As a blogger and social influencer, I ‘meet’ many people on the internet. Some of these people become my friends, women I feel connected to and have actually met in person. I’ve also met a few people whom I wish I hadn’t, people I had to block from social media or my blog. You may ask why I blocked them, well they went out of their way to insult me, attempted to intimidate me, disrespected me or acted in a hateful manner towards my fellow blogger friends. Internet bullies are real in both the adult and kid world!
All opinions in this post are my own. I am being compensated as a member of the Forward Influence Network to discuss the topics in this post. #ItsCoolToBeKind #BeInternetAwesome
One of the most scary things about being a parent is the possibility your child will become the victim of bullying. Did you know at least 20% of students have experienced bullying personally, while 70% of students have witnessed bullying directly? I had my own experience with bullying during high school, but know it can occur anywhere to anyone at any age. With the internet holding so much power in the form of communication in our society, it’s no surprise bullying happens online too. It’s important to be able to talk to your kids about internet bullying and how to be internet kind.
What is an internet bully?
An internet bully is a person who hides behind their keyboard to bring people down online – making them feel embarrassed or left out, making fun of them, disrespecting them, hurting their feelings, etc. Internet Trolls exist in all realms, so it is not just a blogger or social influencer who may run into a bully online. Children are bullied every day on the internet. I know once my daughters become a part of the social media world, they run the risk of being bullied on the internet too. All parents want their children to be safe and confident, not just in the real world, but online.
How to Be Internet Kind
The best way to prepare your children for internet bullying is by teaching them to treat online communication like face-to-face communication; if it isn’t right to say, it isn’t right to post. Teach your children to identify harassment of any form online, report the bullying immediately, and then spread kindness. Use the internet as a platform to spread positivity instead of negativity.
If your child is confident enough, teach him/her to call out the mean behavior online, but not the bully. Then say something nice about the bully’s target and encourage their friends to join in too. There’s strength in numbers!
If your child isn’t comfortable addressing the bully’s target publicly, teach your child to still reach out through a direct message, text, or even in person. If there is a way to post something nice anonymously, encourage that behavior too.
If your kids are anything like mine, they learn through practice and examples. Google has designed is a great game called Interland that you can play with your children online and put your kindness skills to test. You can also practice being kind to each other at home and encourage your kids to show kindness to their friends at school.
The Moral of my Story
There is nothing more important for a parent than to always remember to model the behavior you want your children to replicate. If I show my daughters how I spread kindness online by uplifting others, standing up for those who are being bullied, and reporting negative comments, they will do the same in their lives. I’ll do anything to make our world a less scary place!
I’ve definitely experienced internet bullying as well! It’s important to teach children that internet bullying is just as bad, or even worse at times, than real life bullying. The fact that people get to hide behind their keyboards makes them bolder with their meanness.
https://www.closet-fashionista.com/
Good reminder and clever way of teaching these lessons.
It’s unfortunate that we need to have these kinds of discussions. I just had one over the weekend with my younger sister. This was beautifully written! And I couldn’t agree more, what we do is so crucial for our children!
Such a great read! It’s so important to our children the good and bad of the internet.
Such an important blog post. Bullying was an issue when we were kids but it’s probably so much worse today now that our kids will experience it in person and online. And sadly online a lot of people feel less afraid to be mean or abusive b/c they can do so while remaining anonymous. Very scary as a mom!!
This is such an important topic and so well done. Thank you so much for sharing. And these photos of your fam are precious! xo
Cathclaire
http://www.cathclaire.com
I absolutely love this. It is great to teach your kids how to properly react to bullying. Thank you so much
I love that you shared this and I think it is such an important issue! We experienced bullying with our son when he was in kindergarten and it was really heartbreaking! I definitely believe we can help by showing and teaching our children kindness and creating a loving atmosphere at home.
Kileen
cute & little
This is such an important conversation to have with our kids and sometimes it can be hard to put things like this into the right words. Great read!
This is such an important topic to share with the little ones with how present it is in today’s society. Such a great post!
Cheers,
Steph
@trendyinindy|www.trendyinindy.com
I know so many people who have been strongly influenced by history of bullying, online and off. Building up these emotional tools is such an important part of development.
It’s always important to remember that we’re being watched when we experience or go through something. And internet bullying IMO is worse than face to face, because sometimes people feel bolder when typing on a keyboard. Great message!
This is such an important message! Internet bullying is far too common these days!
What a great topic! It is unfortunate that in today’s society we have to have these scary conversations early on… way too early in my opinion. I love your suggestions on how to approach the topic and agree that we must model the behavior we want our kids to exhibit.
Beautiful post. I love your blog too it’s such a modern theme!
https://www.stupidyoungmoney.com/
This is such a great post and so important to teach our kids about bullying as well as what they can do and how to act appropriately face-to-face and online.
xo, Laura
This is so important! Glad you are teaching your kiddos while they’re young 🙂
x,
Lauren | lifestylesbylauren.com
What an amazing post! I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like when my little 7 week olds gets to the point of using the Internet. This is such an important topic parents need to focus on.
Cheers,
CJ | Everydaychiffon.com
It is so important to teach your kids not to bully and to talk about being bullied if they are.
xo Jessica
http://www.whatsfordinneresq.com