Bullying and cyber crime come in a variety of forms and one of the newest ways the bully is getting to people is by using the Internet. While the Internet may seem like it is a safe place to avoid the bullies, they are actually coming to the Internet in droves and have managed to bully quite a few people. To get a good picture of this people only have to look at the recent news out of Florida of two girls who were arrested after another girl killed herself after being cyberbullied. This could have easily been avoided if parents have some tips for cyber safety for kids and how they can avoid being bullied or taken advantage of.
Avoid Making Friends Online With People They Do Not Like
While making friends seems like a great idea, which it is and does help children develop, kids, do not like everyone. Since this is the case, they need to avoid being friends with the people they do not like online. By avoiding these people, the kids will not have the threat of being bullied on the computer. However, a parent may be asking what the person keeps asking to be their friend. The easy answer is to tell the children to ignore the request or to block the request. By doing this, the kids do not have to worry about the unwanted intrusion, but also have proof of what happened.
Tips For Cyber Safety for kids: Never Give Out Personal Information
This is a big one and one which parents really need to educate their teens about. When the teens are giving out personal information, the bully will have the information they need to get even more information about the teens. With this information, the bully could then arrange meetings with the teen or even worse start to intimidate the teen about what they are going to do to them or how they could hurt them even more. By not giving out any of this information in the first place, the teen does not have to be concerned about the bully getting any information on them and can avoid having any problems in the future.
Tips For Cyber Safety For Kids: Avoid Replying To Strangers On Message Boards
While most parents would pride themselves on this fact, their children may not know better and will answer strangers’ requests on these message boards. When the kids do this, they are just opening themselves up to the bully and other strangers to get to know them better. A good example of this is the sting operations that were made famous on Dateline. In these stings, the investigator would pose as someone they were not. Then they would get to know the person and get information about them, but all of this could have been avoided if the children had just ignored the strange message on their boards and kept on doing what they were going to do anyway.
Tips For Cyber Safety: Never Enter Into Chat Rooms Parents Have Declared Off Limits
Sometimes a chat room will be a great place to get information and even learn about a new topic, but other times it is nothing more than a cesspool for stalkers and other bad people. By setting up limits on the kids, the parents will know their kids are going to avoid these rooms and not be exposed to this type of harm because they are not going into these chat rooms. However, the parents will need to make sure, with all the other tips for cyber safety, they are carefully monitoring their kid’s actions on the Internet.
Tips For Cyber Safety For Kids: Carefully Watch The Children’s Activities
Generally, a parent will put their kid on the Internet and think they are going to listen and do exactly what they are told to. However, when is the last time a kid actually listened and did this? The chances are they were probably a lot younger than they are now. Since this is the case, parent should carefully watch their children and what they are doing on the Internet. This may even include looking to see what kind of websites they have been going to when they are off the computer, but also just popping in unexpectedly and looking at the computer while the children are using the computer.
Having kids and the Internet can be a bad combination at times. However, if the parents are smart and are using the right tips for cyber safety, they can easily keep their kids safe from cyberbullies, but also the harm that comes from the Internet. Without these tips, the parents may just try to wing it and this can easily lead to the kids being led along and taken advantage of by people who are just trying to use kids.