Cyber Bullying

Cyberbullying

“ Cyberbullying is bullying. Hiding behind a pretty screen doesn’t make it less hateful, written words have power too.” - Anonymous

Close your eyes and go back a few years and try to remember the time when you were a little kid. Remember that guy that everyone was afraid of? the one that used to push other people around, or even you, stole lunch money, and made people feel like they were less than any other person, like they were worth nothing. Come back to this moment and think about how bad you felt, now imagine your kid being affected, much worse, constantly receiving harmful messages and being chased through Internet.

Do you think you're protecting your children well enough? Do you know if they are being safe on the internet? We believe most of us have been part of this, in an indirect or direct way, whether we’ve been the bully, the victim, or an observer. Cyberbullying is an international problem that has been going on for years and not much has been done to stop it. We all know something about this, that's why being informed is the best way to prevent it.

According to CDC (center of disease control and prevention) statistics, showed that more than half of the world’s teenagers have been harassed by Cyberbullying in which 1/3 of those have ended in suicides and yet not all countries have a law to stop it.

Some countries that are working harder to prevent this are: the UK ( The Ofsted eSafety Guidance) and Australia (Overarching Learning Outcome 13). Additionally one state that has helped end this problem is Conneticut, when in 2012 a group of teens developed an app to help fight Cyberbullying called Back Off Bully, the web app is an anonymous resource for computers, smartphones or tablets. When someone witnesses or becomes a victim of Cyberbullying they can immediately report the incident and the country can investigate if cyberbullying has occurred, and if so, they can end the problem. Here in Mexico we also have prevention methods. We have websites such as ASI- Mexico, if you feel like you are being a victim of Cyberbullying, with this site you can report by adding the mail, web page or number from where you receive the harassment.

We are all exposed just by having access to the Internet. Statistics said that as a parent the risk is less, but as a teen, who are the ones that spend most of their times on social web sites, the risk is higher. Especially since 90% of teens have access to social networks and internet.

Prevention methods do exist, but the real question is: do teenagers really use them? As we are saying this, millions of teenagers are being harassed by Cyberbullying while their parents have no idea that they are being affected. Statistics report that around 25% of teens have experienced this abuse repeatedly but more than half of them don´t tell their parents or any other authority.

How does cyberbullying occur?

Sharing or posting photos, videos or unpleasant information of a person with the intention of hurting on a profile page, blog or chat, posing as someone else to say hurtful things in an email, message boards, chat, amongst others.etc. Submitting to email or social networking profile of a victim to leave messages on their name, making photographic montages with pictures of the victim in order to expose them via internet or cell phones are ways to attack in cyberbullying, besides this there are millions of other ways that can harm a person psychologically and affect their self esteem and confidence.

Cyberbullying can

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