What you need to know about online bullying.
If your child’s social media profiles are peppered with offensive comments, bullying and hate speech, it’s a clear sign of online bullying, according to a new study.
The study from the University of Michigan found that children who were bullied online were also more likely to have negative reactions to positive content on social media, including photos and videos.
“If they are being bullied on social, they’re more likely than others to be having negative reactions and negative thoughts,” said Emily Buehler, a professor of communication at the U-M College of Arts and Sciences.
“And that is a direct correlation to how they are reacting online.”
“When they’re being bullied, they have to be thinking, What’s the message?
Is it being received?
Or is it being seen as something that’s offensive to some group of people?
So they are more likely, I think, to react in ways that reflect that they are receiving negative feedback,” she said.”
The other way that they’re reacting is to try to suppress their reactions and not express them,” Buehl said.
This research was published in the journal Social Cognition.