Social media today has been the blame for our youth today being bullied and for some to feel as if they were not worth living. Many have been bullied on sites such as Facebook, and My Space, and have felt that they were not able to get away from the bully. Many of the young ones were embarrassed to tell someone, and have fallen into a depression. One quotation from Bullying Statistics, states people who are bullied as children are more likely to suffer from depression as an adult than children not involved in bullying. This is a problem because when the young one is bullied to the point that they fall into a depression, they can in turn feel as if they are worthless.
The issue of bullying has been thrust into the national spotlight, due to the rash of new teens bullying stories making the news. These teens have been able to speak up on the issue at hand against their attacker, and has raised many concerns to parents. Parents now have been working hard at protecting their children from these types of Cyberbullies, by making sure they monitor their child's activity on the social media sites. A recent story making the rounds on cable news and the Internet is of a young girl by the name of Rebecca Sedwick, of Lakeland, Fla., who jumped from a cement factory tower on September 9th, 2013. This child felt she had no way out.
What can us as a society and parents do when we see that a child has been bullied? If we have recognized any changes in the child's behavior, be quick to ask questions to get the child to open up freely to you. When a child is able to come to either a parent, teacher or a school counselor each will need to be prepared to assist the child under their time of need. Many of the children who seek help is because they are at a breaking point, and need to be able to get the proper help to get the problem under control. So look for some of the signs such as long lasting sadness, withdrawal from others, feeling worthless and helpless, to name a few.
Some of us may feel that we are not qualified to help when we see a young one being bullied. We can assist even if we are just a sounding board, or if we make steps to help assist the young one with going to their parents, school consoler or even if severe going to their local police department. We as a society have to step up and assist them because many of the ones today that have been bullied will not speak up, and this can become very critical. Preventing and stopping bullying involves a commitment to creating a safe environment where children can thrive, socially and academically, without being afraid. A quote from American Psychological Association states, Parents, teachers, and school administrators can help students engage in positive behavior and teach them skills so that they know how to intervene when bullying occurs.
When it comes to setting boundaries with technology, as a parent you will need to be firm with the child. Many of the children today do not like boundaries, but we do this for their safety. We need to make sure that we educate our child to the Cyberbullies who are looking for their next victim. Letting the child know what they need to do if they encounter being bullied, and making sure the child knows what they need to do if it does happen. Make sure that your child has all of the important information that they will need before you permit them to go onto the social media sites.
When you let the child on the home computer there are things that you need to make sure that you do. The article How parents, teachers, and kids can take action to prevent bullying states, Make the family computer the only computer for children, and have it in a public place in the home where it is visible and can be monitored. If you decide to give your child a cell phone think carefully before allowing them to have a camera option. Let them know you will be monitoring their text messages. As a parent, you can insist that phones are stored in a public area, such as the kitchen, by a certain time at night to eliminate nighttime bullying and inappropriate messaging. Parents should report bullying to the school, and follow up with a letter that is copied to the school superintendent if their initial inquiry receives no response.
We begin to look at the different types of forms of Cyberbullying that takes place today on an everyday basis, and can be overwhelming. On email, cell phones are a means for bullying, along with spreading rumors online. Posting hurtful or threatening messages on one's social media site such as Facebook, or My Space. There have been some who would pretend to be someone else online just to hurt another person. And when it comes to taking pictures, there have been some out there who have circulated suggestive pictures of another person just to bully them. As a parent this is our job to make sure that we keep our children safe, and if we follow the guidelines this can certainly help the child understand the importance of protecting themselves on their social media account.
When we look into many cases of young ones who have been Cyberbullied and have taken their own life it is staggering to see. We have to ask ourselves, what could we as the parent, consoler or teachers done to help avoid this situation. It is very disheartening to see that when a child takes their own life because they let this Cyberbully make them believe that they were worthless, we as a parent or any authority figure feel that we failed the child. Just a few cases reported on Child bullying school bullying bullycide, shows us the despair that these children went through. Yorkshire: Twelve-year-old Debbie Shaw agrees to a challenge by other girls to end her bullying and victimization by fighting the school bully. She died of her injuries. Stephen Sandon, six, collapsed and died in terror of a bully pack almost a year to the day after the death of Joanna Canlin in the same tough schoolyard Sadly age does not matter when it comes to being a victim of bullies.
Does it matter what the age is of a young one being Cyberbullied? Apparently the age does not matter, there have been reports of children at the young age of six, who have felt that they could not go on and committed suicide. Many of us today may or may not have experienced being bullied as a child, and if you have been you were one of those who were able to get help with it. We look at how Cyberbullying has caused some to go into depression, and unfortunately some never seem to be able to recover from it. Many have said that due to being bullied as a young adult, they have been depressed from it and it has followed them into their adulthood. This is a very sad situation for all involved when one lets the Cyberbully take control of their life. If this has happen or is happening to your child, there is hope and there is help to get them out of the situation.
What can we do to stop Cyberbullying today? There have been some who feel that if a child is bullying someone on social media, then why not make the parent of that child responsible? The article Cyber-Bullying, Social Media, and Parental Responsibility states real good information regarding holding the parent accountable. Force parents to take responsibility for the actions of their children on social networks, especially when they enable that access. Criminalize cyber-bullying and enforce steeper penalties for teens who bully others. Require social networks and text-messaging services to install contextual monitoring to discover and report/block bullying comments as they happen. If we're going to have a zero-tolerance policy on this issue, then let's really have one, teens are committing suicide and we're too often left scratching our heads wondering what could have been done to prevent it.
We have to put a plan in place in order to protect our children from Cyberbullies, so as a parent it is one of the most important things that you will need to do to protect you child. The sad reality is that all our efforts are being thwarted by the growing popularity of social media, the proliferation of social networks, and the access teens have to more Internet-connected devices. In some cases parents have been involved in helping their child and unfortunately all the steps they go through to help can be to no avail. For every step forward we take in raising awareness of the negative effects of bullying in our schools, bullies seem to find more channels by which to terrorize their peers and more hatred to motivate them. We then start to ask ourselves can they be stopped.
As we deal with the social media Cyberbully there are things that we need to do in order to research why these things happen and what it is that we can do to avoid it. There are many websites that we can look up that show the results of one being Cyberbullied, along with what you can do if you have a child that is being bullied. The focus is to research the different scenarios that cause these things to take place. Then to be able to put everything in order as to what to do with the information. Being able to do the much needed research on this topic, is very educational and will give you the tools needed.
In conclusion when we look at the severity of our youth being bullied on social media, we begin to ask ourselves once again, will this ever stop? We know that we live in a society where electronic gadgets are eventually going to take over, all social media websites weather on home computers, cell phones, and now with the new Apple watch. It will not go away, but we as parents can educate ourselves and our children and take the necessary steps to protect our children from the Cyberbullying on Social Media websites. We also can do research on the websites where those who have been bullied and have been able to succeed from this, and be able to share these things with our children so they are aware that if they are bullied they can seek help. So we as the parent, teacher or consoler need to be well educated in this overwhelming task in order to assist our young ones in their time of need, and to be well aware of the signs that show that they have been or are being bullied.
