As parents, you are responsible if your child bullies anyone in real life or online. You could be held liable for damages and costs incurred by the victim. Parents need to teach children to treat others the same way they would like to be treated. You also need to model the ideal behaviour you’d like your child to display – so watch your behaviour online too.
You need to convince your child that any form of bullying or harassment is not acceptable. Try not to overreact; the goal is to teach and encourage good behaviour.
Get all the facts from your child.
If you think your child is not being completely honest, look at her phone and computer. Check every message and post so that you can understand the full scale of her behaviour. If she complains about invasion of privacy – remind her that online channels are in the public domain, so you are not invading anyone’s privacy.
If the police or school is disciplining your child, make sure that she is being treated fairly.
Help your child to deal with what she has done in a constructive way. She should take responsibility for her actions and make peace with her victim.
Find out what underlying issues are causing your child to behave in such a harmful way. Why does she need to belittle or shame someone in this way?
If your son or daughter has been blocked by the victim, tell them not to harass the child in the real world. Tell them to respect the fact that their victim does not want any communication and encourage them to walk away.
Even if your child did not start the bullying, but merely participated after the fact, they need to know that this is unacceptable too. Any of the participants could have chosen to stop it. It takes courage to go against the flow and stop a bully. They must understand that if they comment or share the post, they are just as guilty as the person who started it. They should never, ever post anything negative online.
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