Is your child being cyberbullied?

 

What can parents do if their child is being bullied? Justin W. Patchin, Ph.D, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, and author of "Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard," offers advice.

Tips to help if your child is a bully or a cyberbully's target

State laws on bullying and cyberbullying:

For more advice and tips on cyberbullying:

Cyberbullying 101 podcast

"Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard" excerpts

Special section | Bullying: Words Can Kill

Resources for students and parents
Resources for schools

[vfoley4]

My Daughter has been and still is being harassed, threatened and bullied from March 2011 to current. I have file police reports, contacted the media (no response) and of course my school principle. I thought I had the girl when she texted a physical threat to my daughter. I filed a police report. They went to the girl's house but I guess she denied it so nothing happened. I firmly believe the police did not do their job correctly. I have since contacted the Commissioner of Police in my area and he is opening an investigation. I hope something comes of this but I am not confident since nothing has been done for the past 7 months.
My daughter should not have to go to school every day and be harassed. It is taking a toll on her emotionally and her grades. It is effective our home life. I have begged for help, but I am getting none. What has to happen to my child before something is done to stop this girl!!

[Michellesmith009]

Parents need to be aware of their child's behavior and instill self-confidence and self-esteem in their children. Also, children must have respect for themselves and others. If they do, they will realize the value of every individual - that no matter how rich or poor a person is, no matter how they dress or how they speak, no matter how a person looks, that person is special and deserves to be treated justly. I believe that it is the parents' responsibility to ensure that their child has this respect. As a parent the most important thing is my child's safety. This blog covers how a mother is dealing with a heartbreaking experience and how you can better protect your kids. This is the link: http://www.tsue-thatswhatshesaid.com/2011/08/your-childs-safety-your-piece-of-mind.html

[Jaylah54]

I'm sorry, but I place at least 80% of the blame for the increased bullying at middle schools directly on the parents.

No middle schooler has any business having a cell phone with an unlimited texting plan (in fact, any texting plan at all). Nor do they have any business having a Facebook account.

Before every kid had a cell phone with unlimited texting, a land-line in their room, and a Facebook account, etc., there weren't that many opportunities for bullying when a grown-up wasn't around to intervene.

If you wanted to talk bad about someone at your school, you ended up doing it on the family telephone where -- chances are -- either your mother or father was half-way listening to your conversation. And there was a time when parents wouldn't stand for that kind of phone calls.

Yeah, you could pretend that it's "technology's fault" but who provides that technology? Parents.

With the majority of families in this country either being two working parents, or single-parent households, I can certainly understand why a parent might want their middle-schooler to have a basic cell phone. But if I still had middle-school aged kids, they'd have a phone that allowed them to call ME or 911, and that's it. (And there are phones like that available.) And they would NOT be allowed to send or receive texts.

They also wouldn't have unsupervised access to a computer at home (as in, their own computer in their room, etc.) There'd be a family computer located somewhere that I could see it from the kitchen, and the kids would only be able to connect to the internet on that computer.

Yes, I know that the kids whine at their parents with the "But everybody...." line, but if you don't have the guts to stand up to a 12-year old (or whatever), then you shouldn't have been a parent in the first place.


I'm sure it's hard for a parent who's lost a child to suicide due to bullying to hear that, but ...... Blame the parents of the bullies for not supervising their kids in the first place, and then look at how you helped allow it.

[janthames]

I was involved with parents in bullying to their children by other school mates. The school refused to do anything except that they would take care of it. I suggested that the parents file charges with the police department. By the time they went to court it quit. Another instance, the child being bullied did not have anyone to stand up for him, his mother was mentally retarded, his father just not involved. He was hispanic and family was on welfare. I introduced him to a police officer and he took care of it. Before the police officer he was failing 5th grade and always fighting the kids bullying him. After the police introduction he graduated from 5th grade with straight A's. I had put him in a tutor mentor program which helped.

We are giving our schools to much responsibility. Parents need to take it to the police then the other parents will get involved. I also did start positive programs where the kids had to work together; i.e, for instance to earn money as a homeroom for pizza parties. That worked really well.

Jan