Cyberbullying: What to do when your child is a victim
Online harassment is around the clock. Unlike in-person bullying, cyberbullying can happen 24/7, giving victims little relief from the emotional trauma.
With roughly one in four teens having been cyberbullied, internet safety advocates say the best way to prevent it or stop it is for parents to be highly involved and monitor their child's social media.
A mom of a 14-year-old tells her unnerving story of how she had to pull her daughter from school, just before her middle school graduation because the cyberbullying got so bad.
Shirley Sofer said her daughter was targeted and an imposter Instagram profile went up, using the eighth-grader's TikTok user name and school photo – and they couldn't get it removed.
"What they were doing was they were messaging the other eighth-grade students, and they were sending racial slurs and inappropriate sexual content. And this entire time. they were pretending to be my daughter," said Sofer.
Internet safety advocates acknowledge the difficulty of having accounts removed is a problem. Sofer said her daughter was scared to go to school as she was getting bullied.
"She feels betrayed. She feels scared. She said you can't send me to school anymore because you're sending me into a lion's den," said Sofer.
The imposter account then began posting the Sofer's home address, telling students to go there for a party with drugs and alcohol.
At one point, Sofer even got a message from someone on her phone saying that her "child was going to get jumped."
Sofer tried many times to get the imposter account removed from Instagram, to no avail. "I just feel as a parent, we have absolutely no recourse over what happens to our children," she said.
Titania Jordan, the Chief Parent Officer of Bark Technologies, says right now parents really don't have a strong swift course of action if their child is being cyberbullied.
"I will start with the fact that a lot of parents have no idea that their child is either witnessing cyberbullying or being cyberbullied or if their child is the bully," said Jordan.
So the best thing to do Jordan says, is for parents to frequently check their child's phone, to see what they're texting, posting, and receiving on social media.
And if your child is being bullied on social media, Jordan says parents shouldn't hesitate to contact local law enforcement. California doesn't have any laws that directly address cyberbullying, but it is a crime to send electronic communication with the intent of making the recipient fear for their safety.
Jordan said parents can also file a complaint with the Internet Crimes Against Children unit.
"They do have contact information at the large social platforms and it does carry more weight than it does coming from a parent," said Jordan.
At the time of this report's broadcast, Instagram did have the imposter account of Sofer's daughter removed.
