Is cyberbullying a joke or a crime? How to help a child and punish the offender?

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Is cyberbullying a joke or a crime? How to help a child and punish the offender?
According to statistics, in Ukraine every third teenager became a victim of cyberbullying, and every fifth was forced to miss

According to Statistics, in Ukraine, every third teenager became a victim of cyberbullying, and every fifth was forced to miss school because of it.

child, internet, computer Cyberbullying - a joke or a crime? How to help a child and punish the offender?

Source: freepik

How exactly do virtual images lead to tragic consequences? How to recognize that your child is being bullied on the Internet? What to do when he is the initiator of bullying? How to help a child and is it really possible to punish offenders? It gives answers to these questions Yulia Sudenko — an expert on the topic of cyberbullying, police lieutenant colonel and doctor of philosophy as part of a special project based on the podcast "Good parents are not blocked" by a public organization #stop_ѕехтинг in cooperation with The Ukrainians Media: https://stop-sexting.in.ua/adult/podkasty/

Yulia Sudenko

Yulia Sudenko

An expert on the topic of cyberbullying, a police lieutenant colonel, and a doctor of philosophy.

How to understand that this is precisely cyberbullying, and not jokes on the Internet?

Cyberbullying is systematic bullying, that is, two or more times. A child or a group of children find a victim and start writing and sending obscene things about her. When a child comes to his parents and says that someone is insulting me on the Internet, parents should take it seriously, talk to him and support him. Even if it happened once, parents can contact law enforcement agencies. This can be considered hooliganism, so you need to contact the police.

According to the study #stop_ѕехтинг, 73% of children will never tell an adult that something happened to them on the Internet. By what signs can parents or teachers understand that something is wrong with the child, and perhaps it is bullying, perhaps some other problems, and it is necessary to pay more attention?

The child either spends a long time on the Internet, or, on the contrary, began to avoid communicating with his friends on the Internet, although until recently it was impossible to pull him away from the gadget. In addition, he avoids talking about what he/she is doing online or who he is talking to. The child does not want to socialize at all in society: school, educational institution for him is like a horror film. The child may have sleep problems and an increased level of anxiety, sudden changes in mood or behavior: deep sadness or rage. Another sign may be unexplained physical symptoms: headache or stomach upset.

children, internet, tablet Cyberbullying - a joke or a crime? How to help a child and punish the offender?

Source: freepik

And what should parents not do?

Probably the worst thing parents can do if a child is being bullied is to take the gadget away from him. We often hear from parents that: there is no Internet, there are no gadgets, there are no problems. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Parents should teach the child how to complain about users in social networks and online games, how to block them, prohibit comments, personal messages and viewing of the child's pages by certain subscribers. For example, Instagram now has a parental control function that allows parents to have a shared page with their children, where parents can see who and what comments on the children's page or what their child posts there. Therefore, in such cases, it is necessary to "sneak a little" on what the child is doing, but at the same time preserve his privacy, and such a function allows you to do this, because personal messages remain available only to the child.

What should parents do if they find out that their child is being bullied on the Internet?

The first step is to talk to the child, explain that it is necessary to contact the law enforcement agencies. Only with the consent of the child can you contact him, because the correspondence may contain questions about the child's private life. The second step depends on the emotional state of the child: if necessary, consult a psychologist at least once in order to understand how deep this problem is. As for further actions: we make cyberbullying cases and contact the police. In social networks, we file a complaint against the buller, block his page. We close the child's page in social networks from everyone who is not subscribed, and disable the ability to leave comments and tag (tags).

What is the responsibility for cyberbullying in Ukraine?

— Pursuant to article 173 with note 4 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, administrative liability is provided for bullying. If this became known to the head of the educational institution, and he kept silent about this problem, did not inform the police, he will also be held administratively responsible for not reporting the facts of bullying. If the teacher did not inform the director, administrative responsibility will be applied to the teacher.

Often, cyberbullying takes place anonymously, from fake pages, and it is difficult to understand who is doing it. How to act in such a situation?

At the beginning, we repeat the algorithm of actions on the child's social networks: close the page and have the opportunity to comment/mark, complain about the bully's page. After that, we contact the cyber police. Specialists use certain tools and can easily calculate the buller to almost an apartment.

children, internet, computer Cyberbullying - a joke or a crime? How to help a child and punish the offender?

Source: freepik

What to do if your child is the initiator of cyberbullying?

The preventive work of the cyber police with such children is to ignore them. Thus, we often warn of many negative consequences. Parents do not need to blame the child. Rather, it is worth maintaining an open dialogue and working on trust in the family.

What should we teach children if they see someone being insulted on the Internet?

It is necessary to support a friend, to say that you are not alone, and we can overcome this by turning to adults. Because they have more experience and know how to punish the bully.

What rules on the Internet should be taught to the child in order to avoid bullying?

It is necessary to explain to the child that it is not necessary to add to friends everyone who asks, anyone can hide behind an avatar. Emphasize to the child: if you want to add more friends, add those people you really know. Discuss this point: if the child sees any aggression in the correspondence, it is necessary to immediately stop communicating with such a person. Block it and add it to the black list.

girls, internet Cyberbullying - a joke or a crime? How to help a child and punish the offender?

Source: freepik

What preventive methods are there for parents so as not to provoke a child's bullying?

You don't need to post photos of your children, or even those where the child is funny or naked. On the beach, for some reason, parents think that this is normal. Teach the child the rule of the billboard: if you are ready to see a photo/message that you plan to send or publish on a billboard near the school, then feel free to do it. If you're not ready, you don't have to. Everything that gets on the Internet can become public.

Top tips for parents

  1. Talk to the children about the fact that insults on the Internet are also insults, and they are punishable by law.
  2. Tell me that adding unknown people to friends can be dangerous.
  3. Do not publish provocative photos of a child on the Internet.
  4. If you have encountered cyberbullying, you can contact directly cyber police, or write to the Telegram bot "Cyberdog».

Useful links:

The special project was created based on the podcast "Good parents are not blocked" by the public organization #stop_ѕехтинг. Episode 2 "Bullying on the Internet: a joke or a crime" с Yulia Sudenkopolice lieutenant colonel and doctor of philosophy can you listen HERE.


The opinion of the editors may not coincide with the opinion of the author of the article.

Use of photo: P.4, Article 21 of the ZU "On copyright and related rights - "Reproduction for the purpose of covering current events by means of photography or cinematography, public communication or communication of works seen or heard during such events, to the extent justified by the informational purpose."

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