Cyber Bullying
All forms of bullying, including cyber bullying are totally unacceptable.
Cyber bullying is sending others unkind and hurtful texts, emails or posting these messages online.
At its worst cyber bullying can cause great distress to the person receiving the messages and it is particularly difficult to deal with because it is done ‘anonymously’ and not face to face, children might write something unkind in a text which they would not dream of saying to someone’s face.
It states very clearly on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook registration pages that children must be at least 13 years old to use them
Parents have a responsibility to do all they can to supervise and monitor their child’s use of social media:
Doing these things is not interfering with your child’s human rights or privacy, it is good parenting
The internet reaches everywhere and while it is a marvellous tool in many respects it is also very dangerous, especially if we do not take sensible precautions and teach our children to be safe on-line.
Living in a quiet rural place like Kerry should not blind us to the fact that there are people who use these sites to begin grooming children – it is already happening here in Powys to children like ours!
In school the teachers will reinforce the strong message that sending any unkind messages by phone or email is a form of bullying and as such is completely unacceptable.
By working together we can help the children realise that this is not a good way of living with others and will give them good messages to take with them into their teenage years when the pressures will be even greater.
We strongly recommend these websites which provide useful information:
Cyber bullying is sending others unkind and hurtful texts, emails or posting these messages online.
At its worst cyber bullying can cause great distress to the person receiving the messages and it is particularly difficult to deal with because it is done ‘anonymously’ and not face to face, children might write something unkind in a text which they would not dream of saying to someone’s face.
It states very clearly on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook registration pages that children must be at least 13 years old to use them
Parents have a responsibility to do all they can to supervise and monitor their child’s use of social media:
- Be aware which sites your child uses and that you have given him/her your permission to use those sites.
- Know your child’s password and account details – as the registered owner and the person who pays the phone bills for a child under the age of 18 this is an entirely responsible action.
- Check your child’s phone, email account or messaging account on a daily basis to check what they are sending, what is being sent to them and who is sending it - do they actually know who they are?
- Check that they are not posting personal information or photographs which might get into the ‘wrong hands’ in the future - make sure they are safe and that they are using the phone responsibly.
- Read the on-line guides for parents which are easily accessible and give a wide range of information and safety tips to help keep your children safe.
- Learn how to use privacy / blocking settings etc on the different social network sites.
- Learn how to turn off location settings (which can identify exactly where a photograph was taken and so pinpoint a child’s address).
- Please share any information with us at school so that we can help to deal as quickly and effectively as possible with any issues which have arisen overnight/ at the weekend etc.
Doing these things is not interfering with your child’s human rights or privacy, it is good parenting
The internet reaches everywhere and while it is a marvellous tool in many respects it is also very dangerous, especially if we do not take sensible precautions and teach our children to be safe on-line.
Living in a quiet rural place like Kerry should not blind us to the fact that there are people who use these sites to begin grooming children – it is already happening here in Powys to children like ours!
In school the teachers will reinforce the strong message that sending any unkind messages by phone or email is a form of bullying and as such is completely unacceptable.
By working together we can help the children realise that this is not a good way of living with others and will give them good messages to take with them into their teenage years when the pressures will be even greater.
We strongly recommend these websites which provide useful information:
- https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/Parentsold/
- http://www.bullying.co.uk/cyberbullying/
- http://www.wisekids.org.uk/cyberbullying.htm
- http://kids.kaspersky.com/cyberbullying/parents/home/
- http://www.vodafone.com/content/parents.html
- http://www.parentsprotect.co.uk/cyberbullying.htm
- http://www.childline.org.uk/Explore/Bullying/Pages/online-bullying.aspx