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In this age of modernism, the internet has influenced our lives more than anything else. From shopping to texting, searching to calling and being social on media; the internet has spread its tentacles everywhere. According to research, an average American teen spends up to seven hours in contact with others. Moreover, when children have been given access to such a dangerous thing as the internet; it is imperative for parents to keep their children safe from cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is the type of bullying done through digital devices. It can be social rumors, gossips, a prank gone wrong or harassment. No matter how bullying is done, it’s still a severe issue of the world nowadays and receives much attention. Children are immature and cannot handle such problems on their own. So, parents need to step in to keep their young’uns safe from bullies. These are some methods to keep your children safe from cyberbullying.
Ways to prevent cyberbullying
Communication
Communication is the best way to prevent cyberbullying. Every psychiatrist will advise you to be patient and talk with your children. Ask them questions and make them comfortable with you. Ask them if they know about what cyberbullying is and what limits are there to let anyone into your privacy. It is vital to keep a safety check on your children because maybe they’re not the victims but the bully themselves.
Monitoring activities
You should monitor your child’s online activities and look into everything they do. Try to be involved in their social life and know about their friends, and ask them if you see anything suspicious. Also, to keeping your children safe, several apps allow parents to monitor their child’s activities. You can download apps like KidSecured.
Engage through community
Build a community of parenthood, schools with anti-bullying agenda to interact with the youth. In this way, your children can feel safe and strong enough to speak up against bullying. Interact with the youth and provide them a comfortable environment so they can’t become victims of bullying, or a bully themselves. Teachers and experts need to take part to decrease the rate of bullying.
Saving the evidence
One of the ways to prevent cyberbullying is that everything has data and can be saved as evidence. If your child is facing cyberbullying, then you must keep the evidence and report it to the police and related departments and get justice to your child.
Benefits of prevention
If cyberbullying is prevented correctly, it may keep your child safe from the problems they might face in the future. Such benefits include:
Mental health
Due to cyberbullying, children may suffer from anxiety, depression, social fears, less confidence, and decreasing grades. However, if cyberbullying is appropriately prevented, it can provide your children with a safe environment for growth.
Respect
As you know that a rumor can destroy a life and it’ll stick with your name as a tag for a lifetime. It decreases your child’s self-esteem, respect, and will. Moreover, in cyberbullying, the rumors exist forever until the service provider removes it. Your children will remain safe from such devastating loss if you escort them safely to maturity.
Decreasing the suicide rate
Prevention from cyberbullying has reduced the suicide rates in teenagers to an outstanding amount. The reported cases of bullying and harassment are decreasing but it needs more work, and you can take part in this by providing your children with a safer environment.
