You can insure your kids against cyberbullies.

When digital insurance entrepreneur and father, Jason Baughen, learnt about the number of children scarred by the bad things that had been written about them on the internet, he felt he was well positioned to come to their aid. “The business world has tools and insurance coverage to respond and recover from reputational abuse and why not private individuals and families?” Baughen said.

Cyberboxx: Home Edition, sold through Baughen’s firm, CapriCMW Insurance, covers the cost of cyber extortion, online fraud, data breach and hacker damage to personal devices and home I.O.T. devices – in addition to cyberbullying. Baughen caveats the final point by explaining that the policy won’t cover legitimate free speech. “If someone writes something online that says, ‘You’re mean’ that’s humiliating of course, but everyone has the right to think of you as mean.”

The product will be available in January 2021. Baughen’s product is provided by BOXX Insurance, the Canadian cyber insurance specialist.

Vishal Kundi, co-founder and CEO of BOXX Insurance believes there’s a huge need for an insurance product like this. The scope of the problem has been hard to quantify. Experts agree cyberbullying, which is acknowledged to be underreported, is on the rise. Statistics Canada reported in 2016 that at least 1 in 5 students had been victims of cyberbullying or cyberstalking. PEW Research Center says 59% of US teenagers have been bullied online, while non-consensual sexual images continues to rise.

Technology should let our children flourish and not leave long term mental scars.