How to Protect your Tween from Being Cyberbullied

Part 2. Previous

Probably the most important thing to teach our children is they need to think and if they’re not sure – ask – before they post. Things that are put on the internet can stay there indefinitely. We tell our daughters not to give out personal information, share photos of themselves or passwords. But, do they know it is not okay to share or use their friends’ information as well? What if they know a friend’s log in information? They might think it’s funny to go online and pretend to be her. But, what if they inadvertently share information that could cause problems for that friend in the future? Even something as innocent as sending an unflattering picture to another friend as a joke can have repercussions. Once that photo is sent out, it is there in cyberspace and could end up anywhere.
We may have had discussions about cyber bullying. Perhaps we’ve already advised them that if someone is not being nice online that they should log off. But, we also need to keep in mind that our child could be the cyber bully and not realize it. Again, it goes back to the false sense of security that a virtual world provides. Even if provoked, our daughters need to know that being rude to someone online is never acceptable.

It’s hard to keep up with technology and it’s hard to know exactly what our children are doing online all the time. When it comes to the World Wide Web, the most important thing we can do as parents is to keep the lines of communication open with our kids. The Parental settings help but they are no substitute for a conversation.

Article by Christine Duval. Christine is a Freelance Writer and Website Content Moderator. She can be reached at cduval5@gmail.com