Cyberbullying was a problem that few people knew about 15-20 years ago, but nowadays, it has become a significant issue and is increasing in prevalence. The Cyberbullying Research Center shares disappointing statistics: the number of cyberbullying cases increases by 2-3% every year. This naturally raises the question: How to stop cyberbullying?
The task is not easy; currently, there is no definitive way to prevent people from bullying others online. However, the problem can be addressed from another angle using a monitoring app, such as uMobix cell phone tracker, blocking and reporting such individuals. We will review the best ways to do this below.
Why Has Cyberbullying Become So Widespread?
To understand why cyberbullying on social media has become so popular, we must understand what people lack in real life but find on the internet.
- Anonymity: Bullying in real life is not anonymous; bullies can be easily identified and punished or targeted by bigger and stronger bullies. On the internet, however, it is easy to hide their name and real identity and pretend to be someone they are not – for instance, a much stronger, more aggressive, and more dangerous person than they truly are.
- Scale: In real life, bullying might be limited to a single school or community, but online, it can extend across the globe. The internet has no limits or borders and allows communication between people living on opposite sides of the world almost instantly.
Thus, cyberbullies feel almost unlimited power and access to all the resources they need (even those they do not need as well). Considering all this, how can cyberbullying be stopped?
Cyberbullying: How to Stop It?
To effectively stop cyberbullying, you need to combine several techniques and change your attitude toward it. Remember, bullies are often losers who haven’t achieved anything in their lives, and you are 100% better and more successful than they are. As for the techniques, here they are.
Use Third-Party Tools
How to stop cyberbullying? Using third-party tools is excellent advice, especially for parents. Children and teenagers often lack the experience and knowledge to understand how to behave when someone bullies them online. They require parental help but are not always ready to accept it; that is why a parental control tool like uMobix is a great option.
It is important to be gentle and not insensitive when dealing with children; otherwise, you risk facing the opposite reaction to what you need. That is why it is important to be soft or, even better, protect children from cyberbullying secretly. uMobix is a professional in this area. With its help, parents can check their kids’ messages on all social media and delete and block cyberbullies even before their children know about what happened. Of course, this does not mean that you should not talk to them and explain how to behave online and cope with cyberbullying (in case you are not on time), but uMobix is definitely a good helper in this situation.
Demonstrate Proper Behaviour
Cyberbullies are different from real-life ones. Remember Steven King’s IT or any other book about children? A school bully in those stories is usually the strongest and the dumbest guy in school. They want to fight and hurt others. The internet has allowed weaker individuals to bully as well. They cannot physically fight or hit anyone, but they can mock, humiliate, and destroy self-esteem. Their goal is to make you lose control, and you should never allow this to happen:
- do not respond to bullies or engage in arguments with them;
- take screenshots in case you need to report the case later;
- never share personal information or stories online;
- do not share any private content with anyone.
If you follow these recommendations and teach your kids (if you have them), cyberbullying should become much less of a problem for you.
Promote Good Online Behavior Yourself
Be an example for others to follow and promote a healthy atmosphere on the internet. First, communicate kindly and respectfully with everyone. Few things are more disarming than a positive and polite attitude in response to cyberbullying. Do not lower yourself to their level; do not become a bully yourself. If you encounter one, be gentle, demonstrate good manners, and report them to the platform administration. Ultimately, you can also block their page.
How to Get Rid of Cyberbullying on Social Media Forever
Unfortunately, no reasonable and effective ways exist to address this problem completely. Cyberbullying will exist until the internet becomes anonymous, and anonymity is one of the main features of the global network. Some social media platforms are now trying to make everyone use their real names and have some analogy to the KYC procedure. However, what can we expect from the internet when people forge driving licenses to access bars despite being underage?
How can cyberbullying be stopped? There is no effective way, but we can learn to live and cope with it. Ultimately, it is just a set of 0s and 1s transferred via fiber optics. People with no problems with self-esteem and who do not depend on others’ opinions should not be affected by cyberbullying at all. Others must follow their example and never forget to behave online with dignity.
Conclusion
Now you have answers: what is cyberbullying, how to stop it? And there should be no problem, but… life is life, people are people, and the internet is anonymous, so there is no way for us to get rid of it completely. Of course, if cyberbullying causes someone’s death, the bully’s identity will be revealed following a legal request, but in all other situations, they are pretty safe.
What we can do to oppose it is foster and promote a healthy and friendly environment online. Be polite with bullies or ignore them, as they mainly seek your attention and emotions. Finally, if you have children you want to protect from cyberbullying, try using uMobix to review their social media accounts and block the bad guys there.
