Suspecting your child suffers bullying is a stressful experience for any parent. With smartphones now commonly owned by teenagers, cyberbullying is another cause for concern.
It’s estimated that a fifth of 10-15-year-olds experience some form of online bullying. It’s, therefore, worthwhile to learn about the signs to look out for and understand what you can do to help.
Potential Signs of Cyberbullying
As with other forms of bullying, your child may not tell you if there’s a problem. If you spot any of these signs, remember to approach the topic calmly and focus on how you can offer support.
- Changes in behaviour, such as becoming more withdrawn and losing interest in hobbies.
- A decline in academic performance or avoiding school.
- Physical symptoms like aches and pains may be a result of stress.
- Struggling to sleep at night or suddenly crashing during the day.
- Avoiding technology, communicating less with friends, and turning down social invitations.
How to Respond to Cyberbullying
Supporting your child and listening to how they want to respond is an important first step. Your natural inclination may be to confront the bullies. But teenagers often seek social acceptance and may be nervous about this.
Gathering evidence of any abusive messages or actions is key. It can be presented to school officials, or the police in extreme cases, to decide on the next steps.
Perhaps most notably, discuss blocking and reporting abusive accounts. Blocking people they may encounter in real life closes one of the avenues to your child’s distress.
The NSPCC has a full list of organisations that can help if you believe your kid is experiencing cyberbullying.
Online Safety Tips for Parents
Gen Z and Gen Alpha will grow up and live with the internet and social media as established influences.
The internet can be a great tool for pursuing hobbies, working, and more. But because it touches so many aspects of our children’s lives, teaching them online safety is essential.
- Phishing education: Online scams are growing in scale and sophistication. Telltale signs include urgent demands, grammatical errors and an impersonal tone. Phishing scams may appear in emails or text messages, and you may have received examples you can share with your child.
- Browsing tools: Multi-factor authentication and password managers can secure online accounts and devices. Using an online VPN can help maintain privacy when browsing. If your teen goes to college or university, they may often connect to public Wi-Fi networks. Using a VPN routes their traffic through several different servers. The data is re-encrypted each time, reducing the likelihood of it being viewed or stolen.
- Parental controls: It can be a difficult conversation as your teen seeks greater independence. Retaining control over their browsing activity can stop them from seeing harmful content. Those boundaries can also serve as a lesson in online safety.
The online world is very much part of our reality. Helping your teen use the internet safely and confidently has become as valuable as many other life lessons that you will pass down.