4 Effective Strategies to Stop Cyberbullying by Jessica Fender

Photo by Annie Spratt

For many decades, kids have been suffering from bullying at schools. Sadly, the development of digital technology hasn’t helped to solve this issue. Vice versa, it’s made things even worse – cyberbullying has become a new global issue. 

The recent study reveals that 34% of American kidshave experienced cyberbullying at least once. Mean tweets, hurtful comments, online rumors – that’s what makes the life of young internet users unbearable.  

As a parent, you need to protect your kids online and offline. Here is a list of four effective strategies that you can use to prevent cyberbullying. 

Get help from celebrity supporters

Cyberbullying is a serious issue. And you should bring this idea to your kid. 

Pretty often, children (especially rebellious teenagers) don’t want to discuss cyberbullying and similar topics with their parents. But they do like to talk about what they have seen on the web and what celebrities have published on Instagram. And you can use it to advantage!

Popular singers like Taylor Swift, Justin Bibber, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez are anti-bullying activists. They often write posts about cyberbullying and do their best to support the victims of bullying. You should encourage your kids to follow these celebrities on social media and learn from them.

Also, it’s a good idea to follow the same celebrities your kid follows, so you will have more subjects to discuss. Once your daughter comes home from school, you can ask her, “Hey, have you seen what Selena Gomez has posted on Instagram today?” and start a meaningful conversation about cyberbullying.  

Teach your kids how to log off and block harassers

You should explain one important thing to your kids: there is no place for toxic friendships in a happy life. Your children should understand that if they feel uncomfortable talking to a “friend”, if they get hurtful messages, they should stop the conversation immediately. 

You should assure your kids that they can find new real friends. They don’t have to undergo suffering for the sake of fake friendship.

Show your kids how to log off of the social media accounts and how to block the bully. It will help your kids to end the unpleasant conversation with a harasser fast and easily.

Leverage the monitoring apps

Most kids, who are suffering from cyberbullying, do not want to admit that they have problems. So if your son and daughter don’t want to discuss cyberbullying issues with you – that should alert you that something may be wrong.

As a mom, you should respect your child’s privacy. However, you should also remember that the safety of your child always comes first. If you have reasons to suspect that your kid is being undermined, don’t hesitate to cross the privacy line. 

You may install a monitoring app like Pumpic on your phone and monitor the social media activity of your child remotely. It will allow you to read comments and private messages (even deleted ones) that your kid receives and send on social media. In this way, you will be able to analyze the general online behavior of your child and find out whether it’s time for you to intervene.

If you see that your daughter uses Facebook Messenger to discuss the best academic writing sitesand school assignments with her friends, there is nothing to worry about. Delete the monitoring app, and your daughter will never know that you have been reading her correspondence. 

But if you come across the messages of intimidation and threat, you should take immediate measures to rescue your child. You should find the right words to discuss the problem and provide an effective solution.

Encourage your kids to take screenshots

Every bully must be punished. If a bully attacked your kids, you should take this problem seriously. You should collect evidence of cyberbullying and use it to protect your child from further harassment.  

As you know, some messages, videos, and photos may get deleted from social media, forums, and blogs. So the best way to collect solid evidence is to make screenshots of texts, posts, emails, and other harmful content and store them on your PC.

Explain to your kids why screenshots are important. Show them what buttons they should press to make shots of the screen. One day this piece of knowledge may come in handy.

Help your children to cope with cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a constant source of distress, worry, and anxiety. It’s a severe issue that negatively affects the everyday lives of your kids – it can’t be just ignored.

To see your kids happy, you should be there for them when they need you the most. You should teach them how to use social media in a wise way, educate them about cyberbullying, and show them the difference between healthy and toxic friendships. You should use strategies to stop cyberbullying and do your best to protect your children from any harassment.