Digital Parenting Tricks: What should you do if your child is being bullied?

Bitdefender

August 29, 2018

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Digital Parenting Tricks: What should you do if your child is being bullied?

We know that when a child is bullied /cyberbullied things are serious. Here is where you can start:

Listen to your child. Find out what happened and how your child felt and feels about what happened. Most kids have been teased by their peers at some point. If it’s playful, friendly and mutual, and kids find it funny, it is not bullying. But when teasing is hurtful, unkind and unrelenting, it becomes bullying, and it needs to stop. Make sure that you and the child have the same understanding of what happened with questions such as: who is bullying? when did it first happen? was this the first time? what was your child ‘s reaction? was there anyone else involved? how are things offline with that person?

Reassure your child. Chances are your child has been worrying about this for quite some time. They might have been reluctant to speak out about the bullying situation. Praise them for speaking up and reassure them of your support.  No matter how old your child is, remind them that when this happens online they can report, delete and block that person.

Work together to stop the bullying. First, save the evidence, with a screenshot. Then report, delete and block. With social networks, it’s best to nip the problem in the bud; blocking the individual can prevent any further abuse.

Talk about it at your kid’s school and with other parents. Talk with teachers and the other parents about the issue. Make them aware of the problem and give them the chance to act on your concerns.

Monitor the situation. Without being insistent, ask your child from time to time how things are. It’s true that questions like ‘How was school today?’ will often result in ‘OK’ or, if you have a teenager, maybe just a grunt. But don’t give up.

Check out the resources for dealing with bullying in your area. There is help out there. If you want further advice, try contacting anti-bullying organizations.

Here are our consultant psychologist’s tips on how to approach such a situation:

Advise your children to leave the group / conversation

Tell them they can control this, they can block the bully / they can log out

Remind your child this is not their fault

Assure the child of your love and support.

 

This article is part of the Digital Parenting Tricks series for the Bitdefender Parental Control* feature. Bitdefender worked with a psychologist to create a cheat sheet for parents and offer them some guidance on how to deal with some of the most troublesome digital challenges of our time. Because we want to use technology to find new ways to stand up to this kind of behaviour.

*The Detection of Cyberbullying and Online Predators functionality is no longer available in Bitdefender products.

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The meaning of Bitdefender’s mascot, the Dacian Draco, a symbol that depicts a mythical animal with a wolf’s head and a dragon’s body, is “to watch” and to “guard with a sharp eye.”

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