Cyber Bullying Not A Joke

Cruel gossip and mean-spirited rumors have been spread by and among teenagers for decades, but thanks to the Internet, unprecedented harm can now be done.  Last week, a Marion County, Florida teenage girl was arrested for posting sexually explicit messages about another girl on an Internet porn site.  To make matters worse, the victim’s actual telephone number was included.  The charge is considered a third-degree felony.

In many ways, emotional bullying (and cyber-bullying) can be more damaging than physical violence, but any kind of harassment and intimidation is detrimental to a child’s self-esteem.  Because users can remain anonymous on the Internet, bullies are able to take harassment to the extreme and rarely get caught.

Remember, serious crimes have been committed due to cyber-bullying, and it should not be taken lightly.

There are some important steps that every parent can take to prevent cyber-bullying:

• Pay careful attention. If your child appears moody or angry, ask them about it.  Become an active participant in their lives by asking on a regular basis how school and friends are affecting them.
• Join social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook and add your children as “friends” so you can follow what types of things your child and their friends are posting on each other’s pages.
• Report cyber bullying to a website’s moderator.  Ask that the offender be removed from posting on the site.
• If the bully is in the same school as your child, alert the school including guidance counselors and teachers.
• Put blocking/filtering software into use.  Prevent your child from accessing adult websites to avoid negative influences.
• Take it seriously.  If the situation escalates, print out the proof of cyber-bullying and alert your local law enforcement.
• Join a safe, secure and private service like SafetyWeb, an essential solution that offers parents the tools they need to monitor their children’s online activity.