How to Deal with Cyber Bullies

Bullying and harassment are unacceptable whether it takes place in person or online.  First and foremost when it comes to bullying, it’s important to remember that it is not your fault.  Bullying is not just an argument you were pulled into but it is repeated and continuing cruel treatment. Some steps that you can take when you experiencing this in-the-moment is not to respond.  You don’t want to empower a bully by engaging in this negative and aggressive dialogue.  More often than not, it does nothing to help the situation.  It will often pull you out of character and potentially entice the bully to continue because they now know the effect they are having over you.  Instead of just going with your initial reaction and responding, save and remember the evidence so you can show it to someone to get help in the future.

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If you feel like you are comfortable with it you can address the bully and make it clear to them that this behavior is unacceptable and they cannot treat you in this manner, but reaching out for help is really important.  Being bullied is not something that you need to or should have to deal with alone.  Find someone you feel like you can talk to and will have the resources to help you through this like a friend, relatives, or a trusted adult.  It is especially important to get help when the bullying is really effecting you  in a negative way because you deserve the support. The cruel treatment is not something you have to deal with by yourself.  The police can also become involved when physical threats are being made.

Social media platforms allow you to report and block users.  Doing this will not necessarily stop the bullying but you will not be seeing the abuse regularly which can help you cope with the situation.  The last protective measure you can use on social media platforms is changing your privacy setting.  Making sure your accounts are private which will give you the ability to choose who can comment, like, follow, and see your content.

These tips with more information to help when being cyberbullied can be found on connectafely.org

Have you had an experience with cyber-bullying? We’d love to hear how you handled it in the comments below.