Cyber Bullying – Get Involved BEFORE it Happens

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  Cyberbully – A movie about how cyber bullying destroys teens. Available on Netflix.  Source: Netflix streaming screenshot

   

   

October is National Bullying Prevention Month.  I had a wonderful friend in grade school.  We were in girl scouts together and her mom was our girl scout leader.  I have such fond memories of our time together.  By the time high school arrived, we were in different classes and I was no longer in girl scouts.  We had grown apart.  I recently met with my old friend, we found each other on Facebook.  We had a great reunion, catching up.  But she told me things in her past that I had no idea about.  How her stepfather was so harsh on her, very demanding  and mentally abusive.  And how she couldn’t even get any relief at school, because she was being bullied there.  She developed rather quickly and garnered a lot of jealousy from other girls.  She lived between a rock and a hard place, rarely getting any peace in-between.  How she grew up to be such a loving, genuine person can only be by God’s grace.  She was one of the lucky ones…she survived.  According to studies conducted by Yale University, bully victims are anywhere from 2 to 9 times likely to consider suicide than non-bullied people. [1]

Bullying is still common today, but now it has rippling effects that make it more apparent to a larger audience.  The term, cyber bullying is a type of violence involving harassment, rumor spreading, disclosure of personal information or pictures, and other tactics that follows a person online, often resulting in lasting damage to young teens.  The following bullet points are taken directly from BullyingStatitics.org‘s website,

Cyber bullying Can Take Many Forms:

• Sending mean messages or threats to a person’s email account or cell phone
• Spreading rumors online or through texts
• Posting hurtful or threatening messages on social networking sites or web pages
• Stealing a person’s account information to break into their account and send damaging messages
• Pretending to be someone else online to hurt another person
• Taking unflattering pictures of a person and spreading them through cell phones or the Internet
• Sexting, or circulating sexually suggestive pictures or messages about a person

Even worse, cyber bullying may never disappear, as messages/pictures, once circulated, may resurface later to cause new pain to an old wound.  Cyber bullying can be very damaging to adolescents and teens. It can lead to anxiety, depression, and even suicide.

It is estimated that 43% of teens in the US have been victims of cyber bullying (2010). [2]    And many more children have witnessed cyber bullying online.  Most kids don’t tell their parents when either they are a victim of cyber bullying or have seen it online, yet the results to the victim can be devastating.

Cyber Bullying – How You Can Help Your Teen

Hopefully, your child will never go through cyber bullying, but s/he is likely to see it.  During National Bullying Month, it is a good time to set down with your children and talk about what bullying and cyber bullying is.  Help them to empathize with cyber bully victims and offer friendship, not join in on the harassment.  What might start out as a “harmless” joke to someone can quickly roll into ongoing harassment.  Help your teen learn the signs and become more aware of cyber bullying’s presence.  ConnectSafety.org has a great parent guide on cyber bullying to cover with your teen.  Take time this month during National Bullying Month, to cover these tips with him/her.

Looking for a diving board to help jump start your conversation?  Stream the movie “Cyberbully” from Netflix to watch as a family.  It is hard for teens to internalize the effects of cyber bullying without seeing it play out before them.  Cyberbully is a movie about a outgoing teenager, Taylor Hillridge, who quickly becomes the victim of cyber bullying after brother posts a defamatory comment online and friends join in.  The cyber bullying ensues when a friend becomes jealous of her and tries to humiliate her online…successfully.   Depression and thoughts of suicide overwhelm this once popular, happy girl.  Note that Cyberbully is rated TV-14, due to some sexual references.

Here are some other Netflix movies that focus on fighting back after being bullied…

For your younger kids, these Netflix movies show there is a hero is us all.  Talk it over with your younger kids to help them realize how they can be a hero in someone else’s life.  No matter what their age, they can make an impact.

A Mom’s Perspective

Bullying of any type should not be tolerated.  Often times kids would do more to stop it if they were more aware of what it is and how to handle it.  Parents can play a big part in helping their kids to recognize cyber bullying and diffusing it.  Ignoring cyber bullying will not stop it.  With nearly half of teenagers encountering some sort of cyber bullying, it is very possible your child may be one of the victims…and you don’t even know it.

Movies provide a good way to talk about issues before they arise, giving your teen a good framework to work off  and how to respond once they recognize it.  Watch Cyberbully or some of these other great bullying movies help start this discussion with your teen/child.  It’s never to early to begin the conversation.

Have you faced bullying issues with your teen or child before?

[1]  http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.html

[2] http://nobullying.com/what-is-cyber-bullying/

*  I am a member of the Netflix Stream Team.  As a member, I will be given a one year’s subscription to Netflix.  Nonetheless, I have been a personal subscriber of Netflix streaming for well over a year…I’m a fan!