A lot of the cyber-bullying I see happens when kids have sleepovers. A group of boys or a group of girls get together and now they have had way too much soda and too much pizza and too much candy, the gang mentality is starting to set in and they are not thinking straight anymore, it’s late at night and mom and dad have gone to bed and they take the laptop into their room.  They get online and now they’re doing sneaky things.  They are online talking about the one person they didn’t invite to the sleepover or they are pretending to have private conversations when really everyone is there watching.  As parents you can help combat cyber-bullying in this situation.

Children should not have access to the Internet after you have gone to bed.

All of their friends are there and it will give them an opportunity to practice their face-to-face communication skills!

Talk to your child about what it is to be a bully!  Remind them how they would feel if the group ganged up on them.

If your child is going to a sleepover talk to parents and ask about their Internet policies.  Don’t be afraid to ask these questions.  It is the same type of question you would ask if your child was going to the movies with another family, you would ask about that right, so you should be asking about this too.