How to Protect Your Child from Being Cyberbullied

It used to be so easy. Your pre-schooler would ask if she could go on Noggin.com. You would type in the URL and walk away from the computer knowing she was safe. Eventually, you put the icons on your desktop so that she could simply point and click to the websites she wanted to go to. One day, you walk by while she’s online and notice that she is not on Noggin.com or Webkinz.com or any of the websites that she has icons for. You ask her what she is doing and she tells you that she’s looking for some website that she learned about at school. She can’t remember the exact name of it so she’s doing a search. Huh!?! When did your child get so web-savvy? Welcome to the information age.

When it comes to cyber safety and kids, parents can’t be too cautious. If the internet is the information superhighway, teaching cyber safety to our kids is as important as teaching them how to look both ways before crossing the street. But, once we’ve put the parental settings on and we’ve had the conversation about not giving out personal information, what is left to discuss? It turns out, there is plenty.

As the World Wide Web and technology gets more sophisticated, so do our kids. Gone are the days when the web was simply something we accessed from the computer in the family room. Now our daughters can take it with them via cell phones and other wireless devices. And, as children get older, we not only have to teach them about internet safety but also about internet etiquette.
By Christine Duval
Everywhere we go on the web these days, there is an opportunity to socialize…forums, blogs, chat rooms, virtual worlds. It is easy for anyone – adult or child – to forget that there are real people on the receiving end of whatever is put out there in the social networking world. As an adolescent, there is something very attractive about existing in a virtual world. For many, it’s an opportunity to be something that maybe they can’t or don’t think they can be in “real” life. Online, people feel they can say more than they would if they were face to face with an individual. Perhaps there is a false sense of security. Or, maybe it’s just that a virtual world doesn’t seem to truly exist. But anyone who has been the victim of cyber bullying will tell you that the hurt felt from such behavior is very real. So, as our children get more tech savvy, we’ve got to have more detailed conversations about what is and is not acceptable conduct online.

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