Over the past weeks we have been posting advice for parents and children regarding internet safety issues. This time we focus on cyber bullying, increasing awareness of what it is and providing advice on where to get further information. Whilst primary school aged children should not be accessing the majority of social media sites (children should be 13), parents may have older children or may have experience of cyber bullying themselves (cyber bullying can involve adults as well as children) and primary aged children may potentially be exposed to sources of cyber bulling through online games platforms and other internet based tools and apps. The information posted here is taken from the site bullying.co.uk where there is further information on all types of bullying and age appropriate advice sheets.
Cyber bullying is any form of bullying which takes place online or through smartphones and tablets. Social networking sites, messaging apps, gaming sites and chat rooms such as Facebook, XBox Live, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and other chat rooms can be great fun and a positive experience. But what do you do when things go wrong?
- If a person posts abuse about anyone else online or if they send threats, they can be traced by the police without any difficulty. Every time you visit a website or make a posting, your internet service provider has an electronic note of your activity. Even if a person creates an anonymous email address like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo, they can still be traced.
- Keep safe by using unusual passwords. Use a combination of letters, lowercase, uppercase, symbols and numbers. Don’t use any part of your name or email address and don’t use your birth date either because that’s easy for people who know you to guess. Don’t let anyone see you signing in and if they do, change the password as soon as you can.
- If you are using a public computer such as one in a library or even a shared family computer, be sure to sign out of any web service you are using before leaving the computer so that you can protect your privacy.
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Being bullied online can affect someone enormously. Being bullied can impact on a person’s self-esteem, confidence and social skills. Try to consider the impact your words may have and think twice before posting.
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Think twice before you post anything online because once it’s out there you can’t take it back. It is easy for any comments or posts you make online to be taken out of context and these could be damaging to you in the long term.
