Keeping Youth Cyber-Safe

How Parents Can Help Children Become "Cyber-Safe"

 Here are some topics you might suggest parents talk about with their children before winter break to help protect them from cyber bullying.

Talk about Internet safety

Children need to be just as careful about opening a “cyber door” as they are about opening the front door to strangers. They should never:

• Give out personal information online without a parent or guardian's permission
• Respond to messages that are suggestive, belligerent, threatening, or make them feel uncomfortable
• Click on any links in an email from someone they do not know

Explain cyber bullying and what they can do to prevent it

Help children understand that mean people on the Internet can hurt them with words, but that they can be safer if they:

• Don't respond to or forward emails or messages that are mean or spread rumors
• Don't open emails or messages from someone they know bullies others
• Block messages from anyone who cyber bullies
• Save or print all bullying messages
• Show the messages to an adult they trust—like a parent or a teacher—and ask for help (if the first adult they tell doesn't help, they should keep telling until someone does)
• Never arrange to meet someone who is bullying them online

As SECOND STEP: Student Success Through Prevention advises teachers, cyber bullying can reach a larger number of students than face-to-face bullying, and because it can be done anonymously, targeted students may find it more difficult to respond to or stop the harassment.

When the child is alone, and young, the risk of cyber bullying increases. That’s why it is important to help students and parents become more "cyber-safe."

More Information About Cyber Bullying

For Children

The National Crime Prevention Council (McGruff.org)
A good overview of important rules for children’s Internet safety that you and your child can discuss together. It also has a game entitled “Shrink the Bully,” which is a helpful teaching tool.

For Parents

Committee for Children has a number of articles about cyber bullying and media safety.

NetSmart is a project of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and offers free, multimedia Internet safety presentations tailored for specific audiences, such as parents and communities, ‘tweens, teens, and younger children.