: How Parents can help their Cyberbullied Child
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(407 Words)
It can be a frustrating situation for a parent to see a child being cyberbullied. There are different ways that a parent can help a child in such a situation. These include helping a child feel better about it, helping a child take steps against it, and intervening themselves. Their actions will depend on their child’s age and abilities as well as the actions and severity of the cyberbullies. They may take the following measures.
Talk to their child about why they shouldn’t let the cyberbullies bother them
Young children are very vulnerable and may take to heart words that are entirely untrue from a cyberbully. You should talk to them about how they should not let these words bother them and how they should remain calm. Reassure them about all of the wonderful things about them. Talk to them about how the true problem lies with those who are the cyberbullies and not the other way around. You can comfort them when they need it.
Help them find ways to stop it
You can also help your child get the cyberbullying to stop. Many cyberbullies love to send out mean messages and attacks as long as they are getting responses. When the victim stops responding they start to get bored and might stop altogether. Also, there are often ways of blocking someone from sending you messages through the various Internet services. For instance, you can block messages on most e-mail accounts and also drop someone as a friend on Facebook.
Intervene
If the cyberbullying is really affecting your child or if you are worried for the safety of your child then you can intervene yourself. You can talk to the parents of the cyberbully if you know who they are. You can take your concerns to the child’s school if the cyberbully goes there and especially if you think the behavior is continuing there. Also, you can talk to the police if it is getting to the point of true harassment or if actual threats are being made. Some areas are now passing laws about this, and you may have some recourse there.
You do not want your child to be a victim of cyberbullying. It is important not to just dismiss this issue because in some recent cases the victim and/or cyberbully have taken extreme measures that have left someone hurt or worse. Try the above strategies to help your child who is being cyberbullied.
Updated On: 09/07/2010 Published On: 09/07/2010 Article ViewerClose
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