On this mornings CNN segment I shared a few tips about cyberbullying! Did you know 1 in 5 teens have been Cyberbullied and it’s starting to happen at younger ages. 42% of of 4th-8th grade students have been cyberbullying victims. (if you have more questions JOIN the FREE advice conference call that Ill be a guest on Monday 10pm edt)
Here are some of the highlights & tips from my CNN segment (which happens every Sat. 8:20am edt):
1. Sign up for free Google alerts on your Child’s name & their friends. This way every time your Child’s name is blogged about you can receive an email notification. You can also type in other keywords that you may want to track as well.
2. Become their friend on Facebook! If your child is on Facebook YOU absolutely need to join to parent them online! I can’t stress this enough & if you are intimidated check online or Facebook 101 classes and area community colleges that may offer a course at low cost.
3. Mobile bullying is a major problem as well, so play close attention to text messages, images etc… If you are really concerned you can look at using a service like my mobile watchdog this won’t be available for every phone but it could help some of you. Also you can turn off receiving images in text messages on your child’s phone!
4. For the kids if you have been bullied or know someone who has keep a few tips in mind:
– don’t respond to it, don’t fuel them
– tell a guardian, parent, adult friend
Asap!
– don’t delete any messages, blog posts or images that may have been used to bully you, keep that as evidence of what’s happening
5.
6. Lastly, if you are really concerned you can install computer monitoring software like SpectorSoft Pro this is a keylogger software and will help you track emails, IM’s, chats, social networking, websites visited, images viewed etc…
I hope these tips help some of you, I have a son as well & I do understand the feeling as a parent but I also understand how it can be difficult for kids to communicate what’s happening.
Bottom line over-communicate! Feel free to share tips that have worked for you in the comments!