Cyper-Bullying | Internet Parenting

Famous Bullies

The movies and television have provided us with shining examples of bullying behavior. Characters in a number of shows and movies provide us with the classic portrayal of the bully and give us someone to point to and tell our children not to act like that.

One of the best examples of a bully comes in the classic movie ” A Christmas Story.” Scut Farkus is the older boy in the movie who is constantly picking on the younger ones. We see kids go out of their way to try and avoid a confrontation with him. Finally, though this big bad bully gets his when one of the kids stands up to him and Farkus is the one who goes running home crying.

Another classic movie bully comes from the “Back to the Future” series. Biff Tannen may be the king of all the bullies on the big screen. Biff is the one who mercilessly picked on George McFly throughout their school years and on into adulthood. It was McFly who got the last laugh though when he married Lorraine, the girl who Biff was sweet on too.

When it comes to television one of the top bullies was the older brother on the Wonder Years. Wayne Arnold was always pushing around his younger brother Kevin and Kevin’s friend Paul. Another T.V. bully was featured on the animated show The Simpsons. Nelson Muntz used to loved to pick on Bart Simpson but in recent years they have turned into friends.

Thanks to direct.tv, the stereotypical bullies that we see on T.V. and in the movies can be great learning tools. Teachers and parents can point to these well known figures as examples of how not to behave. It is never O.K. to pick on another person and luckily in the movies and on television the nasty bullies end up getting it back in the end.

Filed Under: Cyper-Bullying Tagged With: Bart Simpson, Biff Tannen, Bullying, Nelson Muntz

Facebook Makes Cyber Bullying Easy

Image via Wikipedia

Bullying is something many kids have to deal with growing up. It seems near impossible to escape the crosshairs of a bully in your life but with the internet now in nearly every home, it could be almost impossible. Traditional bullying entailed being chased home from the school or the bus stop. The internet, especially Facebook, give a fertile breeding ground for bullies who can post disparaging comments right on a child’s profile page.

There are a few categories of bully that you will want to watch out for in protecting your child. There is the “mean girls” type of bully. This group is usually made up of girls who will choose a target and berate her with recklessness and little remorse. Everything is fodder for these girls, including the way the victim looks, dresses, and who her friends are. It is a goal of “mean girls” style bullies to break a victim down mentally.

There is also the “lash out” bully. These bullies often have a troubled home life and project their unhappiness by trying to ruin the life of a student. The bully will use the same tactics used against them in their home life. Insults, hitting, and various other bullying tactics.

There is also the bully who feels neglected and is just looking for a reaction. In this scenario, the bully will usually stop if you ignore his advances. Should you choose to argue back however, he will step up the bullying to an almost relentless level. The most important thing for a child to do when bullied is to report it to a parent or school staff member. No one should suffer through bullying alone.

Filed Under: Cyper-Bullying, Internet Tagged With: bully, Cyber-bullying, Facebook

What Is Cyber Bullying?

Image via wikipedia-sourced-bullying

With the rise of the importance of computers and the popularity of internet becoming more widespread, Cyber bullying has become more evident. A few cases have ended with the victim committing suicide. Facts about Cyber Bullying are sadly not widely known, and learning of it leaves many parents baffled with how to deal or identify it.

According to the anti-bullying website “DO SOMETHING” over 42 percent of kids and teens have reported being abused online. Oftentimes they feel as if their is no escape from being bullied as the bullies have access to the internet all the time, long after the school day has ended.

Cyber bullies don’t just lurk on social media websites. They’re in chat rooms and send threatening and demeaning emails as well. A bullies goal is always the same, to hurt and shame their victims no matter what.They don’t care about privacy, and will do almost anything to hurt their victim.

The results and feelings of being bullied are always the same, no matter if they’re being bullied at school or online. These feelings are real and have the same effect of being hunted down and hurt. It doesn’t stop when the school day ends.

Take note of what your child is doing online, and listen to them if they come forward and say their being bullied. Report this to the school, and the police. Take a strong stance against the bullying and put a stop to it before it gets worse and continues.

