Cyber Law

Internet cyber bullying is one of the major concerns in regards to internet safety for teenagers and children. Cyber bullycide can be a direct result.

Cyber bullying suicides are on the rise all around the world. It has been shown in surveys conducted by law enforcement agencies one in every three children on the internet is faced with the harassment of an internet bully.

The problem is that only around four of every ten children report this issue to their parents or an authority figure. As a result the victim, possibly your child, can become so depressed that he or she might commit suicide, often referred to as cyber bullycide.

Even if your son or daughter does not commit cyber bullycide there is a good chance that the depression and loss of self esteem resulting from the attacks can be damaging to your child's future development.

It does not have to be an ongoing event to cause major problems for your kid. One single occurrence can trigger long lasting negative effects.

Internet bullying can take on many forms. A few are:

*The constant harassment of your son or daughter by a bully on the internet, usually in chat rooms or forums. MySpace and Facebook are just two of many locations you will find this form of behavior existing. All internet based instant messaging platforms are also major battlegrounds for this type of behavior.

*The posting of images of your son or daughter by an online bully to embarrass them. Friends quite often take pictures with their cell phones or web cams that they never thought would be made public.

*The creation of false images with the use of graphic software can be extremely humiliating to your child. A tech savvy child can become very skilled with graphic software packages such as offered by adobe and corel.

*A bully might log in under a false id to pretend he is your son or daughter and make statements or use behavior that would be debasing to your child when their peers are directed to the activity by the cyber bully.

Cyber bullycide victims are going to remain on the rise unless we, as parents do something to intervene and help protect them from the dangers of such abuse.

Just how do we protect them from this new high tech form of bullying?

Obviously the answer is going to be different for many households. Children are not all going to respond to the same form of intervention. Therefore we have to consider several different factors.

*Functional age - even though your kid might be 8 years old he may be functioning at a level higher or lower than his chronological age. His stage of development will be a major factor in making a decision on what actions would be most effective.

*Environment - every family unit has different life styles and child development philosophies that will be important in deciding how to approach the situation. You must protect your child from cyber bullying in a way that you feel is appropriate.

So will your child commit cyber bullycide do to cyber bullying? I pray you never have to face this tragedy as so many other parents have.