In 2011, a fifteen-year-old girl was released from the hospital following a failed suicide attempt. However, when she got out of the hospital, the girls who had been bullying her by using a text bombing website to send her multiple text messages, picked up right where they left off.
Her second suicide attempt was successful.
An important part of parental intelligence is understanding what text bombing is, and how kids are using it to cyberbully and harass each other. With new apps being developed every day, it doesn't matter that the Google App store has banned two of the apps responsible for allowing kids to demonstrate this type of behavior - SMSBomber and SMSBarrage.
These apps are a new form of cyberbullying and allow kids to download them and then send multiple text messages to the same person. By using the app, a kid can send thousands of different text messages to the same person during the course of the day. Even as an adult, imagine receiving a thousand different text messages from the same place during one day. Perhaps the messages said something like, "Your wife is cheating on you", "I saw her with someone else today", or "Your marriage is over." Even if you feel relatively solid within your marriage, getting so many of those text messages all at once is sure to at least make you doubt the faithfulness of your wife.
For kids, the feeling is amplified even more.
According to an article on Huffington Post, kids are using text bombing apps to tell kids how ugly they are, how much everyone hates them, or to express the fact that no one is going to miss the child after he or she is gone. Over time, these messages have a real negative effect on kids, which often results in self-mutilation or even suicide.
It's absolutely vital for parents to understand what these new trends are. The world of texting is an entirely different world for some kids, and knowing exactly how they're using this technology allows parents to set appropriate limits.
If we wait for kids to become nicer to other kids, we're going to be waiting a long time. The answer lies in increased parental intelligence that will allow them to provide guidance to kids regarding the proper way to use this technology.
Many parents are still in the dark about cyberbullying. Become informed with our eBook: “10 Essential Things Every Parent Should Know about Cyberbullying.” Download your free copy today!