Cyberbullying: Don't Let Bullies Ruin Your Online Life [Infographic]

Even though there’s been so much awareness about bullying over the past few years, it’s still continues to be a problem. Cyberbullying is on the rise, and it doesn’t just happen to kids and teenagers. Have you ever been bullied online? It’s happened to me before, and it’s not fun. I remember about two years ago I wrote an article called 10 Reasons Not To Block Someone On Twitter. For whatever reason, that article always seems to attract the trolls, but there was on guy in particular who I distinctly remember.

He started a campaign of tweeting me the most horrible things you can think of just to get me to block him so he could prove I would go against the whole “forgiveness” theme in that article. He tweeted me things like, “I hope you die today,” “please commit suicide” and “I wish I could I could kill your family.” This went on for about a week, and it made me cry more than once. I finally told Richard about it (which was embarrassing). He said, “Block him immediately.” I did, and the problem was instantly over. I should have done that on the first day instead of waiting a week.

Regardless of your age, who you are, or where you live, nobody has the right to tear you down and make you feel bad about yourself online or offline. If someone does that to you online, there are a few things you can do about it. Here is short list:

Tell a friend of yours who has influence in social media. That person will know how to help you if that happens.
Block that person, unfollow that person, uncircle that person, unfriend that person – whatever you need to do to sever the connection.
Report that person to the site.
Change your security settings to make it difficult for that person to reach you.
Don’t engage the person, even though it may be hard not to retaliate.
Don’t give anyone your passwords.
Be careful about giving out too much personal information online.
Don’t delete the bully’s messages, you might need them for evidence.
Talk to someone you trust about it. Don’t keep it a secret.
Research it online. There are tons of sites that offer help.
Realize you may need to close some of your social media and email accounts and start new ones if it continues.

This infographic called Cyberbullied: How Bullies Have Moved From The Playground To The Web created by OnlineCollege.org breaks down the state of cyberbullying when it comes to kids and teenagers. Since 7.5 million Facebook users are under the age of 13, it’s definitely a very real problem. After what I went through for only a week, I can’t imagine what some kids go through. It’s heartbreaking really. It’s so sad since being on the Internet can be such a fun experience. I will never understand why some people want to bully others. Do you have any ideas for how you think this behavior can be stopped?