Many individuals living in the 21st Century will deal with cyber bullying at some point in their lives.
Cyber bullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology. Examples of cyber bullying might include mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, or the electronic distribution of embarrassing pictures or videos.
Unfortunately, more than half of young people say that they never confide in their parents when cyber bullying happens to them, but regardless it’s important to talk to teens about cyber bullying, explain that it is wrong and can have serious consequences.
Here are a few things you can talk to your child about to try and prevent cyber bullying:
1. Make a rule that teens may not send mean or damaging messages, even if someone else started it.
3. Encourage teens to report incidents of cyber bullying to an adult and properly use the features on social media sites like – Report / Mark as Spam.
4. Save all cyber bullying messages as proof that the bullying is occurring. This is especially important if the incidents will eventually be reported to the police or to your child’s school.
5. Reassure the victim that they are not at fault for these attacks against them.