Lillian Gibson

2/26/24

Cyberbullying Project

The internet can be a dangerous place for all ages. In this day in age, children have

more access to the internet like never before. Many children find themselves fallen victim to

cyberbullying and harassment online. Predators may lie about their age, or pretend to be a

child’s peer. Hackers use this method as well, eventually gathering personal information. I’ve

researched two different articles. Article one describes children online, and the effects of

cyberbullying and harassment. The second article I researched was more informative. It taught

me different ways I could protect myself online. Both of these articles are important because

internet safety isn’t something many people take seriously.

The first article I’ve chosen is internet safety, and how to prevent cyberbullying in young

children. According to CDFGolbal’s “Internet Safety for Kids: Cyberbullying and

Cyberharassment”, cyberbullying comes in all different forms. Children become a victim to the

dangers of the internet as soon as they log in, and many don’t speak up. The article I’ve

researched explains the dangers of cyberbullying, and how you as a parent can be vigilant and

protect your children online. This article explains how victims can go about responding to the

bully, examples of this would be installing software to protect from unsafe websites, reporting

and blocking the perpetrator, and much more. Something that stood out to me while reading is

when the author describes whether or not your child could be the cyberbully. When allowing a

child access to the online world, parents must be cautious. This article explains that by

monitoring your child's messages, search history and what websites that are on frequently, you

can prevent them from cyberbullying. My younger sister, who just turned 9, has recently been

using our family computer. She goes online and plays computer games with her friends. While
sitting next to her play, I’ve observed her friends using vulgar language towards her. I

immediately went to my mother and we blocked that game from our computer. After reading this

article, I now know that there are many different types of cyberbullying. In this age, children

have access online, both good and bad. It’s up for us to make sure this future generation is

using it responsibly, safely and with kindness.

The second article I’ve researched is about internet safety, how one protects themselves

online. Reviews.org, “How To Stay Safe Online,” states that there are many different lengths

someone can go to in order to have proper protection. These ways include, installing the proper

software, thinking twice before posting, and double checking links before clicking. With the

proper software, when someone is close to dangerous malware you will be alerted. Something

that stood out to me while reading was how using unsecured wifi gives hackers access to your

information. Something as simple as checking if Wifi is safe to use is crucial when protecting

yourself online. Many of my peers have used the internet as a place to share their information,

and 90% of the time it's more personal than it should be. Many times other students have

shared explicit posts, not knowing enough about the concept of a digital footprint. This article is

a great way to educate those who know little to nothing about protecting yourself online, and

how to keep a clean digital footprint.

Keeping all of this in mind, these two informative articles go hand in hand. Preventing

your child from cyberbullying starts with the proper internet protection. Hackers and other

predators online often target young children through messages, pretending to be a peer, or lying

about their age. Online predators then gather the victims personal information, putting the child

in danger. Keeping the internet safe for younger children must be a priority. Not only to stop

cyberbullying and harassment, but to keep your online information safe from others. While both

these articles teach us different kinds of internet dangers, protecting your child online through

software and monitoring is important.

 When comparing the two articles, readers can see that they go hand in hand.

Cyberbullying can be prevented through monetization and reporting the problem. However,

these two articles, while both are very informative, are vastly different. The first article teaches

about cyberbullying and harassment with children. Preventing cyberbullying by monitoring a

child’s activity online, the effects of harassment online, and signs that your child may be a

cyberbully. Whereas, the second article discusses ways people can protect themselves on the

internet. What is malware and Software, and how you can protect your personal information.

While you can use internet precautions to protect your child from cyberbullying, these two

articles discuss different internet problems we face today.

To conclude, we live in a technological world today. Almost all of our information is

online for the world to see. This can make life easier, but we must be careful. As younger

generations have more access to the online world, they are susceptible to many dangers. This

can be cyber bullying and harassment, to hackers gathering their information. Nevertheless, we

must learn more ways to protect ourselves from these threats. If your child has access to the

internet, it’s important to monitor their activity. This not only protects their wellbeing, but could

be protecting the wellbeing of others. There are many ways to keep us and our children safe

from the internet, to make our online experiences better for everyone.