ABSTRACT
Families may experience several risks related to technology and their relationships, including the introduction of online sexual predators, cyber-bullying, video and online gaming, privacy considerations, cyberstalking, technology-based dating violence, sexting, and revenge pornography. While technology like computers can play a positive role in children’s lives there is also concern over the effect that such technologies can have on children and on families. Many adults are concerned about how to interact and communicate with adolescents in their lives in online environments. Engagement in online family and social networking seems fraught with confusion and uncertainty in terms of practice management. Cyberbullying includes a wide range of bullying behaviors using an equally wide range of electronic communication as the medium of delivery. The rates of cyberbullying are even more significant when diverse sexual orientations and genders are factored in, as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning youth experience such bullying at higher rates in comparison to their heterosexual counterparts.
