How to Prevent Cyberbullying ?

 Here a question arises in front of us "How to Prevent Cyberbullying?".

For answering this question we need to understand another question " Why Prevention is Important?"

• Why Prevention is Important?

Cyberbullying is deliberately and repeatedly inflicting harm using electronic devices, gaming apps, and online social media platforms. It often manifests as hate accounts, hurtful social media posts, online rumors and gossip, and mean comments while gaming. The intention is almost always to embarrass, threaten, humiliate, intimidate, or abuse the intended target.

Research has shown that those who are cyberbullied suffer a number of different consequences, including struggling emotionally, physically, mentally, and academically. What's more, cyberbullying is a significant stressor in a young person's life. Cyberbullying leaves young people feeling hurt, embarrassed, and sometimes even scared.

Not only do they often blame themselves for the torment and harassment they experience, but they also are left feeling extremely stressed out. In fact, one study found that nearly 35% of those targeted by cyberbullies reported symptoms of stress.

Kids' sleeping and eating habits can be impacted by cyberbullying. Sometimes kids who are cyberbullied will crash diet or binge eat as either a way of coping with the cyberbullying or as an attempt to alter the way they look in hopes the cyberbullying will end.

Grades and extracurricular activities may also suffer as a result of harassment. Teens may skip school or have trouble concentrating on their studies because cyberbullying is consuming all of their time and energy.

It's also not uncommon for cyberbullying victims to feel alone and isolated. Many kids who are targeted report being ostracizes at school. This experience, in turn, impacts their self-esteem and feelings of self-worth. Ultimately, cyberbullying can lead to self-harm and even suicidal thoughts. 

When kids are regularly harassed by others through social media posts, text messages, instant messaging, and blog posts, they can start to feel hopeless. They may start to think that the only way to escape the torment is through suicide. Because the risks associated with cyberbullying are so significant, it's important that parents take steps to prevent cyberbullying in their kids' lives.

If your tween or teen is having suicidal thoughts, they can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If they are in immediate danger, call 911.

Now, let us talk about our main topic .

• How to Prevent Cyberbullying?

While there is no foolproof way to prevent your child from ever being cyberbullied, there are things you can do together to reduce the likelihood they will be targeted. This includes implementing safety measures as well as having ongoing conversations about cyberbullying. You need to discuss what cyberbullying is, the risks associated with experiencing it, and how it can escalate.

It's also important to talk to your tweens and teens about how to use social media safely and responsibly and what they should do if they are bullied online.

We prevent ourselves from Cyberbullying by just following steps :

1. Protect Account and Devices.

2. Using Privacy Tools and Settings.

3. Keep Personal  Stuff Private.

4. Manage Location Sharing.

5. Log Out When Using Public Devices.

6. Refuses to Respond Cyberbullies.

7. Report Cyberbullies.

1. Protect Account and Devices 

When it comes to preventing cyberbullying, and similar behaviors like catfishing, it's important that your child use passwords on everything. Passwords are one of the most effective ways to protect accounts and devices.

Emphasize that your child should never share their passwords with anyone, including their best friend. Even though they may trust that friend implicitly, the reality is that friends come and go and there is no guarantee they are going to be friends forever.

2. Use Privacy Tools and Settings

No matter what your teen does online, make sure they are aware of the privacy settings and tools offered by the organization. Almost every social media platform including Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat have privacy settings.

Go through each account with your child and help them set their privacy settings to the most secure settings. This means making accounts private, preventing people from tagging them, requiring other people to get permission before sharing one of their photos, and so on.

3. Keep Personal Stuff Private 

Kids should never share their address, cell phone number, or email address online. They should be careful about sharing too much information about where they go to school, especially if they have friends or followers online that they don't know really well.

Remind them that people are not always who they claim to be online. Even though the profile photo is of a teenage girl, that doesn't mean the person behind the account is actually a teenage girl. It could be someone pretending to be a young girl in order to gather information on other teens.

 

4. Manage Location Sharing 

Some smartphones allow users to share their location with friends. This means that if they share their location with people, these people will always know where they are. Have a discussion with your child about who they can share their location with or if they can share it at all.

• Likewise, some photos taken with smartphones already contain                 geotags that indicate where the photo was taken. People can use these     photos to determine your child's location, even if they never mention         where the photo was taken.

Your child needs to be mindful about which photos they are sharing and when. For instance, you may want them to refrain from posting vacation pictures until you have returned from vacation. This way, you are not letting the entire online world know that no one is at your home for the next two weeks.

5. Log Out When Using Public Devices

Remind your tween or teen that when they are using public computers or laptops at school or the library, they should log out of any account they use. This includes logging out of email, social media accounts, their school account, Amazon account, and any other account they may open.

Simply closing the tab is not enough. If someone gets on the computer immediately after they are done, they may still be able to get into your child's account. And once they have access, they can take control of that account by changing passwords.

Once they have control, they can impersonate your child online by making fake posts and comments that make your child look bad. Plus, once you lose access to an account, it can be difficult and time-consuming to regain control.

6. Refuses to Respond Cyberbullies

If you experience cyberbullying, you should refrain from responding. This means you should not argue, try to explain, or engage in any way with a cyberbully.

Cyberbullies are looking for an emotional response, but if you refuses to give them anything to go on, they are left with one-sided communications.

In the meantime, you should take screenshots of the harassment and save it as proof of the encounter. This documentation may be needed when reporting a cyberbully.

7. Report Cyberbullies 

Make sure you knows that you should always report cyberbullying. This includes not only telling you what is happening, but also letting the social media platform, internet service provider, and any other necessary parties know what is going on. You may even need to contact the police to put an end to the harassment.

Once all the reports have been filed, take the appropriate steps to block the person or account responsible for the cyberbullying. Doing so doesn't prevent them from using a different account or a public space to continue to cyberbully you, but it will slow them down.

Teens also should learn to be good bystanders too. If you witness cyberbullying online, you should refrain from participating in the cyberbullying and instead look for ways to support the person being targeted. You should also report what they witness online to a responsible adult like you, a teacher, or a principal—especially if they know who is doing the cyberbullying.

More often than not, kids are cyberbullied by people you know from their school or their community. So standing up for the person being targeted can help prevent future cyberbullying incidents, especially if the cyberbully is not getting the reaction they want.