Cyberbullying : what parents can do
Hello All,
Lately in the news we have been hearing a lot about online bullying or cyberbullying
this brings a new issue that today parents have to deal with
some parents are asking themselves what can be done to protect their children again such attacks
here are some tips parents can use
1.) parental controls on mobile devices
nowadays kids and teens are carrying what used to be a phone but is now virtually a computer in their pockets and with the new issue of things like sexting and camera phones there is a need for parents to step in and control what their children and teens have the access to certain features on the devices of today some examples would be software mechanism to not allow mms messages or text messages to anyone other than an allowed contact
2.) Use of social media such as Facebook
parents should sit down with children and set ground rules on the use of social media it is also a good idea for you to add yourself on your child’s friends list so you can see what is being posted and some of their activities if your child is under a certain age one of which you can decide up until that point you may also want to choose to have your child’s password for their account so you can review the activities
3.) parental controls on a pc/laptop
another approach is to install parental controls that record conversations that take place on the web from your child’s computer and also record activities such as image uploads for you to review later
what to do if you discover your child’s a victim of cyberbullying
1.) report the incident to the authorities if you use parental control software or monitoring software you can show the authorities the information you have obtained as proof
2.) report the incident to your child’s school
3.) talk to your child and educate them on awareness of network safety
such as don’t give out personal information to strangers such as address or phone number
as the assumption always is that the bully is someone your child knows this is not always the case
if you have any more ideas on what could be done please leave a comment !
Thank you all for reading
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