Oh my giddy Aunt Dora, we are being cyber-bullied on Facebook!

By a middle-aged couple!

And I thought this was the domain of teenagers.

How wrong was I.

We aren’t actually worried  as I am a firm believer in “what goes around comes around.” and it hasn’t failed me yet and I’m in my 60^th year!

Of course not all their Facebook friends will believe their lies.

Some folk will think to themselves, “this doesn’t quite make sense”

or “Hey your story is changing”

or “This is a cruel attack”

or “I’m not interested as I know you are a liar and troublemaker from school days so heaven help your new victim”

or “Why do you have the need to tell hundreds of  acquaintances this obvious load of rubbish and it appears  you are trying really  hard to make it sound believable?”

And then there will be others pressing their finger on the “like” button or better still, writing in the “add a comment,” box something nasty enough to make the middle-aged couple smile with delight so that they then press “like!”.

Oh my giddy Aunt!

Most of my friends are on Facebook but none of them would ever intentionally hurt someone on this social network site.

If my adult children ever involved themselves in defaming someone on Facebook, I would die of embarrassment.

Well actually I know they wouldn’t as they have brains.

As I am not on Facebook, I would never have known  we were being cyber-bullied if some Facebook ‘friends’ of the middle-aged couple hadn’t rung/ emailed/ visited to warn us.

I must add that some were very distressed whilst others were just simply disgusted.

I asked how they became Facebook friends with a couple who have such a bad reputation for ‘unkindness to people’.

“She sent a friends request and I didn’t want to offend her and I knew they would get nasty if I refused.” was the response from most.

How sad is this!!

Now back to the subject of cyber-bullying.

 

What a cunning way to mass send a lie or defame someone.

If a nasty person has 300 friends (oh my giddy Aunt, they call them friends when they are acquaintances in most cases) this means they can reach a wide range of folk in a short space of time.

 

How on earth do teenagers cope!!

Please parents, if your child is being cyber-bullied, step in and sort it out.

PLEASE don’t tell them;

“Stick and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you.”.

I’d like to throttle the person who invented this saying.

Utter rubbish!

With a stone you can throw it back or run like mad!

Names destroy your soul if you don’t have a good support network and friends who know the truth as we do.

Check out their school as old-fashioned bullying often occurs prior to cyber-bullying these days.

Talk to the parents of those bullying your kids.

Most will be mortified.

Hug your kids; tell them they are the most wonderful human beings in the whole world!

Each and every day tell them you love them, even if you have to shout it out as they are walking up the path on their way to school.

Show strength in numbers if your child is cyber-bullied.

A friend took her whole family to visit the parents of a cyber-bully in a small town in the South Island of New Zealand.

The bully had such a shock at her support network she was a timid mouse at school the next day!!

Try any tactic you can think of to assist your teen.

If the local Policeman is approachable, approach him.

You may be surprised as to what solution he can work out with you.

 

Let’s all make an effort to stamp out cyber-bullying.

The first step is not to ‘like’ and the second step is not to feed it along by adding your own comment.