Is there a strong link between cyberbullying and suicide? Can we harm our kids by suggesting a correlation? One blog published recently said "yes."

The author of the blog spoke with Gabby, a ten-year old girl, who saw a cyberbullying presentation at her elementary school, in which the presenter revealed that his own son had committed suicide after being bullied. Indeed, this is a tragedy.

However, the troubling comment from Gabby abut the presentation was this: “A guy told us about his son, who killed himself because he was bullied.” Thus, her take-away message was that if you're bullied, you will commit suicide.

This type of message can be dangerous for children. We can't afford to have children believing that suicide is the natural course of action when severely bullied.

Kids should be made aware that things don't have to get so bad to consider self harm. Parents need to let kids know they are willing and available to talke about their concerns. Concerned parents can take steps to prevent cyberbullying by monitoring their children's online activity, by talking to them if they see it taking place, and hopefully preventing it from going further.

I wrote a previous blog about what to do when your child has been cyberbullied. The main point was to take action!

I work for ContentWatch and all opinions expressed here are my own.