Bullying Month: Prevent Cyberbullying: Do These Four Things

As a way to connect our October theme of technology to our November theme of bullying, I’ve decided to focus my first blog on cyberbullying. Cyberbullying, or online bullying, evolved with the invention of the internet. Due to the anonymity and the wide access to the internet it makes it easier for bullies to abuse their victims. In hopes of helping stop this disturbing trend, I’ve created a list of ways to prevent your child from being a victim of cyberbullying.

1.  Learn the technology While it might be silly to write about not knowing how to use the internet on the internet. It seems important to point out that there is no way you can relate and help your child if you don’t understand how computers, phones, the internet, and other technology works. That means you should use the technology on a frequent basis. If you don’t know how to use it, ask your child or take a course to learn the technology. Trust me it is beneficially in helping protect your child and make other aspects of your life easier.

2. Parental Control Software

After you learn the technology install parental control software. Parental control software helps you stop your child from accessing certain websites. While a somewhat flawed system, parental control software does help your child avoid websites that might lead them to being bullied. However, it is not enough to just install a parental control software.

3. Communication is Key!
As well as installing parental control software, you must talk to your child about what they are doing online. Ask them about sites they are visiting, interactions online, and anything else that is going on. Sometimes just asking really can make the difference in getting your child to stay silent or speak out about online bullying.
 
4.  Get your child’s passwords
Cyberbullying often happens on Facebook, and other websites that require a password to access them. In order to learn more about the bullying you need to gain access to the post on these websites. That means you need to get your child’s passwords. Instead of telling them to give you the passwords, ask for it and promise that you will only use it in case of emergency. I can’t stress the importance of only using your child’s password in case of emergency. If you use it to just look at their account, it will destroy the trust between the two of you. If you child does not trust you, they will probably not trust to talk to you about them being bullied.

Hopefully these tips will help your child to stop being bullied online. That’s all for now, but I’m wondering what subjects do you want to be covered during bullying month?

Thanks for reading,
David

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