It’s called Cyber bullying, this could happen through:
• Chat room, blogs and forums, people involved in discussions can be sent abusive responses.
• Email: new addresses can be set up in minutes and used to send offensive messages and images.
• Social networking and personal websites like Facebook or MySpace.
• Identity theft: in many cyber environment fake profiles can easily set up and pretend to be someone else with the aim of bullying.
• Instant message services: quicker than email, responding is immediate.
• Webcams: used to view each other when chatting it could be used to filming.
• Virtual Learning Environments
• Video hosting sites: like YouTube children could find themselves on films been shown around.
• Gaming sites, consoles and virtual worlds: they could be subjected to name calling, abusive remarks and chatting.
How could you prevent this:
• Encourage the child to talk about what’s upsetting them.
• Watch out for them seeming upset after using the net or mobile.
• Try to understand the ways in which they are using their technologies.
• Ask them to think about how their actions affect others.
• Suggest that they only use moderated chat rooms.
• Encourage them to show you any abusive or offensive emails or messages they’ve received and keep a record.
• Help them report any abuse to school, internet provider, website manager, Mobile Phone Company or the police.
• Tell them never to respond to them.
• Discuss keeping their passwords safe and avoid giving their name, email address or mobile phone number to people outside their circle of friends and family.
• Change email address or telephone number if the abuse continuous.
• Turn on in-built internet safety features and install computer software so you receive emails that you want and blocks the rest.
• Tell them about places they can go for help like Cyber Mentors,...