Your child is riding their bike. You keep glancing outside to make sure they are ok. You see a car approaching quickly and notice your child doesn’t hear the car. The driver of the car is on their cell phone, not paying attention to their surroundings. You run outside, yelling your child’s name. They hear you and quickly move out of the way. Your child is saved from harm…this time. But what if you didn’t check on them? They may have never heard the car, and the outcome been much different.

No matter how savvy our children become at different things, they still need us and they still want us to be part of their lives. My son can play video games like nobody’s business, whereas I can’t even walk a character in a straight line. But he still likes for me to watch him play MW2 and enjoys when I try to play with him. As a parent, I receive many perks. We laugh together. I ask questions and glean knowledge from my son about his online “friends”. I learn how they chat, how the online game updates work, and open the lines of communication to talk about what’s new in his gaming world. What level has he gotten to? Does he have any new “friend” requests? Who are they? Are they communicating in an appropriate manner?

Do I know even 1/10th as much as he does when it comes to video games? No! Not even close! But I’m taking the time to learn. I know that I’m nowhere near a gaming “expert”, but I am involved and can see something coming down the pike that isn’t quite right, like that car coming way too fast and not seeing my son on his bike.

The same principle rings true for the Internet. We as parents don’t have to know every little detail about it. But we need to put aside our excuses, embrace learning the basics and keep the lines of communication open with our kids. Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing with you some basics about Internet browsing and the more popular social networking sites.

A news report from this morning’s Somerset Reporter begins:

“On October 7, 2003, John Halligan’s life changed forever with a call from his wife. While he was away on a business tirp, his son, Ryan, had committed suicide at the age of 13.”

Before committing suicide, Ryan had been experiencing cyberbulling.  One  student used the Internet to spread untrue rumors about Ryan. He also experienced this through another student whom he had befriended online. He quickly found out that she had been tricking him, showing all of their chats to her friends.

Cyberbullying. It’s a new term that we as parents need to become familiar with.  What is cyberbullying? It’s an extension of normal bullying activity, but done through media outlets. Cyberbullying usually starts out in person, and then escalates to cyberspace.

The use of cyberbullying is becoming more and more rampant in our society. By hiding behind the Internet, the cyberbully feels braver to say and do things that they would not have the courage to do face to face. Cyberbullying takes places through email, instant messaging, social networks, texting, blogs, online videos, and online photos. In fact, according to a 2006 report issued by the National Crime Prevention Council, 43% of teens had been victims of cyberbullying in the past year.

The effects of being cyberbullied are similar to children being bulled in person, such as low self-esteem, depression, becoming withdrawn, and grades dropping. What makes cyberbulling even more concerning is that the child cannot escape from it. The child’s home is no longer a safe place because it occurs while they are at home. The bullies are easily able to make fun of a child to a large audience via mass emails or posting them on a site for the world to see.

Below are a few tips that parents can use to help prevent cyberbullying:

• Keep the computer in a central room in the house.
• Communicate with your children about the good and the bad of the Internet, keeping the lines of communication open at all times.
• Set up social networking sites with your children. Know their screen names and passwords. Be on their friends list.
• Teach your children not to put any personal information in their online profiles, and keep them set to private. 
• Regularly sit down with your children and go through their sites and text messages together. Talk about why a certain post or text is inappropriate. Review their buddy list together.  Block communications from cyberbullies.
• Install parent control software.
• Make a record of and report cyberbullying activities to your ISP and the appropriate authorities.