cause and effect – what if your child isn’t the victim?

Most of the time the media focuses on the victim. Heck, even I try to help parents learn what to do if their child is the one wronged online. But for every kid being hurt online, there is also someone causing the injury. What do you do if it is your child is the aggressor?

The Associated Press released an article yesterday entitled “Students Fight Back Against Gossip Site.” It focuses mainly on college-age students but similar things are happening to kids of all ages. They are being slandered online—tortured enough that some choose to commit suicide.

I’m sure you’re thinking that it’s not my kid doing the torturing. But it is someone’s kid.

The site profiled in the article, juicycampus.com, is just one example of how far people will go online to defame and harass someone. 

By knowing what your kids are doing online both with and without your knowledge, you are better able to correct their netiquette early on. You can learn what’s happening by monitoring their internet use. Without such guidance, it could be your kid posting horrible things about others online. It’s not just the schoolyard bullies who are acting out online. Sometimes it is the quiet kids whom you least expect. They can’t fight back in the physical world so they turn to the virtual one.

What can you do as a parent if you find out that your child is the bully? There are plenty of resources out there if your child is being bullied, but very few, if any, resources for parents of the bully. The steps you take are just as important as those taken by parents of victims. Some options are having your child apologize to those affected, restricting or removing internet access for a period of time, or other methods that you use in your family. The point is to treat the cyberbullying seriously and continue to monitor their internet use to make sure that they do not continue to harass others.