Filed Under: Cyper-Bullying, Internet Tagged With: bully, Cyber-bullying, Suicide

Facts about CyberBullying

With today’s constantly advancing technology many children, teenagers, and young adults interacting with a wide range of individuals on the Internet, which unfortunately may lead to online bullying. Online bullying, commonly referred to as cyber bulling, involves the incidence of using the Internet or electronic devices to hurt or embarrass another individual through written text and/or images.

Ways Individuals are Cyber bullied

A peer contacting others pretending to be someone else
Using deceitful tactics to convince individuals to tell personal information
Making up lies and rumors about people
Posting pictures of individuals without their consent
Sending or forwarding hurtful text messages

Proactive Reactions to Cyber bullying

Blocking all communication with the individual engaging in cyber bullying
Automatically deleting messages before reading them
Talking to a trusted individual about the bullying
Reporting issues to Internet service providers or moderators of websites

Prevention of Cyber bullying

Refuse to participate in sending cyber bulling messages
Convince friends to stop cyber bullying
Report cyber bullying to a trusted adult
Talk to other individuals such as teachers and school administrators to establish rules against cyber bullying
Increase the awareness of cyber bullying issues in a school or community by organizing as assembly and distributing informative fliers

Other Ways to Stay Safe on the Internet

Do not share or post personal information on the Internet including full names, address, telephone numbers, names of schools, names of parents, or bank information
Do not share Internet passwords with anyone no matter how much you trust them
Never agree to meet an online contact in person

Filed Under: Cyper-Bullying Tagged With: bully, Cyber-bullying, Text messaging

Cyber Bullying On The Rise Among Children

Research suggests that cyber bullying is on the rise and there are not many laws to protect such incidents. But what is more troubling is cyber bullying is becoming common among school and college children. Not only boys are involved in such acts but sadly many girls are also involved in cyber bullying. Though the term “cyber bullying” might be new to many people, however, many people are going through it without knowing what it exactly is. Cyber bullying is an act of sending continuous threats or hate message or humiliating messages through emails or text messages. The person can also post such information on public forums and other websites to humiliate, hurt and embarrass the victim.

Victim might block such emails as there are filters available in email to block their id. However, cyber bullies can also resort to public forums and other websites where the contents are not checked. Usually these are done by rival gang or people who want to cause hurt and humiliation to the other person. A relationship or friendship gone wrong can trigger such reaction. As it involves young children, the issue becomes complicated. Sharing of personal information and other gory details in the public forum had also lead to cases where the victim commits suicide. Cyber bullying needs to be taken more seriously and laws should be brought to prevent such incidents. However, this is not easy as the news of such information posted spreads like wild fire among youngsters and the damage is already done before any action can be taken. Educational institutes can bring out policies on such crimes and strict action on such people can help reduce such incidents.

Filed Under: Cyper-Bullying, Parenting Tagged With: Bullying, Cyber-bullying, Text messaging

Parents Should Teach Their Children On The Importance Of Privacy While Using Internet

Internet has become a major source of entertainment for children. With social networking websites, chat rooms and games available at free of cost, many children are turning to internet as their favorite pass time. This in one way is good as they get good information and increase their knowledge. However, the flip side is that they need to know how to guard their privacy. Internet can also be dangerous for children and parents need to monitor their usage. Parents need to know what websites the children are surfing, who are their friends in the chat and how much time they spend on the net.

Parents should teach their children on the importance of privacy while using internet. There are many cyber crimes in which children are allured and asked for private information by criminals. Children chatting with strangers are a cause for concern as many criminals try to meet these children in private places without the knowledge of the parents. Parents need to set guidelines and take strict disciplinary action if these are not followed. Parents have to make sure that the child understands it’s for their own safety.

Some of the measures to guard privacy are: never give home or school or college address, phone number, personal information as where their parents work, preferably use nickname in chat and not the original name. Most importantly never go and meet strangers alone in any place even if it’s a public place. Another important guideline is never share photograph or use video chat with unknown persons. Instilling these guidelines in children will help them to be careful and enable them to guard their privacy.

