Sexual abuse and pornography are not the only dangers you need to be concerned about when it comes to your children. In the past five years, another form of online crime has emerged, known as cyber bullying.
Picture this – your child is a victim of bullying in school. He goes home and seeks refuge from you. As a parent, you are there to give him the best advice he can get. In no time, he gets to adjust and learns to cope with it. As soon as you think the problem is solved, there he is complaining again about the same kid bullying him in school, but this time, it’s happening online.
Bullying today isn’t just limited to the schoolyard. When children go online, they may become victims of cyber bullying from other kids who know them from the neighborhood or in school. It can be done using different technological advantages including email, SMS, chat, or social networking.
What then is the immediate effect of bullying in children? According to the National Institute of Health, cyber bullying is one of the major causes of depression among children. Although depression is not a common disorder for minors, it may still consume them whenever they are subjected to very high levels of pressure, embarrassment, humility, fear, anger, and many forms of negative feelings. Therefore, there is a significant connection between cyber bullying and depression.
Whenever a child or teen is humiliated, discomfited, or blackmailed online, they are placed in a scenario where they become more vulnerable. The more they are bullied, the more they become depressed and that can result to far worse conditions like suicidal tendencies. To support this premise, the American Academy of Child and Adolescents Society tells us that suicide is among the three most common causes of death in teens and young people aged 15 – 24. If we try to find out what’s causing these young people to waste their lives, cyber bullying is definitely one of them.
Just like schoolyard bullying, it is difficult for victims to escape. Since most kids and teens depend so much on the internet, there is no way for parents to prohibit them from using it. So even though they just want to ignore those who bully them, they may find it hard to do so since online bullies will always find a way to get to a victim.
Because of this, victims will likely lose hope. The best that they can do is just pray that someday the bullying will stop. But in reality, it really won’t unless steps are made to combat it. But how?
The usual problem parents and concerned persons encounter is the anonymity of the bully. The internet serves as a blanket to hide the identities of these perverted people and it’s kind of hard tracking them down. Eventually, victims start to develop depression by consistently worrying and thinking about the next move or attack by the bully. Their mundane and daily activities and lives become affected by the worrying and in just a short period of time, they may build up a mentality towards hurting or even killing themselves.
Cyber bullying and depression are two related concepts in the context of child safety. This is taking into consideration that children and teens are the most vulnerable group in society. If they are bombarded with ill feelings and treatment from others, they can be easily consumed by it and eventually risk their safety and lives facing it.
In conclusion, there are simple steps you can take to help protect your child. You can, for instance, make a report to your internet service provider on bullying issues. You can also report it to the authorities if death threats are being made. It may also be that you have to change all your email addresses and social media accounts (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, etc.) that the bully knows and start over fresh. We believe it is vital no matter what to help the child identify something that they are good at and focus on developing this skill in order to boost self-esteem. Finally, many parents may want to consider going online with their child, to be there when the bullying starts, in order to “face” the bully online. This will at least show your child that you are on their side and that you are fighting for them.