Stand Up to Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying has become a huge problem in this day and age. Unfortunately, many parents may not be aware of the issues and concerns cyberbullying involves because it is such a new epidemic that they did not have to deal with during their childhoods. Cyberbullying, also known as cyber-harassment or cyber-stalking, involves incidents in which kids and teens are embarrassed, harassed, humiliated, threatened or tormented by their peers online. It may involve one person stalking, targeting or otherwise tormenting one other person, or it may involve entire groups targeting one other person or another group. In order to be considered cyberbullying, both parties involved must be minors. The scariest and most horrific aspect of cyberbullying is that because it´s perpetrated online, it doesn´t end in the schoolyard – it can follow a kid, preteen or teen everywhere he or she goes and infiltrate every aspect of his or her personal life. In the most extreme cases, it has even led to suicide.

What Constitutes Cyberbullying?

While there are often one-time incidents of ill will and unkind words between adolescents in chat groups and on social media sites such as Facebook, these do not usually constitute cyberbullying unless they include an extreme threat (i.e. murder or serious bodily harm). In most cases, the threats, hurtful posts, rude gossip and embarrassing rumors or pictures spread throughout the Internet must be ongoing to constitute cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can have serious effects on the psyche of a young child or teen, which are often quite devastating during this fragile time in life, particularly for someone who already feels like they don´t quite "fit in."

What can be done?

Parents can prevent cyberbullying by limiting children´s access to chat rooms and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This can help prevent bullies from attacking, as well as protect those being bullied. However, such limitations may not always work. It´s practically impossible to go without an email address these days, and even if parents control their children´s access to sites like Facebook at home, there are always other places where they could be creating and accessing accounts.

When a child comes to a parent with cyberbullying issues or if a parent suspects it is happening, there are several possible courses of action. Criminal charges can be pursued, for example. This typically results in blockage of the culprit´s ISP or IM accounts, or even federal criminal charges in the case of hacking and/or password theft. The most important thing parents can do is to be aware of the issue and talk with their children about it regularly.

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