How to Deal With Cyber Bullying as a Kid

Cyber bullying is when children use technology, like the Internet and cell phones to bully other children by harassment, insults and humiliation. There are things you can do to deal with cyber bullying as a kid, and it starts with knowing you aren’t alone. Cyber bulling is a growing problem.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Ignore the cyber bully. This is often hard to do, but sometimes with the support of close friends, you can do it. The bully gets bored because they haven’t gotten a reaction from you, and will leave you alone.

2. Save any nasty or hurtful messages you get, and show them to your parents. Deleting them without telling anyone probably won’t make the problem go away. If the cyber bullying gets to the point that the police become involved, having those messages will help them track down the cyber bully.

3. Block the bully from your email account or cell phone. This is another way of ignoring them, and preventing yourself from being bullied is sometimes the first line of defense in getting it to stop.

4. Tell your parents or a trusted teacher at school. Too often kids wait until the problem has become serious before asking for help from an adult.

5. Learn that bullies have often been bullied themselves. It doesn’t excuse their behavior, but it shows you that sometimes bullying becomes a vicious cycle. This is why you shouldn’t retaliate against a cyber bully, because you are just becoming a bully yourself.

Tips & Warnings

• Don’t strike back at a cyber bully by doing the same thing to them. This just escalates the bullying, and makes you just as bad as they are.

[PrivateEye007]

on 8/17/2008 A Good site to post and read up on topics like this is www.AOLHarassment.com