Deal With Cyber-Bullying

Many parents go to great lengths to prevent their children from adult predators and inappropriate adult content online. A more common problem, and one which can affect your child strongly, is caused by online encounters with peers. Children can be very cruel to one another in person, and with the anonymity of the Internet some feel they can be even crueler. Even with their friends, they can say and do things in online chat and instant-messaging which would seem downright vicious to an adult, and with children they dislike they can go to extraordinary lengths of nastiness. I always tell my homeroom parents, "You wouldn't drop your son off at the mall and tell him, 'See you tomorrow.' Giving him a computer with unsupervised Internet access in his room is not much different." If I teach your son, please let me know immediately if he is involved in any kind of online bullying, whether as target, perpetrator, or audience.

Below are some suggestions and links from an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

How to Fight Cyber-Bullying

Parents:

• Keep computers in a common room
  Understand and monitor your child's Internet use.
  Discuss "netiquette" and online safety with your child.
  Ask questions if your child seems upset after going online

Online Users:

Never give out passwords or PINs to friends
Don't send messages when you are angry
Never say something in an e-mail that you wouldn't say to somebody's face.

If You Are a Target:

Do not open, forward, read, or respond to messages from cyber bullies.
Save all messages as evidence.
Tell a trusted adult about the problem.
If you are threatened with harm, call the police.

Sources: isafe.org, novabucks.org, cyberbullying.ca, and cyberbully.org

From: Pappas, Leslie A. "High-Tech Harassment Is Hitting Teens Hard." Philadelphia Inquirer 1 Jan. 2005