While being pushed around, beat up, isolated or verbally abused on the playground are more obvious acts of bullying, technology has given bullies a whole new means for terrorizing others — sometimes even anonymously.
MULTIPLAYER GAMES ARE PUTTING KIDS AT RISK
While online games like Minecraft are often enjoyed without issue, find out how the ability to interact with other players your child may not know could leave him or her a victim of cyberbullying on Minecraft and other multiplayer games.
How kids are cyberbullied on multiplayer games
- (Videos on YouTube both teach children how to bully “8 ways to bully kids in Minecraft” and how to defend yourself “5 Ways to Stop a Bully-Minecraft YouTube“)
When it comes to multiplayer games, cyberbullying can take many forms — most commonly referred to as griefing. According to Wikipedia, “A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately irritates and harasses other players within the game, using aspects of the game in unintended ways… including cursing, cheating, stealing and unreasonable killing.” Other common forms of online bullying can include kicking other players off the server and intentionally trying to anger or upset other players for their own enjoyment — also known as trolling — during multiplayer games.”Online bullying can include kicking other players off the server and intentionally trying to anger or upset other players.”
“In our case, my son had a server and spent months building things — castles, bridges, underwater cities and buildings in the sky,” explains Mark Cheverton, author of Invasion of the Overworld: A Minecraft Novel. “Some other player was able to get the IP address to my son’s server and when the griefers came onto his server they used their software hacks to get past the security and proceeded to destroy everything on his server. They then posted the video on their YouTube channel which made it even worse.” But, how much harm does this form of virtual bullying really do to kids?
Read more at: Cyberbullying on Minecraft.