With more kids finding themselves onto social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, more are also being cyberbullied through those platforms. But according to a recent comScore study, commissioned by SocialShield, only less than nine percent of parents are aware of these activities or realize their children are victims of cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying comes in all shapes and forms of the technological world: Social networks, texting, online chatting, and blogs. These venues account for the majority of cyberbullying, with 36 percent of parents only adding their kids to their social networks’ friends list to keep an eye on just one aspect of the children’s online life. The study also cites that 24 percent of cyberbullying occurs via cellphones, particularly with the increase of teen sexting activity.
Do we really blame the parents though? After all, when I was in high school, I definitely did not want to add my mom on Facebook out of a sheer, immature desire to have a separate private life. Kids and teens can often feel embarrassed to have their parents see what they do online and with their friends. If kids do decide to add their parents, mom and dad are likely swept under a privacy setting that limits them from truly monitoring what’s happening on their children’s Facebook walls.
The study also states that children are finding a variety of resources to be online, with 52 percent of respondents saying their children accessed social networks from a family computer, 42 percent from the child’s own computer, and 5 percent from their schools’ computers. Even if kids are going online from home, they can privately browse sites with a setting available on most Internet clients, leaving no footprint behind for parents to keep track.
With the increased use of smartphones, children are also able to visit social network through mobile apps which account for 25 percent of access. These various platforms contribute highly to parents being unable to see of how immersed their children are to the Internet world. Many parents are also unaware that Facebook’s official age restriction is not 18 years old but only 13, and many kids well under that age still find themselves creating profiles on the site. Facebook can be attractive to younger children because of the array of video game apps available to them for free (or for spam).
The rate of cyberbullying and teen suicides have rapidly increased over the past few years with more children on the Internet, and parents need to be more aware and talk to their children about this issue. Nine percent is a scary and unacceptable number in comparison to the amount of ways kids can be bullied. SocialShield is creating a software to help parents monitor their kids’ online activity, but even so, parents should establish trust with their children to know what’s going on in their Internet and real lives and keep them safe from any form of harm.
Parents should tech their children how to use the internet.
Kids don’t “need” to be on social networking sites. Hell, a great deal of adults aren’t even mature enough to handle it. Parents should realize this and be okay with being “the bad guy”.
I can only imagine how much of the crap that goes on at school spills over into the online world which means there is no rest or escape for the kids that are being bullied.
I was not allowed to have my own online computer until I was 18 and off to college in 1995. My parents told me I was an adult now and could manage my own life as I saw fit. While I was still in high school and living in their house, we had one computer with AOL on it and it was closely monitored with time limits imposed on me and my two siblings.
When I turned 18 and went online, sure, sometimes I would run into mean people, but by that time I was mature enough to handle it by not caring. It’s just the internet, after all.
The internet is a wild, weird place. You have to be ready for it.
When starting to read something “bad” about you, just delete it. It’s a “ghost world” out there and people can often make bad remarks about comments you leave on bars, schools, whatever…..At the end of the day, spend time with those that love you. Please try not to focus on the bad that people say about you as that happens no matter whether you’re a child or not. You can’t please everyone and mostly the people that pick on you now are mostly jealous of who you are and what you represent. Having being bullied throughout school and college, those who bullied me then are now apologising to me now because I actually have a better life to them, as I focused on more about what makes me tick and how i’m going to get there. xxxxx
i’m 14 iv’e been “bullied” it’s not a big deal and only little bitches let it get to them i mean seriously.
Only little bitches allow themselves to be bullied, especially online
Quite frankly, I’m surprised as the lack of kid specific software. They need internet browsers, instant message clients etc all dedicated to children. That way they can build in parental controls and verification software etc. Some browsers have this already, but they are just too complicated for both parents and children to use.
9 comnts
Things have changed so much since I was a kid. You have to limit and monitor your kids on the internet.
exactly! Don’t let them have a laptop/phone in their room! Will they hate you because everyone else has one? yep, but if you raised them properly they won’t really care anyway!
Go outside and play.
It’s definitely tough, even adults have trouble getting themselves off the Internet so who’s to stop children from forming the same addiction at such a young age? Though at that stage, being outside and enjoy being a kid is totally more valuable than being stuck online like the rest of us adults. They have later in lives for that :)
hehe, yes they do! I can remember, growing up my parents never let me have a TV in my room, because I would never come out of it. Same can be said for kids and computers. Keep it in a common room. Also, if you do allow them to have phones, don’t let them bring it up stairs with them when they go to bed. Pretty simple, keep the charger.
People seem to forget that you aren’t supposed to be friends with your children. That’s also for later on in their life. You have to raise them properly, which will most often end up with them hating you for a good portion of their childhood! lol I’m not looking forward to that phase with my girl. But she’s only 8 months old, so I have a while yet.
And outside, kids can deal with their bullies face to face. Like we all used to.
It’s simple… Turn the computer off.
/issue.
I can’t. Addiction. Argh!
DT Crack!