Bullying comes in many different forms but they are all totally unacceptable and can be deeply distressing for the victim.
Whether you have a child who is being unfairly targeted and harassed, either in person or online, or whether you are an adult who is being subjected to unwanted attention and bullying tactics, there is something you can do about it.
Here are some tips on how to get protection from bullying and stamp it out quickly. There are some tips on how to talk to your kids and confront a bullying situation the right way, together with a look at how to stay safe online.
Urgent Action Required
Bullying is like a cancer that can grow and take hold, which is why you want to respond quickly to any bullying incident and put an end to the problem before it has a chance to go any further.
If your child is being bullied you need to intervene quickly and send a consistent message to the perpetrator that you will not tolerate bullying and will take any appropriate action to stop it happening again.
It is never advisable to ignore the problem and hope it goes away, and the best way to resolve the situation is often to talk to the children involved separately, rather than confront them in front of other kids.
Maintain a close relationship
A stable and loving relationship with your children should always be the aim. It will also help your child to avoid being bullied in the first place, and it makes them more likely to tell you if they are having a problem.
It is often the case that lonely kids are more likely to be single out for bullying, and to make matters worse, they are less likely to tell their parents about their problem if they don’t have a good connection with their parents.
If you can develop and maintain a strong bond with your child it will give them the confidence that bullies don’t like to see in their victims. If they trust you and feel they can talk to you about their problems, your child is also more likely to tell you they are being bullied, so you can do something about it.
Practice good cell phone safety
A good safety measure for your phone would be to download a call recorder created by Apalon Apps for Android, as this will be a good backup to have if you need to record a phone call as a way of dealing with a bullying situation.
Many kids lead a digital life and they spend a lot of their time online using their phone to access various social media sites and send text messages to each other. It is very important to teach them to be careful with what they share online.
Personal information should be guarded closely and any text message, photo or video can’t be retrieved once it has been sent. This can often be the catalyst for cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying can be as equally distressing to a victim as being confronted physically, and you need to be constantly vigilant when you consider that digital technology makes it easy for a bully to harass their victim almost constantly.
Legal Insights to Help Protect Your Child
Divorce can restructure parental roles and responsibilities, making online bullying a key issue that child custody attorneys must address when representing clients in child custody disputes. As part of child custody discussions, it’s crucial that digital wellbeing be included as an equal consideration alongside physical and emotional safety. A child custody divorce attorney who knows what they’re doing will push for clear and enforceable guidelines on monitoring and protecting a child’s online activity as part of a custody agreement. This should include measures to avoid cyberbullying, which can have devastating repercussions for mental health. Ensuring both parents are committed to safeguarding their child’s digital footprint can help decrease risks of online harassment, making this an essential point of negotiation when creating custody agreements.
Follow some of these anti-bullying tips and stamp it out before it has any chance to take hold.
Emma Wallis provides support for those who are being bullied or harassed and can offer practical solutions on what to do. She helps teens as well as adults, whether we’re talking about school bullying or workplace harassment.
