Many chat rooms and online game services have rules agreements in that place that do not tolerate verbal abuse or inappropriate language. Make sure that your child is a member only on sites that have this type of agreement. If your child becomes targeted contact the site administrators and report the abuse. In most cases the person responsible will get a warning or will be banned from using the site. The administrators may also contact other sites to let them know of the situation and the abuser may also be blocked from those sites as well.

Blocking is another effective technique to shutting down a cyber bully. If your child recognises the phone number or the on screen name that the bully is using they can simply activate the blocking feature. This will prevent the bully from being able to send abusive messages directly. If the bully is unable to directly contact their victim they will often loose interest.

Many parents are not aware that their child may be an online bully. If you know who the on-line bully is contact the parents of that child and make them aware of the situation. Many parents who find out their child is cyber bully will be willing to aid in getting the problem resolved.

If you do not know who the online bully is and the bullying is threatening, pornographic or harassing you may have to take legal action. If the bully has hacked into an account or has stolen a password it is time to contact the police. It is important to keep track of any information you have about the bully. How often it is happened, which sites were used and what were the messages directed at your child. These incidents should be reported quickly before they become an even bigger problem. Cyber bullying like all bullying should never be ignored.

Take the problem seriously, do not brush it off as simple ‘kids being kids’. Do not try to down play the situation as something that will just go away. And do not over react. Some parents will go to the other extreme and actually escalate the problem.

The first thing to do is to sit your child down and talk to them. Tell them that you are proud that they came forward and had the courage to tell you about the situation. Make sure that they understand that it is not their fault. They are not the ones that have the problem. Many children feel that they are somehow responsible in some way for being the victim. They feel that they have somehow provoked the attack or are not good enough in some way. Reassure your child that they worthy and special, and they are in no way to blame.Find out as much as you can about the situation. How long has it been going on? Where does it happen? How many children are involved? How often does it happen, what are the actual messages?

Find out what your child has done if anything to try and get the problem stopped. Did anyone see the incident? Try and assess how dangerous the situation is. Is your child in real physical danger? Write these things down.

Once you have as much information about the situation as you can get, you and your child can figure out the best way to handle the bully.

Verbal Skills: Teach your how to use humour to confront the bully. Exchanging insults will usually not end the situation and will often cause it to escalate. Talk directly to the bully. Make eye contact and use a clear voice. If you need to have your child practice in front of a mirror.

Positive Attitude and Manner: Bullies often target the children who look and act meek. Teach your child to walk with a confident stride, head up and shoulders back. Show them how body language sends a message to others. Standing off to the side with arms folded creates the impression of fear and insecurity. Show them how to create a confident attitude by standing with arms at their sides and their head up.

Talk to Teachers: Bring in a copy of your written information. Having documented incidents is a far better approach than simply trying to remember details. It also tells the teacher how seriously you are taking the situation.

Friends: Tell your child to stick with a buddy. Don’t get into isolated situations. Stay in crowded areas, on the streets and on the playground.

Also be sure that your child knows the things that they should not do. Retaliation is never acceptable, telling your child to stand up and hit the bully back is only helping to continue the cycle. And in some cases your child may become the one who is the bully.

Also make sure that your child knows that walking or running away if there is a real fear of physical harm is the right thing to do. And to go directly to an adult.

Approaching the other child’s parents may or may not have the desired effect. Many parents of bullies will deny, or downplay the situation. If the situation is serious enough you my want to have a meeting with the other parents at the school.

Remember bullying is not “just children playing” it can have very damaging long term effects to both the bully and the victim. Take action as soon as possible and stop the cycle.

Often the first person to recognise that a bullying situation is occurring is a teacher. They see children playing and working together on a day to day basis. As a teacher it is important to deal with both the bully and the victim. There are strategies and methods that can be taught to both parties involved in the situation to ensure that the bullying action stops.

It is important to be able to get the victim of bullying to speak about the situation. This should never be done in the presence of other children not involved in the problem. Reassure them that bullying is not their fault and it is not acceptable. They are right in going to talk to an adult about the situation and that they are not betraying others by discussing the problem. They must know that bullying is never ok and it has to be stopped at all levels. Let them know that they are not alone, and that there are things that they can do to get the situation corrected and that their problem is being taken seriously.

The parents of both the victim and the bully should be made aware of the situation. It is important that all parents realise the gravity of the situation. It is not ok, and it is not acceptable and it is not just kids playing .Bully can have very serious permanent consequences and all parties should be made aware of this. It is a big deal.

Both the bully and the victim need to get information and skills to learn how to deal with the problem. Parents should also be given information on how to help their children deal with the problems which are causing the situation. Counselling for all parties involved is recommended.

Almost every teacher will have to face the act of bullying at some point in their career. It is important as a teacher to understand the more common reasons for bullying and to realise the very serious nature of the situation. No case of bullying should ever be ignored. It is not to be tolerated. One of the best ways to counter the problem is to get the parents of the children involved and to get the situation stopped as soon as it is noticed. Bullying does not just go away.