National statistics on cyberbullying show many teens are subjected to it, while only a small percentage ever tell anyone about it.
Youth who are being cyberbullied might feel helpless and feel they have nowhere to turn. Preventing cyberbullying needs to be a community-wide effort.
Educators, school administrators, victim service providers, law enforcement, community partners, parents and even students should all be involved. But I want to share tips with parents in this space.
You can help us tackle this issue by doing the following three things in your home:
- Listen and talk with your children regularly about why cyberbullying is wrong and hurtful and let them know that engaging in cyberbullying is unacceptable and possibly illegal.
- Communicate online rules and responsibilities to your children and enforce rules with tangible consequences.
- Support the school policies and rules that help create a safe place for students to learn.
Since most cyberbullying takes place at home, it’s important that we as parents know about cyberbullying and that we get involved in preventing it. Just like we steer our kids away from inappropriate websites, we can also protect them from cyberbullying.