Cyberbullying is becoming a matter of increasing concern. Thankfully, it has been brought to public awareness and there are a number of steps that can be taken to prevent its occurrence.
The role of a parent is to be in touch with the emotions and thoughts of their child or adolescent and to notice if they are depressed or otherwise acting strangely. if your child actually says to you that they are being bullied. online or in school, than you can consider quite lucky. the majority of adolescents and children never admit it to their parents, and statistics show if they do tell some, it is more likely to be peers or siblings. Males are less likely to confide in anyone when they are bullied. There could be a large number of reasons why the person is acting the way they are acting aside from cyberbullying. The first step is always identification of the issue. And the earlier that the activity is identified and brought under scrutiny, the better. You may have to ask your child if they are being bullied. Or you can ask the teacher, who also has a responsibility to report these in the school where they originate.
Depending on the age of the child or adolescent, the best preventative measure may be to restrict technology to as large an extent as possible. There is an increasing amount of evidence to suggest that children under the age of 7 or so should not have too much access to any kind of technological device. The fact is that these devices increase the chances of cyberbullying, and the online world is simply not a place that a child is ready for. additionally, there could be multiple adverse health consequences to having children and adolescents using these types of technological devices for extended time periods. Because of the rate at which technology is progressing and the recency of digital devices, there have been no longitudinal studies conducted on the consequences of continued exposure to smartphone, wifi, ipads, and, and other types of technology. Young children, in particular, should be massively restricted in the use such devices.
An alternative to restricting devices outright is to restrict the sites that are allowed to be viewed by your child or adolescent. You can do this at the level of your internet service provider, which means that all devices that use your home internet must follow its rules in relation to what sites are restricted. This is similar to what happens in corporations that have lists of allowed sites and rules regarding downloading particular files and applications. If you are buying your child a smartphone, there are a number of parental control apps that you can get on your phone. Most of them can notify parents about suspicious or harmful messages, restrict access to specific apps completely or just set time limits, and some include gps tracking to show the child's location in real-time. It is actually very easy to put controls in place to prevent children from accessing particular sites and there are many free options available. Some helpful tips about parental controls: use parental controls on video game consoles. players often talk to and message each other in video games. Set up an account for you child, limit who they can talk to, and monitor the content or particular games.
become familiar with how to mute, block, and report people on all social media sites, including twitter, Facebook, tiktok snatched discord and Instagram.
teach your children how to do this too. It's easy to block other people on social media sites, video games consoles, and even phone calls. If your child feels bullied online, tell them to simply block and report the person. Emails addresses can also be blocked. set up private accounts for your children so you can chose who can view their content.
change passwords and contact websites or services if you think someone has hacked your Childs account is pretending to be them online. Most recognized sites are quite helpful when it comes to security issues
Aside from how to come with cyberbullying. It can be a good idea to set up guidelines for children and young adults to fallow in general when using technology. These guidelines can give your child information on being careful about who they are taking to, refusing to accept friend requests from strangers, and not giving away personal information online or offline. Other information to include can be how to store passwords, not using the phone late at night and not using the phone when driving or doing other tasks. It is also a good idea to set an example for children and adolescents. This is because they often take cues from their parents, and follow their lead. these habits and examples can follow them for the rest of their lives, so it is good to follow best practices early on to prevent any incidents down the line.
We have to be very careful these days because there is a greater number of charlatans out there,