The explosion in cyber bullying is creating an even more dangerous online environment, as bullying online effects kids' self-esteem, and their social interactions with their peers.
Internet child safety has been a hot topic for some time now, but what about when the online predator is someone your child's age? Bullying online has become so prevalent in America that polls have found up to 34% of young people have been the victim of cyber bullying.
Did you know:
Polls have found up to 34% of young people have been the victim of cyber bullying.
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Data included in these studies revealed many heartbreaking statistics, including stories of kids afraid to use school bathrooms or bus stops, since they don't always know who is attacking them online.
And cyber bullying seems to be creating a shift in social hierarchies that is not for the better. In the past only the biggest, meanest, or most socially dominant kids would bully others. Now, with the empowerment and anonymity of the net, other kids who usually wouldn't do so are bullying online, just because they can.
Girl bullies are on the rise too. Bullying isn't a traditionally female issue, but it's become a serious problem, with girls doing everything from posting nasty rumors on blogs, attacking kids at their own sites, or even posting embarrassing photos taken of the victim without their knowledge (camera-phones are the culprit here).
So what should parents do to foster internet child safety and prevent bullying online? First and foremost, if your child confesses that they're being bullied, don't take away their Internet privileges. Many kids never report the abuse for fear of that very thing.
Internet safety specialists suggest parents and kids do two things: record/save the messages or data, and present it to the proper authorities.
This may sound hard to do when messages, blogs or photos slip away before they can be captured, but thankfully parental control software can help moms and dads gather their evidence.
Good
parental control software, like our WebWatcher, will feature website recording, email recording,
chat recording, and more. WebWatcher is also easy to install and easy to use; we designed it to make computer monitoring a snap.
Cyber bullying can be emotionally terrorizing for your children, and we'd like to think that with WebWatcher, parents can stop online bullying and create and safe and productive online environment for their kids.
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