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
