same nastiness and humiliating approach.
Do not take anything personally and never doubt your beliefs.
Do not reread the comments to feel bad again and again.
Understand that not everyone feels the same way as you do.
If you have written something to post, step aside and read it for 30 seconds to make sure you have written the right thing.
Take a break from these things. Turn off your phones and computers, take a step back and feel relaxed. Do meditate and take a warm bath to feel relaxed.
Be mindful all the time and don’t feel like a victim.

Know more here: https://www.ditchthelabel.org/9-tips-on-overcoming-cyberbullying/

Use A Parental Control App

Parents should use a parental control app to make sure they properly monitor their kids. A good parental control app lets you monitor their messages logs, call logs, social media platforms as well. You can even see who they talk to, what they are indulged into to make sure they don’t do anything stupid.

SecureTeen is by far one of the best parental control apps to keep a keen eye on your kids. You can monitor their social media platforms and help them wherever required. In addition to monitoring, make sure they know what privacy is. Make their social media accounts with them to make sure they know how to use the settings appropriately.