Bullying, Children, Sponsored

8 Tips On How To Handle Your Child Being Cyberbullied

1. Never respond. If the bully sees they are getting a reaction out of your child, chances are they will continue to bully. It will give them power over your child and no one ever wants to empower a bully.

2. Don’t retaliate. This will reinforce the bullies behavior which in turn can make your child look as if they are the bully, even if they aren’t. Not retaliating will help avoid a whole cycle of aggression.

3. Save, save, save ALL the evidence. The more evidence you and your child have, the better the case against the bully. Cyberbullying can lead to internet defamation which is another crime. (Aaron Minc provides some good tips on that in this article.) The only good thing that comes out of cyberbullying is that all the harassing messages can usually be captured, saved and shown to someone your child trusts who can help. Your child needs to make sure they do this no matter how minor the cyberbullying may seem.

4. Go to a trusted adult. Not everyone will believe your child, so they need to make sure they choose someone who they can trust and who will actually listen to them. Examples of these type of people are a parent or even a school counselor. Sometimes both are needed. If your child is nervous about reporting the situation, check to see if there are ways to report the incident anonymously at school.

5. BLOCK. This is a must! As someone who has been cyberbullied as both a teenager and an adult, blocking is an absolute must. With cyberbullying the harassment can come in the form of instant messages, texts or profile comments. Do yourself and your child a huge favor and block the person if you can. It will save both you and your child a lot of heartache and tears in the long run.

6. Always take the high road and be civil. Your child won’t like everyone. Not everyone will like them either. That is just a fact of life. You can’t please everyone. Even if they don’t like someone, it’s always a good idea to be decent and not to sink to the other person’s level. Treat people the way you want to be treated. A good motto to live by.

7. Never be a bully yourself. If your child has been bullied themselves, they know all too well the dreadful feelings that come with it. How it upset them, possibly made them cry and more. Why would they want to put someone else through those same feelings? Walk a mile in someone elses shoes before you ever decide to bully.

8. Always be a friend, never a bystander. This is something that I cannot wrap my mind around. How people nowadays can stop what they are doing, grab their phones and just record incidents that happen that lead to violence. Instead of recording, they should be getting involved and help dissolve the situation in any way they can. If you or your child can, tell bullies to stop. Let them know their behavior is unacceptable. If you can’t stop the bully, at least try to help the victim and report the behavior.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.

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