UrbanDictionary defines textual harassment as “the act of texting a person repeatedly with harmful and/or sexual intentions that are neither relevant or desired.”
Textual harassment continues to increase as texting with mobile devices becomes the preferred method of communication. The youth of the world even prefer texting over email, and studies have shown that 88% of teens with phones text an average of 100 text messages a day.
It’s not just young children and teenagers who are at risk — anyone can be a victim of cyber harassment and stalking, even if you are careful who you associate with, how you interact with others and who you give your personal information to. It can get so bad, and disruptive to ones life (and potentially physically dangerous) in fact, that sometimes legal action is necessary. That has been the case for many, such as the 37 year old man who received more than 10,000 texts over the course of 65 days (the equivalent of once every eight minutes) from a former girlfriend that was stalking him.
To protect younger children from these threats, parental controls are an option. Teens and younger children are at risk because they do not yet have the judgment to know when they may be at risk from someone else, or are putting themselves at risk through their own behavior.
As parents you can teach your children the tools, skills, and judgment they need to stay safe so that they live long, happy lives. But until they are able to protect themselves on their own they are at risk from cyber dangers. If your child owns or wants to own a cell phone, mobile device, or “superphone” you can still reap the benefits of these wonderful cyber devices by installing the tool that empowers you to protect them from cyberbullying, sexting, mobile phone predators, text rage and other inappropriate cyber activity.
