Elternguide Logo

Cyberbullying Help

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.

In brief

  • Online counseling for affected children and adolescents
  • Counseling mainly by experienced young people
  • Free of charge and anonymous
  • Answer usually within 24 hours

Cyberbullying – a brief overview

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.

What does Cybermobbing-Hilfe e.V. offer?

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.

What else can parents do?

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 .

Click-tips.net

Klick-tipps.net is a free service on the Internet with recommended apps and websites, especially for children from 6 to 12 years.

In a nutshell:

  • Continuously updated recommendations for children’s services on the web
  • Media educationally assessed and prepared
  • Topics like: News and Politics, Fun and Games, Knowledge and Learning, Leisure or Security.
  • Target groups: Children and young users aged 6 to 12, parents, multipliers, educators.

What is klick-tipps.net?

At klick-tipps.net children and young users, as well as parents and interested multipliers, can find safe surfing spaces, pages and apps with which they can inform themselves, play games and test their knowledge on a particular topic. The presented websites and apps are reviewed by media educators.

What fascinates children about it?

Klick-tipps.net offers a good overview and information for children’s offers on the Internet. In addition, children and young users can make their own suggestions. Using the “Likes” rating tool, children can save and collect their personal favorites, as well as identify “page winners”. From these ratings, they get information about what is important to children on these sites, what they pay attention to, or what they are missing.

What does the provider think?

jugendschutz.net ‘s recommendation service is funded by the Media Competence Forum Southwest Foundation and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
Klick-tipps.net wants to make good children’s sites and apps visible and guide children to tested, informative and interesting children’s sites. Providers of recommended websites and apps should thus become better known. Children should have their say and the offer should support them in mastering “their” Internet safely and competently.

What does the offer for parents?

Parents get an overview of tested children’s sites and apps, as well as to specific, selected sites, games or similar. In addition, there is an overview for each presented offer, which contains, among other things, information on age recommendations, costs and safety. These concise checklists allow parents to better assess whether or not the offer is suitable for their children.

  

Handysektor – the information service for young people

Whether Instagram, WhatsApp or YouTube – the vast majority of young people use digital media every day. Even though they teach themselves many things about it, they have questions from time to time. The page Handysektor.de offers information on online media especially for young people.

In a nutshell:

  • for teenagers from 10 to 18 years
  • free of advertising and free of charge
  • accessible via website, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X
  • Offer of the Baden-Württemberg State Communications Authority (LFK)

What does Handysektor offer?

The smartphone is important for young people to communicate and act out. The range of apps and channels is constantly increasing. This can also be overwhelming and lead to questions: How can you tell if an app really delivers what it promises? How do I handle it when I get nasty comments on my selfie?

Handysektor wants to help young people with such issues and promote safe and competent media use. On the website, they can get tips and information on new apps and learn about the pros and cons as well as possible cost traps. Important and current topics of the digital everyday life of young people such as sexting, cyberbullying or data protection are explained briefly and understandably and tips on how to deal with them are given. On Handysektor ‘s YouTube channel, young people can find explanatory videos on various apps and instructions with creative ideas. In the Stories on Instagram, presenter Kim talks true to life about current trends and gives tips.

What fascinates young people about it?

Handysektor is aimed specifically at young people. The information is understandable and is disseminated not only via the website, but also via the channels that young people primarily use, such as YouTube and Instagram. In adolescence, your child wants to get information on his or her own. At Handysektor, they will find factual and youth-friendly information – even on topics that your child may not want to discuss with friends or family members.

What should parents pay attention to?

As a parent, you would prefer to always be the first point of contact for your child. With puberty, however, friends become more and more important and your child no longer comes to you right away with every problem. Nevertheless, be approachable and point your child to good offers like Handysektor or Juuuport. Check with your child regularly. Even with older children, it is important that he knows you have his back. Show interest in your child’s media use and encourage a self-responsible and competent approach to media. Handysektor ‘s offer can support this.

Some of the topics may not be suitable for children under ten. Especially posts on topics like cybergrooming, sexting or pornography can still be confusing for younger children. For them there are alternative offers such as Scroller.de or Kindersache.de.

Make up your own mind about what was discussed and talk about it with your child. Even though Handysektor is aimed at young people, you can also get information there. This can enhance your communication with each other and help you gain insight into your child’s digital daily life.

How can I recognize a good children’s site?

Your child is approximately between 6 and 12 years old and already on the Internet? Children of this age should be accompanied by adults when surfing. Make sure your child only gets to websites that are safe and suitable for children. Germany has a comparatively uniquely large and diverse children’s website landscape. Do you and your children know and use them? So-called children’s search engines are quite well known. If you enter a search term, you are usually referred to websites that are specifically aimed at children. The best-known German children’s search engine is fragFINN. There are many other web offers for children. You can find out how to recognize a good children’s site and how child-friendly your child’s favorite site is. We have compiled the most important criteria for good children’s sites for you:

Contents

  • The content and features of the website encourage children to act out their curiosity, stimulate their imagination and learn new things through play. Creative, entertaining as well as interactive elements should be incorporated.
  • There is no content on the website such as text, images or videos that are scary or creepy.

Address/Design

  • The website is designed to be attractive and friendly for children and easy to use.
  • The site is linguistically aimed specifically at children, for example, by providing understandable and appealing texts as well as a “you” address.

Chats or communities

  • There is a safe communication space that is good to find on the site. Safe means there is moderation or/and the use of technical functions.
  • Moderators respond quickly to children’s questions or questionable entries.

Imprint

  • There is an imprint that makes clear who or which company is responsible for the content of the website.
  • The site operators can be quickly reached via the contact details provided.

Privacy

  • No personal data of the child – such as an e-mail address – should be requested for entering the website as well as on the site itself. If data is requested, this should only be done very sparingly and an explanation should be provided as to why this is necessary. In such a case, there is a hint that the child should ask an adult if he/she needs to enter data.
  • There is an understandable privacy policy that is easy to find and, in the best case, in child-friendly language.

Advertising

  • The children’s site is free of advertising. If advertisements are included, they are clearly recognizable as such for children and separated from the editorial area. There are no requests to buy as well as enticing, misleading advertising phrases or even problematic advertising content.

External links

  • The Internet lives through networking. Especially on children’s pages, however, links to other websites should be made clear, e.g. by a note on an intermediate page. Reference is made only to harmless Internet sites.

Parents area

  • There is a parents’ area that informs adults about the website (e.g. about the content and the target group) and contains a note on compliance with the protection of minors from harmful media and (link) tips on safe surfing for children.

If your child surfs on good children’s sites, he or she can learn how to recognize reputable websites. If your child would like to find out in a playful way how fit and safe he or she already is on the Internet, he or she can take the “internet license” at the Internet ABC: To the surfing license quiz

Project partners
Supporter