A boy invited a fifteen year old girl named, Phoebe Prince, to a dance. This dance was the height of a social season at high school in Massachusetts. A few days before the dance, the police received a call from a sister of Phoebe and the police immediately headed to the Phoebe’s residence. When the police arrived, they found Phoebe had hung herself. One of Phoebe’s fellow students was jealous of her date and began to harass Phoebe via texts and Facebook messages (Kotz, 2010). Today’s children have to worry about a whole new type of bullying, something they need to worry about even at home around their loved ones. This new abuse is cyberbullying.

According to stopbullying.gov cyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices and equipment such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages, chat, and websites. Children today are extremely efficient with today’s technology; they are constantly texting each other and it can be challenging to separate them from their Facebook pages.  Cyberullying is something that happens to many of our children and it can happen 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

Cyberbullies do not have a face. Much of cyberbullying is done anonymously and can be shared with a very wide audience. This allows cyberbullies to say what they want without much worry of being caught. Most children who are cyberbullied do not go home and tell their parents and hope the issue will go away on its own. Children are worried if they inform a parent or teacher the bullying will worsen.  Unless parents and teachers are educated on the seriousness of cyberbullying, it can be difficult to stop.  It is imperative parents, teachers, and those who spend quality time with children understand cyberbullying is real and affect children differently.  Cyberbullying is difficult to stop but below are a few tips from connectsafely.org to prevent cyberbullying.

·         Do not respond- Bullies want a reaction, if you react you are empowering the bully

·         Do not retaliate- Getting back will reinforce the bully’s behavior

·         Save all evidence- Messages can be captured and saved.

·         Talk to a trusted adult- Children cannot do it by themselves, if too scared to talk to an adult contact the school anonymously

·         Do not be a bystander- Watching or forwarding a message also empowers the bully. Try to stop the bullying, if you cannot, report the behavior

 Social media should be fun and way to stay in contact with family and friends, not somewhere children should be scared to participate. We need to remember cyberbullying affects everyone! We all must stand and stop cyberbullying!

Tim