Ideally sitting at home and putting ourselves into the social platform is one of the most preferred works. Be it a child or a parent or even grandparents, we find everyone getting engrossed into the phone. All thanks to the internet - a bliss. But, somewhere everything has cons too. Where illegal cyber activities take place in the ton.

When it comes to your child you need to get more cautious. It may affect him/ her at a larger aspect. No doubt the Internet is the best platform to gain knowledge but just like every medicine has a side effect so does the Internet. Cyberbullying is one such thing.

What is Cyber Bullying?

Cyberbullying is simply an act of harming an individual through the usage of the Internet. Be it through text or abusing publicly. Now, you need to get aware of all the forms which include cyberbullying. Until and unless you know what is the disease how will you diagnose. It could be in any form. So, give this article a read and get to know more about what your child can go through, maybe every other day.

1. Flaming: It is the simple form where an individual fights with privacy that is sending you abusive text which only you will get to know. It could be a threat or slang or anything with the use of the Internet.

2. Harassment: "I am being harassed", a most heard phrase of this era where crime takes place in any form. It could be at your house or it could be in your social networking life too. Harassment simply includes all these repeatedly sending messages, emails and threats. Deliberately sending insulting messages to an individual out of rage is harassment.

3. Denigration: You might have heard those gossips about everyone around you. This is what denigration means spreading rumors but electronically. Just imagine your best friend being manipulated against you and your friendship gets ruined. This is what denigration does.

4. Impersonation: "It's a fake profile man", yes, we deal with numerous fake profile holders in Facebook or be it any social media sites. What do these fake profiles do? Simply posting against but hiding their identities. Being someone else and try to bring down the image of the individual being bullied.

5. Outing: You can make it out by the word itself bringing out information publicly. Sharing your secrets out to a huge audience out there. It can be through posts and images too.

6. Trickery: "Your friend turning out a snake", yes, to understand this we can read this phrase. He/ she being friendly to you and gathering information and leaking it out. It is advisory not to tell everything to all who acts nice to you. "You can share your feelings to me, I won't be judgmental" if your friend says this your eyes may be filled with tears thinking my friend concerns about me. And undoubtedly you will bring all your secrets out.

7. Exclusion: Several family and friends groups are there in your list. Now imagine being excluded from that group after being insulted. This is what exclusion means. "You have been removed from the group", imagining this hurts. Even all your peers have blocked you. This is seriously hurting.

8. Cyberstalking: You must have seen thieves continuously keeping an eye on you and then running after you to take all you possess. Repeated integration or harassment is stalking and keeping a continuous eye on the one being bullied.

Effects of Cyber Bullying:

The rise in cyberbullying has led to several psychological damages be it massive ones or minute ones. Though there are just a handful of effects when it comes to children and they are dangerous enough. Children cannot deal with a single minute problem alone. Now the following are the few effects:

1. A decrease in confidence.

2. Stress and unhealthy life.

3. Poor attendance at schools and colleges.

4. Depression and sense of loneliness.

5. Suicidal thoughts.

These effects can undoubtedly make your child feel helpless and dominated. Moreover, confidence is inversely proportional to the increasing days of bullies. More the number of days being bullied lesser will be the confidence.

6 Ways to Stay Safe Online:

Must have heard prevention is better than cure. Yes, we should prevent ourselves from cyberbullying to an extent where we can save our lives as well. How to prevent this now?

1. Don't instigate: If someone is sending you emotionally hurting messages try not to reply emotionally or even just don't reply at all.

2. Always log out: If you are using someone else's system log out every time you use. Intentionally don't trust and leave it logged in. Trusting people in these matters, sometimes lead to dangerous problems.

3. Block them: Yes blocking them will be a correct decision. Neither you will receive messages nor will you be bullied.

4. Identify theft: Yes, try to be the police yourself. Try to read what your opponent is trying to do.

5. Be careful: This is what everyone should keep in mind definitely. Being careful is the only thing one can do to avoid cyberbullying. Not only this, avoid those sites which save passwords or debit card and credit card details.

6. Protect yourself: Yes, protecting yourself will serve a boom. Don't reveal your bank details or card details until and unless the site has customer forums. Create a strong password as this is the only thing that can save your data. Granting an easier password will lead to easier access to your data.

Certain things should be kept in mind with regard to setting a password:

a. Always use special characters. b. Use different passwords for different sites. c. Change password at regular intervals. d. Use lengthy passwords.

These are some ways by which we can save ourselves from the Dangers of the Digital World.

Wrap Up

Internet access is very essential for your child but you need to keep them in the track. Parental controls in the browser should be set. Apart from this privacy controls to all the social sites should be checked. Be it Facebook, Instagram or YouTube keep everything private. Unknowns should not be able to get your private information. But, those in your friend list you cannot avoid them either. So be precocious. Be safe. Be bully free.

This article has been contributed by Sharon from Pokevision.