Ways to Prevent Cyberbullying

             As we have been discussing in class, bullying has become a serious issue. Cyberbullying is one of the bigger bullying issues going on right now especially with the continuing advances in technology. I believe it’s hard for many of us at our age to really connect with those youth that are being cyberbullied because we grew up in a time where there weren’t as many opportunities for this to happen. The hardest part about someone being cyberbullied is the fact that it happens behind a screen, and no one may even know that it is occurring. The bully may feel more confident in bullying because they are not directly saying it to someone’s face, and the person who is getting bullied may feel ashamed of themselves and feel that they are able to hide what is going on behind the screen. This can create difficult issues because then no one may know that bullying is going on and it cannot be stopped. Just as there are ways that people and schools are trying to prevent bullying in schools through prevention programs, there are ways to try and prevent and recognize signs of cyberbullying. This article I found at http://www.reputation.com/reputationwatch/articles/how-recognize-and-prevent-cyberbullying lists ways in which parents can try to prevent cyberbullying. Some ways in which it lists are to keep a computer in a central location in the house, joining the social network themselves, monitor the children’s use of the internet, and teaching them to keep their personal information private. One idea that I thought was interesting was working with the teachers and other parents. This would allow parents and teachers to have a relationship and if they are able to find another student who is cyberbullying, they can work to put an end to it together. With the dramatic increase of cyberbullying and the fact that technology will only keep advancing, I think it is important to keep parents and teachers aware of ways that they can prevent any kind of bullying from going on.