Teach your kids about the bystander effect
Have you heard of the “bystander effect”? It’s the proven phenomenon where people are less likely to help someone in trouble when other people are around. This is because humans generally rely on their surroundings for how to react to a situation and don’t want to look silly by doing something different than everyone else. This is an important concept for us all to be aware of, but especially kids. Our kids will all likely witness someone getting bullied at some point, whether at school or online, and will have to decide whether to stand up for those victims or not. If they know about the bystander effect, they can feel more confident that just because others aren’t doing anything, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. We can teach them that they might need to be the first person to stand up and then others should follow and help too.