Cyberbullying is aggressive behavior in the form of harassment, embarrassment and defamation via electronic communication channels. The most popular places for cyberbullying are social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, etc. Offensive texts, publicly shared personal or fake information, and sending pictures taken without permission are forms of cyberbullying. While “offline bullying” is limited in time and location, cyberbullying can occur around the clock via cell phones and the Internet.
How do you recognize cyberbullying?
Because of shame and fear of not being understood, children are reluctant to turn to their parents when they have problems. However, similar to schoolyard bullying, there are certain symptoms that indicate cyberbullying. Pay attention to these symptoms in your child so that you can act in time and avoid a crisis situation.
These could be, for example, the following behavioral characteristics:
| Psychological effectslack of self-confidence, growing vulnerability, sleep disorders, loss of appetite, depression, closure, fear, concentration problems |
| Physical effectsHeadache, stomach ache |
| Behavioral changes at homeAggressiveness, private and social withdrawal, no longer interested in hobbies, reluctant to leave the house |
| Behavioral changes at schoolRefusal to go to school, drop in performance, not taking part in class, no social contact during breaks or during group work, distancing yourself from classmates |
What to do about cyberbullying?
In general, it makes sense to know what your child is doing online and to be interested in their online behavior. You should explore social networks with your child. In this way, you can agree on chat rules with your child for correct behavior and teach respectful interaction. Explain to your child that when creating profiles on social networks, care should be taken to ensure that they are not public and reveal too much information. The less information is published, the more protected your child is on social networks.
- Find a conversation and talk to your child without accusations
- Take your child’s concerns seriously and respond with understanding and sensitivity
- Let your child know that the situation is not their fault
- Convince your child that they are great just the way they are
- Look for solutions together
- Use screenshots to preserve evidence
- Block the cyber bully
- If possible, change email addresses, cell phone numbers, etc.
- Contact the website manager to remove the infringing content from the internet and avoid further publication
- Contact the school to raise awareness of bullying
- If you receive serious insults or threats, you should report it to the police
Prevention measures against cyberbullying
The interaction of several factors is important for the prevention of cyberbullying. The focus is on promoting media literacy.
In our article “Responsible use of PCs, smartphones, etc. for children” you will find out how to properly teach your children how to use internet-enabled devices and what limits make sense for their use. In addition, in the article “Safe on the Internet” you can read how you can protect your children on the Internet and what technical security measures you should pay attention to. But teaching communicative and social skills is also crucial for prevention.
As in real life, your own behavior is crucial in internet-based communication. Conscientious communication and interaction online reduces the likelihood of cyberbullying.
Prevention and intervention measures
- In contrast to classic (analog) bullying, another problem with cyberbullying is that the person affected may only realize after a delay that someone is writing about them in a closed messaging group, for example. In this way, too, the damage (such as reputational damage, ongoing suspicion, etc.) for the person concerned can be considerable.
- Since there can be no absolute protection against slander on the Internet, it is of the utmost importance to sensitize young people to the seriousness of attacks in chat groups or social networks and to give suggestions on how to respond to attacks on the Internet – be it as a witness or as a person affected/affected – can react.
- Since there will never be absolute protection against slander on the Internet, it is all the more important to sensitize young people about the consequences of attacks in social networks and messaging groups and to give them suggestions on how to act as a witness or as a victim can react in the event of an attack from the network.
