It is time for parents to wake up to the reality that bullying is not a child's thing. As they grow older, our children are increasingly active in social networks and it is imperative that we take this medium seriously as a means of bullying.
Fundación Mutua Madrileña and Fundación ANAR, within the framework of the “No bullying. Ending bullying begins with you ”, they have carried out the first study on cyberbullying from the point of view of those affected. This indicates that one in four cases of bullying is cyberbullying, that is, they are produced through technological means.
Disturbing facts
Taking advantage of the beginning of the course they wanted to make a call to parents to become aware and be alert to any risk situation that could be indicating that their child is being harassed.
Since we have seen situations of harassment from an early age, parents cannot let our guard down, even if our children have not even reached adolescence, it is a problem that must be prevented since childhood.
According to the analysis of the database of calls to the ANAR Telephone of Help to Children and Adolescents and to the ANAR Telephone of the Adult and the Family, the results of the study reveal that:
The main means of harassment is the mobile phone (90% of cases) and the WhatsApp the most used application (81% of cases). This proportion increases with age so that after 13 years, 36.5% of cases of bullying (more than one in three) are due to cyberbullying.
70% of cyberbullying victims are girls. That is, in seven out of ten cases the victims of cyberbullying are girls.
92% of victims suffer some kind of psychological sequel, being the most frequent anxiety, followed by sadness, loneliness and low self-esteem.
ANAR phones have been servicing from 2013 to 2015 60,408 calls related to bullying of the young people themselves or affected families, among which 1,363 cases of bullying have been identified and followed.
What can we parents do?
It is very difficult to prevent a bullying situation, but there are certain measures that parents can take to create a safe environment for our children, or as safe as possible, such as.
- Watch your social media activity: the photos you upload, who you chat with
- Control who follows their profiles on the networks: do not accept anyone who does not know and select well those who do
- Prevent your children from being network users at a very early age
- Communication is key: talk to your child about what happens at school
- Promote dialogue, have confidence to tell you your problems
- At the slightest suspicion, talk to the school
