How I am Teaching My Child about Cyberbullying

For this post,we’ve partnered with @google to #BeInternetAwesome to bring your resources for your family about preventing bullying. All opinions are my own. ?

I’m the mom of an almost tween. That means that he spends a lot of time watching Youtube and playing games online. And he meets a lot of new people, and not all of them are kind. 

We’ve been teaching him about being kind when he interacts with old and new friends. And how to stand up for himself and his friends both online and off.  

Because cyberbullying is a mainstay in our kid’s lives but I want to teach him to be kind to others and stand up for himself and his friends. Because I want him to grow up to be a positive digital citizen. I want him to treat others just like he’d like to be treated while online and in real life. Because how he and his friends treat each other online will have a huge impact on the digital world that he and his generation builds. 

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. All through this month, Be Internet Awesome is sprinkling positive messages across their communities that point out that the “golden rule” is just as important online as it is in real life.   

Facts about Bullying

• Cyberbullying is the #1 online safety concern in the classroom among teachers.
• 28% of students have experienced bullying personally.
• 71% of students have witnessed bullying directly.
• Only 20% – 30% of students notify adults about bullying.
• And Over 50% of parents are concerned about their child being bullied

 So how do we teach our kids to simply Be Kind online?

We start with family.  We are very clear about how we treat each other in our family. Because kindness starts at home right?

We take that same kindness and think about what that looks like online: in comments, photos, videos, texts, etc.  Because behind every username or avatar there is a real person with real feelings and we should treat everyone just how we want to be treated. 

Cyberbullying is big in the games. Pookah spends a lot of his online time playing games with his friends and strangers. He often runs into people who are not taught the same lessons and are big on bullying others to get their way.  I’ve taught him a few things to help if he notices bullying online:

1. Don’t respond
2. Block the person
3. Be an upstander. don’t sit by and watch your friends get bullied either: don’t support mean behavior by not doing anything! Stand up for your friends! 
4. Tell me: And i can use reporting tools on the app or fame to report the person.

 I”m happy to say I have observed all of this in action with Pookah as he navigates the online world. He stands up for himself and his friends regularly. 

I’m proud of him! 

Kids model the behavior that they see, so Be Internet Awesome wants us all to find ways to perform random acts of kindness online to counteract Cyberbullying. 

Today, Pookah and I are giving away a free cup of coffee to the moms in my community. It’s an easy way to make someone’s day and to just show kindness because we need coffee right??

Head over to my Instagram Stories to learn the details! 

Now I’m challenging you!

1. Do a random act of kindness online to someone else by yourself or with your kids!
2. Then, challenge 3+ (fellow parents or families to do another act of kindness online within 48 hours. Be sure to tag the friends in your social shares.
3. Post about the act and encourage your audience to be kind online and participate in this challenge with inspiration from Be Internet Awesome.
4. Help your kids spread kindness online with Kind Kingdom.
5. And tag me! So I can see and like and comment! 

I can’t wait to see your random acts of kindness!