We caught up with our friend Michael Veenswyk, the CEO of Integritie, and asked him to share with us 4 tips to end cyberbullying.

• Do Not Reply to the Bully
Cyber bullies look for a reaction.  Encourage your child not to reply and to make the choice of not giving power to the bully.

• Keep the evidence
Always make a written record of what has happened, do this with your child.  Gather as much evidence as possible; save any texts, print out emails and screen shots of social network activity – keep updating.

• Block the bullies
Most social networks and mobile services have built-in system tools that can be used to block anyone who is cyber bullying your child. Make sure these are used where applicable.  This may take for form of removing them from ‘friends’ list or blocking a number (texts and voice calls).

• Never Pass On Messages From Cyber Bullies
Do not forward or share hurtful or embarrassing messages or photos of someone else.  Delete them.  Forwarding and/or sharing will make the situation worse.   Do not become part of the problem, control the solution.

Thank you to Michael for helping us with these 4 tips to end cyber bullying. SMC4 Observer is a social network observing software application that views students Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to observe and report threats from bullying, self harm or violence.SMC4 provides real time risk priority reporting of bullying, self harm and violence, to Parents, Guardians and School Officials, enabling appropriate response.SMC4 includes comprehensive criminal observing tools, reporting and archiving criminal actions recorded on Social Media sites, such as a person facebooking that they stole a car, mugged a person, or damaged property. Observer keeps a secure archive of crime for Schools and Authorities.