Say No To Cyber Bullying!
I can remember the days that my girls were born and looking back on life, they were and still are the most important and precious times ever.
Bob, my husband and I, promised ourselves that we would do whatever we could to keep them safe and sound.
But I’ll be honest…being a parent is the hardest job in the world.
Those times were you think you’re doing everything right and all is good can change in a moments notice.
You see, no matter how much you try and protect your kids, you can’t protect them from everything. I’ve tried. The facts are simply this…the world is changing. There are some pretty cruel people out there who do some wicked and hateful things for fun, for vengeance, for whatever.
Last year I saw the transformation of a happy go lucky child change over the course of a few months into a shell of a girl who spiraled into depression. My daughter was being cyber bullied and we didn’t know it.
What is cyber bullying? According to one of the Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s websites, http://www.netsmartz.org/cyberbullying, cyber bullying is bullying through Internet applications and technologies such as instant messaging (IM), social networking sites, and cell phones. It can start very easily with comments made on a photo you post, comments that someone makes about you or more. It can happen anywhere in the world and it doesn’t matter your age.
Morgan had hid that she was being bullied online. It started with a picture she posted on social networking site and became so much more. She became the target of someone’s hate.
The comments this individual(s) were posting on Morgan’s profile were beyond awful! The worst was telling her to go kill herself. Really!?!?! Why would someone say that to another person? My heart ached so badly for her.
When I learned of this bullying, I took immediate action. I contacted local authorities and learned to my disbelief that there wasn’t much I could do. Crazy, huh!?! You see, the bullies were actually posting anonymously to her profile and it became an international matter. There weren’t and still aren’t laws in place. I felt so helpless and as if no one cared! I didn’t have the resources at my fingertips to learn and implement anything on my own until my sister sent me this link. http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents
Our next step was to sit Morgan and Bailey down and REALLY talk to them about the use of social media, texting, etc. While I would have liked to put up a protective shield up around them, the truth was they could go online almost any time they wanted and I couldn’t really stop them. There were opportunities outside of my control when they stepped outside of our home. I had to ask that they respect our requests.
Next we got Morgan into counseling and gave God thanks that we were able to do something about it before it had the opportunity to become even more worse.
Almost a year later and she’s become her old self again. Hallelujah! We have our kid back!!! She laughs and jokes and she’s learned that there will be haters and how to handle them. We monitor her social media accounts (just in case) and talk often about how to deal with toxic people. We’ve come a long way and I am so PROUD of her!
I hope by sharing some of our story to bring more awareness to this hate crime. I also want folks to know that there are people that do want to help and that do care.
If you are interested in learning more about internet safety, here’s a great place to start. http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents
Thank you for allowing me to be so transparent and share this with you!
With Love,
Laura