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The Australian Broadcast Corporation reports:
Australian parents are more worried about their children using social media and technology than drugs, alcohol or smoking, according to new research.
The youth mental health support service ReachOut surveyed parents of 12 to 18-year-olds about their concerns and found that 45 per cent were worried about their children's use of social media.
Technology closely followed at 42 per cent.
In comparison, 25 per cent were worried about their children using drugs, alcohol or smoking. [...] ReachOut surveyed 890 parents in December 2017, a month before the suicide of 14-year-old Amy "Dolly" Everett put cyberbullying on the national agenda.
Mr Nicholas said parents were concerned about the anonymity of social media. "They're really concerned about the nature of bullying that may happen on social media sites and how easy it is given that this is a product that young people are likely to use every day," he said. "That the harm and particularly the psychological harm can be really significant."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Tuesday March 13 2018, @08:39PM
Regular bullying causes harm, and somets suicide, but parents and schools have many years of experience in dealing with harm mitigation and generally "dealing with it"
Several well-reported cases of suicide after cyberbullying show that parents and schools are hopelessly lost in managing, mitigating, or even identifying cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying kills, and is hard to manage. Thus the fear.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex