What is cyberbullying?
Whether it’s creating a fake Facebook page to impersonate a fellow student, repeatedly sending hurtful text messages and images, or posting cruel comments online, cyberbullying can have a devastating effect. Nasty comments, embarrassing photos and videos, and lies can be spread widely through social networking sites, instant messaging (IM), or texting. It can happen anytime – at school or home – and can involve large groups of kids. The boldness created by being anonymous combined with the desire to be seen as “cool” can cause a kid who normally wouldn’t say anything mean face-to-face to show off for other kids. And because it’s happening in cyberspace, it can be undetectable by parents and teachers.
What is Common Sense Media doing to address this problem?
Cyberbullying is something we’ve been working to address through our education programs for families and kids, including our comprehensive digital citizenship curriculum and the parent tips on our website. We believe it’s really important to empower kids to think critically about how they interact with each other in their online and mobile lives. The goal is to get kids to stand up for people being bullied – not be bystanders who turn a blind eye.
What can schools do to help stop cyberbullying?
Like the online world, cyberbullying is 24/7. It may start from a home computer, but it expands into the school environment and everywhere in between. This means that to address the problem effectively, the whole community must get involved. In addition to action from parents and kids, schools can play a role by:
- Proactively creating a cyberbullying policy in order to create a safe learning environment for their students. They can do this by working with the school community to establish clear guidelines and consequences about bullying and harassment, and communicating this policy to parents, faculty, and students at regular intervals.
- Implementing a comprehensive digital literacy and citizenship curriculum for students, and providing professional development on the issue and curriculum for educators.
- Empowering parents with information and resources they can use at home to recognize and deal with this 21st-century problem.
What advice do you have for parents?
Parents can help prevent cyberbullying by:
- Giving their kids a code of conduct. If they wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, they shouldn’t text it, IM it, or post it.
- Asking their kids if they know someone who has been cyberbullied. Sometimes kids will open up about others’ experiences before admitting their own.
- Establishing consequences for bullying behavior, like taking away phone and computer privileges.
You can find more tips for parents at www.commonsense.org/cyberbullying-tips.
What advice do you have for kids and teens?
If you’re the target, it's best not to engage with a bully. The steps below can help kids defuse the situation, protect themselves, and hopefully put a stop to cyberbullying:
- Sign off the computer. It's best to ignore attacks and walk away from the cyberbully.
- Don't respond or retaliate. If you're angry and reply, then you might say nasty things. Cyberbullies often just want to get a reaction out of you, so don't let them know that their plan has worked.
