Your child keeps getting abusive messages in class chat. You hear about false and defamatory representations being spread about your child. Cyberbullying is unfortunately very common. Here we present the information and help offer cyberbullying help.
Being well informed is the first step in being able to act early. For a detailed definition of cyberbullying, see the Cyberbullying Help page and our post. It explains in detail what cyberbullying is, where it takes place, and why people engage in cyberbullying. You will learn how to recognize warning signals and what options you have for taking action.
If your child has been a victim of cyberbullying, you should act quickly. Help and advice from experts is the best way.
For this purpose, Cyberbullying-Hilfe offers a counseling service for affected children and adolescents. Here, young people support other young people in a so-called “peer-to-peer” offer. This is often more comfortable for many young people than having to turn to adults. In addition, the offer is completely anonymous
The platform Cybermobbing-Hilfe e.V. was founded by 17-year-old Lukas Pohland, who experienced cyberbullying himself. In addition to detailed information on the topic, the platform offers online counseling for young people by young people who have been specially trained for this purpose.
It is important that your child also knows what to do if they are being bullied online. It is best to find out more about the topic together with your child.
For example, watch together the web series Wake Up! and talk about it with your child afterwards. In six short videos, two young people explain the topic of “safety on social media” for young people. The videos also show how a friend can help an affected person. In addition, Wake Up! provides supportive information on how to prevent cyberbullying.
If online services are not enough support, school social workers or family counseling centers can help. What you can also do against cyberbullying, they learn here. The article also contains information on other offers, such as juuuport .
Almost everyone knows the term. This refers to insulting, exposing or threatening people via the Internet and smartphone, e.g. via apps such as Snapchat, WhatsApp or Instagram. But not every message or post on a social media profile with the content “Martin is dumb!” endangers your child’s development.
Bullying has not just existed since social media came into existence. But since almost everyone has a smartphone these days, it doesn’t stop for them when they get out of school in the afternoon. Children and young people are in quasi constant contact with each other, e.g. via class chat on WhatsApp.
Bullying is mostly cyberbullying at the same time, because some people dare to spread mean thing about others and insult them more via cell phone. Sometimes disputes or bullying start in class or in the schoolyard and get worse via communication on the net.
There are people who behave less socially on the Internet than usual. If you show your child that rules of friendly interaction also apply online, hopefully others will behave in the same way. You can talk to other parents about making certain rules apply to everyone.
When children and young people communicate with each other, there are always times when insults are used. This does not have to be bullying, but is often just a joke. They use it to test how far they can go. However, this limit is different for each child.
Regularly ask what your child is doing online, talk to him about possible risks. Be responsive when it encounters problems. Show him ways to block individual users in the apps. On portals like juuuport, your child can get in touch with peers if he or she is afraid to tell you about problems online.
If you notice that your child withdraws and no longer meets friends, you should carefully ask what is behind it. If you are concerned about being bullied, you can contact the classroom teacher. If it really is bullying, be sure to preserve the evidence on your child’s phone, such as screenshots. Certain behaviors associated with bullying – such as threatening, defaming, and disseminating photos of others – are even punishable by law.
In case of massive threats, you should definitely go to the police. You should also report bullying incidents on the platforms where they occurred.
Clearly, you know your child’s friends from school or the sports club. But what about acquaintances with whom your child has contact only via the Internet? Wherever children and young people communicate with each other, they can come into contact with people who have negative intentions.
Portals like Instagram or TikTok, where children and young people like to hang out, also attract users with pedo-criminal tendencies. This is criminal behavior directed at children and is of great concern to many parents. Adults or perpetrators may approach children with the goal of sexually harassing or even abusing them. This targeted approach on the net is called cybergrooming.
The perpetrators take different approaches: They ask very specifically about the child’s or adolescent’s sexual experiences or they publicly describe their sexual preferences. Some gradually worm their way into the child’s trust by pretending to be a peer or taking on the role of a talent scout. Subsequently, the exchange of messages can shift to private spaces, e.g., via individual messages on WhatsApp. This is especially problematic because others cannot see this private chat. There, the perpetrators try to build trust, which is later exploited, for example by asking for nude pictures of the child. With this, the child can be blackmailed later. There is a threat to publish the pictures if more photos are not sent. Or the person may even try to date the child or youth in person.
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