Cyberbullying - How Parents Can Help Their Children

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Cyberbullying - How Parents Can Help Their Children

Tackling A Difficult Problem. by SoftwareGuru Parents face many challenges. One of them is coming across the phrase "cyberbullying" and perhaps not really knowing too much about it. Cyberbullying is defined as deliberately upsetting someone using information technology especially the internet or telephone. For some children and students it is a part of everyday life and for adults it can be difficult to understand how does bullying make a child feel. A lot of parents growing up did not have access to a computer, online social networks, or had their own mobile phone to text others so it is very difficult to relate to that situation from a child's perspective. The concept of bullying is not new. However, as the Irish Examiner has highlighted, there are a variety of new ways that it can occur without parents being familiar with them. If parents cannot recognise the problem it doesn't make it any less real or less damaging emotionally to the child. At Software4Students Ireland, because of our site demographic we can highlight this issue but it is always best to read websites that are an authority on the matter. Technology may create new variations of old problems but it can also provide us with the information to educate ourselves to deal with these new challenges. Having found useful resources through Twitter, it's safe to say that websites like schooldays.ie and bullying.co.uk are useful places to start for information in relation to cyberbullying.
	One-in-Five Children Affected BBC News reported in November that a recent survey by the Anti-Bullying Alliance revealed that more and more children in primary schools are suffering from cyberbullying. "The group found one in five of the children they questioned had been picked on by phone or online." The Irish Examiner article suggests that "while the rate of cyberbullying in Ireland is lower than in Britain, Irish children are choosing to do their bullying on social networking sites rather than by phone or email." The realisation that children under 13 are already using social networks - even though younger users are supposed to be ineligible - indicates that parental controls within the software are not being used. Again, parents who didn't grow up facing these challenges will find it hard to spot them as an adult so it's not a question of blame, simply a case of educating ourselves on this recent trend and knowing what remedies are available. The survey further revealed that around half of the parents questioned said they had not talked to their children about how to protect themselves from cyberbullying. While it was known that secondary school pupils were subject to cyberbullying, prior to the report it was unclear that younger age groups were seriously affected too. Parents considering mobile phones and laptop computers as Christmas gifts may decide that it is a good opportunity to speak to their children about this issue.
Where Do We Go From Here? The website bullying.co.uk offers a range of how-to guides that offer support and advice on dealing with cyberbullying regardless of whether you live in Ireland, UK, or elsewhere. Key Points: 1. Don't give out personal details such as your mobile number, address or email online 2. Regularly check and clean your friends lists on social networking sites 3. Keep evidence - callers and mailers can be traced 4. Find the "report abuse" or "block sender" options on your favourite websites 5. Remember that sites you create and emails you send can be traced back to you 6. Protect your password to keep your files and information safe 7. If you are being bullied in any way you must tell someone who can help - a teacher, parent/carer, friend, sister/brother or other relative On a related note, I remember the creators of South Park (Trey Parker and Matt Stone) discussing bullying in an interview in Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" documentary and commenting on the extreme examples of bullied or socially excluded kids in America who take matters into their own hands. They made the point that when you're in school and bullying occurs everyday that it feels like it will always be there and that life will never change. Their point was that life always changes, and if the kids can just hang in there long enough to get through the education system, one day they would see it for themselves.

Cyberbullying - How Parents Can Help Their Children

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