Bullying in any form is difficult to deal with, especially when you are a child. However, a cyber bully can feel like a greater threat because they can hide behind their computer screen so you don’t know who they are or where they are. In addition, cyber bullying can take on many forms, including threatening emails, chat conversations, postings on your social media walls or threads and comments on your blog posts. The following are three things you can do to stop a cyber bully:
First, understand what cyber bullying is:
You can’t stop it if you do not recognize it or confuse it with another form of online harassment. By definition, cyber bullying is between two minors and involves one being tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by the other using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.
If harassment of any kind only is classified as cyber bullying it involves minors. Otherwise it becomes more serious and is known as cyber-harassment or cyber-stalking.
Cyber bullying is a “you’ll know it when you see it” thing. However, if your child feels embarrassed or threatened in any way online, or through other technology, they are being cyber bullied and they need to do something about it.
Second, practice prevention of cyber bullying:
Preventing cyber bullying before it starts makes it more difficult for you to be bullied. There are many ways to prevent cyber bullying and most begin with educating yourself and others about the effects of it. To start with, be careful with your online connections. Only add people you know to buddy lists, social networking profiles and blogs. In addition, set filters high on email, and avoid community chat locations without some sort of security in place. Exposing yourself, and making yourself vulnerable makes you a target for cyber bullies. Do not give your mobile number out to people who aren’t your friends. The more you protect yourself, the easier it is to prevent cyber bullying, and stop it if it starts.
Third, teach your kids to speak up and stand up for themselves.
The following are five simple tips that can go a long way to stop a cyber bully.
1. Tell someone what is happening. If it is happening at school, get your teacher or a guidance counselor involved. If it is happening at home, go to your parents. Do not face it alone.
2. Use blocking features. If you start getting bullied, block the person, or inform the site administrator of what is happening so that they can remove the person’s profile.
3. Adjust your security settings. This will make it more difficult for them to bully you.
4. Threaten action. You can call law enforcement and take legal action but before doing so, warn the person. You have more rights if the threats are specific, if the frequency of bullying is high and if you’re able to document it
5. Report them. Report them to the site, to the school, to your parent or to law enforcement agents. Report it everywhere so that it stops.
I have seen lots of movies and documentaries about cyber-bullying. I’ve researched it and am amazed at how big the problem actually is.Around 5,000 teenagers every two years kill themselves due to cyber-bullying.And it’s so horrible to think that people would actually drive people that far. My friends was cyber-bullied. and she would cry everyday because someone threatened to kill her and go to her house and hurt her or her siblings. She didn’t want her Mum or the school to find out because she didn’t want them to worry about it and she thought that there was nothing the school could do about it. But the cyber-bully kept bullying her and one day she finally decided to tell an adult about it. However, the bully threatened her and told her not to tell. Around 3 months passed and although she blocked them, the cyber-bullies found her email address and bullied her via email. Finally, my friends and I told the teacher who said she would do something about this problem. She mentioned that she would get the police involved but after a week with nothing happening my friend finally told her mother who in turn informed the police who refused to help. Her mother went round the school asking my friend’s classmates if they knew who it was.One day, my friends good friend confessed that she did it for a practical joke with some other friends. When my friend found out she was distraught because she had gone through a year of suffering and pain for someone else’s enjoyment. The kids who pulled the prank got suspended from the school for 3 months and they were not allowed any internet access or accounts for the time they were away. I feel better that one group of bullies have been stopped but it’s not enough for me. Cyber-bullying is a horrible thing because it brings the victim’s (usually a teenager) self-confidence down and make them think about suicide. Please help spread the word to help kids just like you from going through the same thing.