Among all the problems that occur due to excessive involvement with social media, cyber-bullying is undoubtedly the most common one. Using mobile devices, “tweens” and teens stay connected to their peers all day long and often this communication can become hurtful.
Mobile devices and Cyber-bullying
How can a child be humiliated using technology? What are the forms of cyberbullying? These are the type of concerns which every parent has. Once you know how your child can be victimized, you can be more effective in helping them stay safe. Here are a few examples of cyber-bullying:
- Cyber-bullies spread rumors and ridicule their victims via mobile devices
- Cyber-bullies send hateful and disturbing text messages to their victims.
- Cyber-bullies snap compromising or unflattering pictures of their victims without their consent and share these photos on social sites where a broader audience turns those photos into memes to mock the victim even more.
- Cyber-bullies make aggressive or sexually suggestive comments on the social accounts of their victims.
- Cyber-bullies even try to hack the social account of their victims to share absurd messages or content from a victim’s profile
- Cyber-bullies set up fake accounts to spread hate while enjoying anonymity.
The 24/7 usage of mobile devices plays a huge role in the spread of cyber-bullying.
Parental Apprehensions and Cyber-bullying
Cyber-bullying is the most damaging type of bullying because of the wider audience reach, online. Teenagers make use of technology to post embarrassing content about each other or to harass their victims on a greater scale.
Cyber-bullying can be direct or indirect but in either case it leaves negative effects on the victim and disturbs the mental health and peace of its victims.
Most of the time, parents focus all their energy on protecting their kids from cyber-bullies, but fail to realize that their child might be the one who bullies other kids.
Cyber-bullying is equally damaging for a bully in the long term. Therefore, parents need to educate kids about cyber-bullying and its negative impact.
Keep Kids Safe Using Mobile Phone Parental Control
As long as you are unaware of a problem, you are unable to find the solution for it. That is why digital monitoring is important. Use a mobile phone parental control such as FamilyTime app to make sure your child is not sending or receiving harmful content.
Use the FamilyTime app to monitor text messages, call logs and contact details on your teen’s mobile and keep their screen use regulated, by scheduling an auto screen lock. Parents can monitor app usage frequency on their teen’s mobile device and can block any instant messaging app whenever they fear that their child is being bullied via that app.
To get the app now, go to the app store on your phone, (Google Play or iTunes) and get the app from there.