Henderson Police
What Parents Can Do About Cyberbullying
Parents can help stop cyberbullying. You can start by talking to kids about the issue and teaching them the rules below that will help prevent cyberbullying from happening to them or someone they know.
What Kids need to know:
- Never give out personal information online, whether in instant message
profiles, chat rooms, blogs, or personal websites.
- Never tell anyone but your parents your password, not even friends.
- If someone sends a mean or threatening message, don't respond. Save it
or print it out and show it to an adult.
- Never open emails from someone you don't know or from someone you know
is a bully.
- Don't put anything online that you wouldn't want your classmates to see,
even in email.
- Don't send messages when you're angry. Before clicking "send," ask
yourself how you would feel if you received the message.
- Help kids who are bullied online by not joining in and show the bullying
messages to an adult.
- Always be as polite online as you are in person.
Since most cyberbullying takes place at home, it's important that parents know about cyberbullying and that they get involved in preventing it. Just like parents help their kids avoid inappropriate websites, they can help protect their children from cyberbullying.
What Parents can do:
- Keep your home computer in a busy area of your house.
- Set up email and chat accounts with your children. Make sure that you
know your children's screen names and passwords and that no personal information in
included your children's online profiles.
- Regularly go over your children's instant messenger "buddy list" with them. Ask
who each person is and how your children know him or her.
- Print this list of commonly used
acronyms in instant messenger and chat rooms from the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children and post it by your computer.
- Discuss cyberbullying with your children and ask if they have ever
experienced it or seen it happen to someone.
- Tell your children that you won't blame them if they are cyberbullied. Emphasize that you won't take away their computer privileges - this is the main reason kids don't tell adults when they are cyberbullied.
The information was provided by the
National Crime Prevention Council.