Filed Under: Cyper-Bullying, Parenting Tagged With: Chat room, Child, Parent, Privacy

Most Common Areas Where Cyber Bullying Occurs

Due to modern technology and the intense use of the Internet by nearly everyone, cyber bullying is becoming an every day occurrence for some. This form of bullying is simply a step up from the old fashioned kind of bullying of the past. Instead of confronting their victims face to face, cyber bullies use the Internet and other gadgets to wreck havoc on another’s life. This is normally done by posting offensive and degrading posts on web sites that the bully knows will be visited by either the victim or by those in close contact with the victim. It is used as a way to spread negative gossip or to post photo’s that have been taken of the victim without their knowledge.

There are several places on the Internet that are most commonly used by cyber bullies. One is the many popular social networking sites. These sites are generally not monitored, so they are open to posts that can contain nearly any kind of photo’s or threatening messages. Parents can help keep their child from being the victim of a cyber bully by closely monitoring any time spent on these types of sites by their teens. If the teen has received threats and the bully is known, the parent can try letting school officials know about the situation. If the threats seem violent, the local law enforcement agency can be notified.

Other ways in which cyber bullies use modern technology to threaten their victims, is by email. Blocking the persons address is the first course that should be taken. Sometimes if the bully doesn’t receive a response, he will give up. Instant messaging is another way in which cyber bullies can send threatening messages. Again, blocking the person is a god way to stop these occurrences. Parents can help diffuse the situation by contacting teachers, and if necessary the police, in order to bring to their attention what is happening.

Filed Under: Cyper-Bullying, Internet Tagged With: Cyber-bullying, Internet

Teens and Cyber Bullying

Unfortunately, bully’s have been around nearly since time began. They can make life miserable for those they choose to pick on, and bullying has become a world wide epidemic, especially among teenagers. In the past, most children or teens only had to fend off bullying at school or in their local neighborhoods, but modern technology is now allowing bullies to prey on their victims over the Internet, which is referred to as cyber bullying.

Cyber bullying most normally happens on the commonly used and popular social networking sites. The bully may post mean or threatening posts on the victims web page. They may also take photographs of the victim when they are unaware, and then post the photo’s online. Bullying can also occur by means of email, text messaging or instant messaging. Using the Internet to bully someone is becoming quite common, so local law enforcement officials are now paying closer attention to complaints being made by teens and/or their parents. It is important to know that at times, the bully may actually be an adult instead of someone the same age as the victim. If this is the case, the adult may be charged with stalking, along with a variety of other charges.

Teachers, parents and others that are trying to protect victims of cyber bullying are using new resources to catch the bully and try to put a stop to the situation. Teachers are well aware of the bullying that tends to happen at middle and high schools, so it is very helpful to use their experience and insight regarding the matter of cyber bullying. Parents can help too, by always maintaining good communications with their teens. Monitoring the sites that the teen visits online can help.

Filed Under: Cyper-Bullying, Internet Tagged With: Bullying, Cyber-bullying, Instant messaging

What to Do if Your Child is Bullied

One of the scariest things to hear as a parent is that your child is being bullied. Your parental instincts kick into full gear when this is the case. More than likely it is not anything you have to worry about, simply children being children. However, it is not something to take lightly and you need to be active about seeing what is going on with your child.

If the bullying is happening at school, you should take the opportunity to visit the school and see what is happening. In many schools there are two way mirrors where you can observe the class without anyone knowing you are there. This is good because the actions of the class would likely be different if there was a parent watching then if they class was not being observed.

You will likely want to talk to the teacher and possibly administrators. You do not want this bully to get away with hurting your child or other children. Many times bullies can be reformed, and hopefully this is the case.

If the bullying is not at school you may have a harder time getting it under control. In these cases you will likely have to meet with the other child’s parents and talk about what you can do to nip these behaviors in the bud.

Make sure your child knows it is not their fault they are being bullied and also give them some strategies to help deal with it in case it happens in the future. You do not want your child to get hurt, but you also don’t want them to get in trouble by fighting, even if they are defending themselves.

In dramatic cases you may have to request that your child or the other child is moved out of the classroom or other setting. This may be the easiest way to resolve these situations. If this is possible you may be able to end the bullying with a minimum of confrontation.

Filed Under: Cyper-Bullying, Parenting Tagged With: Bullying, Child, Parent