15 Sep Tips to deal, including resources
Just HOW DO YOU DEAL?
In the initial stages, IGNORING a cyber-bully is a good strategy. Don’t react. People who bully (cyber and in real life) enjoy the reaction, so when you don’t respond, they may stop and seek others who do respond and play “their game.” This can be difficult. After all, no one likes to have negative, mean or embarrassing (true or untrue) information about them posted online.
A natural reaction is to want to defend yourself, but this most likely will backfire! It engages you and gives the power to the person who is cyber bullying. Don’t let them engage you. If your friends comment on what was posted, blow it off. Model to them exactly how much time they should spend on it. If the bullying comes through a personal email or text, don’t respond. It’s not worth your time. Nothing frustrates an antagonist more than someone who won’t play along. Read that again:
Nothing frustrates an antagonist more than someone who won’t play along.
Make your parents, or a trusted adult, aware of the situation. Parents can help you make sound decisions on how to handle the situation and can often help bring the matter to the attention of the appropriate authorities. This advice in no way implies that you can not handle situations on your own. You do have skills. But parents are a great support system when things get tough socially. They can help support your handling of the situation.
If you don’t feel your parents are cut out to handle something like this (and many reasons exist why this could be the case), think of an adult that you might be able to rely on… a school counselor or your rabbi/minister/priest etc. and reach out to them. Adults can be helpful but if you don’t feel like you know just who to ask then move on to the other ideas listed here. No need to make matters worse. Trust your judgement.
Restrict the people who can send you communications. Empower yourself at a time when you may feel anything but in control! This means taking questionable people off your friend list. It also means being more selective about with whom you are connected. If you are friends with a person who is friends with a bully, you are still open to some forms of harassment through that person. Think about it and take control! You don’t need to follow anyone who doesn’t have your best interests in mind.
Block the bully. This means not just taking the person off your friend list but actively blocking him/her from sending you any messages. Most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have blocking capabilities. Phone services have this ability as well. If you have a hard time with the idea of blocking someone, ask yourself, who is in control of my life?
Communicate. If the bully continues to harass you, you may consider telling him/her that you are not going to allow it to continue. A warning that you are about to take further action if their behavior does not stop may help. If it just promotes the bully behavior, then read below:
If the bullying continues, save the electronic communication and share it with the ISP, school personnel and/or the local police. If you find a profile made about you that you have nothing to do with, contact the social networking site to have the profile shut down. Posting threatening, mean or false information violates the terms of service for most ISPs and therefore, ISPs will shut down a user’s account if this is proven to happen.
To read more about this process, you can visit
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/lawenforcement/telling_the_difference.html
Report all threats immediately. If you are ever threatened, you should report it. The police will start an investigation, so make sure you keep all messages pertinent to the situation. Police take cyber-bullying very seriously. You can be proactive and line up an Internet safety discussion at your school so everyone is on board with the consequences of being a bully. In addition, the discussion will help empower those affected by the bullying.
Websites that help (if you click on them, you will leave this site):
WLKHS1404
Posted at 14:02h, 08 NovemberI do things such as ignoring them, consulting someone else for advice, but occasionally I will confront people. Although it is rare, I do talk to them and question why they do what they do.