More and more children have a mobile phone or at least access to a mobile phone. Sadly, as a direct result of this more children are sending and being sent abusive, hurtful or threatening text messages. It is a particularly severe form of bullying as often the bully is anonymous and the messages can be received at any time, day or night. A child who may be bullied at school can now also be bullied when they get home from school, at weekends and during holidays.
Text messages can also be more severe as bullies will often say what they wouldn’t dare to say to someone’s face.It’s not always possible to protect your child against this form of bullying particularly when it comes to teens as their main way of communicating with their friends is by using a mobile phone and removing their phone can feel like a punishment and isolate them from their friends.
Try speaking to your child about this form of bullying, explain to them that it is never acceptable and if it is happening they should always feel free to come to you about it.If your child is receiving abusive messages, make sure to keep a record of any messages and keep a log of when they have been received.If you feel it necessary, change their number and instruct them to only give it to family and friends. Also, ensure that they never make their number accessible on social networking sites.
