Bullying has been around for many decades, with a lot of children getting bullied at school over the years. While educational experts and parents have tried to tackle this, bullying has become a situation that is difficult to control and can have devastating effects. Many people have spent their whole childhood facing and having to deal with bullies, which can have a serious impact on their mental health in years to come.
Over recent years, there has been a shift in the way bullying is carried out. In the past, bullies would target their victims in the school yard, on the streets, or in other public areas. It was very rare that a bully would actually go to the home of the victim in order to bully them. However, these days bullies are able to terrorize and target victims in their very own homes through the use of modern technology. Social media sites, smartphones, instant messaging apps, and other forms of technology have provided bullies with a whole new method of targeting victims.
The worry for parents
This form of digital bullying is a real concern for parents, as it makes it even more difficult for adults to work out if their kids are being bullied. With physical bullying, the incident is often seen by an adult or there may be injuries that indicate that a child is being bullied. However, with digital bullying, it is all very private. While it may not be a physical form of bullying, it is definitely a mental one and sometimes the effect of this can be even worse.
If your child is receiving calls and message from someone who is being malicious, you do have some tools that you can use such as a reverse phone app that will enable you to see who has been making the calls and sending the messages. However, one of the main methods that bullies in today’s digital age use is to bully via social media. Unless you keep close tabs on your child’s social media account and usage, it may be very difficult for you to determine whether this sort of cyber-bullying is taking place until it is too late.
We have all seen the devastating effects of this type of bullying in news reports where it has been reported that youngsters have actually taken their own lives as a result of the level of bullying they have been subjected to online. It is horrendous to think that the same technology that has made our lives so much easier and more entertaining has also had such a profoundly negative effect in other ways. However, bullies have definitely taken advantage of the privacy and ease with which they can bully their targets online, which is why parents need to be very careful when it comes to their child’s social media usage.
If you have any suspicions with regards to your child being a victim, it is important to sit and communicate with them. In addition, you can monitor or even stop their use of social media in order to protect them.
