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What can you do if your kid is being bullied?

Bullying used to just be a problem kids dealt with in school or with friends. Now, it can be a 24/7 issue with the rise of social media. So how can parents help?

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - Most of us have dealt with bullying in some form, but not necessarily like today's children. Between school and social media, if a child is being bullied, it can be almost constant.

We sat down with our KARE 11 Mom Brigade to talk about the problem - and what parents can do to help.

"It gets more extreme as they get older," shared Delilah Montgomery, the mother of a 14-year-old girl. "She came home and was like, 'Mom the kids are messing with me.'"

So Montgomery's teen turned the topic into a book called Brianna's Voice. She was stunned when she read her 14-year-old daughter's words.

"I was like wow, kids are really going through a lot of this stuff?" she said. "She explained it to me that this is stuff we go through as teenagers."

National studies show 28 percent of students have been bullied - and 30 percent admit to bullying others.

"They'll all of a sudden gang up on one girl and leave them out, and my daughter will come home just devastated," shared Teagan Drayton, a mother from St. Paul. "I don't think these girls at 10 years old, they can't communicate very well. They're just trying to figure it all out."

The bullying can start younger than you'd think.

"My daughter's almost 2 and since she was born, has had a really bad umbilical hernia," shared Nicole Madden, a mother from Blaine. "A whole bunch of boys were like 'Ooh that's disgusting, don't let her by us. Already she's 2 and someone was picking on her."

Many of the moms said they talk with their kids about what to do or say if they're bullied.

"We really practice it, and I want them to get confident and comfortable with words they need to use in that moment," said Sarah Siedschlag, a mother from Golden Valley.

So, do these parents think bullying is worse now than when they were kids?

"I feel like it's more the social media, the Facebook, the Instagram, those things that kind of mass everything that makes it a little bit different than my generation," said Monisha Walters, a mother from South Minneapolis.

The other moms agreed.

"When we were growing up, you didn't know if all your friends had a sleepover and you weren't invited because you didn't see it," said Allison Surratt, a mother from New Hope.

If your child is being bullied, or is a bully, there are plenty of resources available. Just visit StopBullying.gov here.

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