The cyberbullying usually occurs in adolescence, the age at which they usually attend secondary school. Instead of playing in the park or to get funny nicknames, teens spend hours using email, social networking and messaging to harass and harm some of her contemporaries.
It is estimated that one in four teenagers are or have been victims of this practice that increasingly extends, as it is easier to access the Internet and social networks. The most worrying thing of all is that, after carrying out several studies which has interviewed a large number of students, it is estimated that one in six have practiced cyberbullying against any of her classmates.
Given these data, it is inevitable to wonder if our children can be victims of this kind of cyber attack, but it is also possible that our children are the cyberbullies are hurting and some of her colleagues. If your child is involved in any activity related to cyberbullying it is important to detect and find a solution.
Why my son could be doing cyberbullying?
The cyberbullying is a way through which children and adolescents test their limits and learn to break into the world through social interaction. Some of the reasons why the child can fall in cyberbullying are:
- They have been victims of this type of harassment themselves
- receive peer pressure
- think that this type of behavior are more fun to face your friends
- want to get back at someone
Since the section of their brain that controls impulses and judgment are still developing, children do not always understand how your attitude can have serious future consequences, both for the people and for attacking themselves.
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How do I know if my child does cyberbullying?
Changes in certain behaviors may be indicators to determine if your child is involved in an activity related to cyberbullying. Some of these changes include:
Aggressive and defiant in a child who is normally sociable
- An almost obsessive need to use your computer or smartphone
- Appear unwilling to share their Internet activities you
- Changes in sleep patterns or eating habits
- Problems at school, homework and lack of attention in class
- Find you have multiple profiles or email addresses
Investigate the activities of the child on the Internet can provide more clues to help you determine if you are using incorrectly technology and making cyberbullying someone.
How do I get my child to stop cyberbullying?
Discovering that your child is a cyberbully is not easy, take a long time and many conversations in which you need to be patient. Knowing that your child is involved with this type of action can be very difficult, especially if you at some point in your childhood or adolescence were a victim of similar attitudes. In such cases it is important to try to stop the feelings that you produce out of the environment in which your child together will work to cease such activities. Here are some tips that can help you start dealing with this problem:
- Ask your child lots of questions on various topics in different environments in which he feels comfortable talking.At first confront him you can do close, making it harder to tackle the problem.
- Contact the school or college where he studied your son. Meet with your tutor or psychologist or counselor of the institution to talk about what you have discovered and to help you to address this issue with your child.
- Seeking advice and help for your child. Also get involved in the whole process from the beginning with the whole family so that your child feels supported and that also can work on what you find most difficult to manage when dealing the problem.
- Install a parental control application in electronic devices that can access your child. Control tools as TeenSafe allow you to track the online behavior of your child at all times, including text messaging, Web search, profiles on social networking sites and email. You can also limit the time of connecting the various devices.
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Until the situation is resolved, a measure that is recommended is to keep all electronic devices with Internet access together and in view of the parents, at least until they decide what the consequences for the child and will not start making progress in changing the attitude of the same to the cyberbullying.
Face a situation like this is a great challenge that the family will more united and stronger, but the road will be long and difficult. It is very important to always remember that parents are the guides of our children and we must be alert to the possibility that our children fall into harmful to them and their environment attitudes, to help them out of this and avoid major problems.