Cyberbullying has been a growing concern for educators and parents for quite some time. Due to the current pandemic, millions of kids are most likely spending an unprecedented amount of time online. This raises a lot of safety concerns from both parents and educators. According to Natasha Tiwari, a psychologist, these unique times “are ripe for encouraging cyberbullying.”
Cyberbullying by the Numbers
A 2018 study from Pew Research found that 59% of teens had experienced some form of cyberbullying (42% offensive name-calling, 32% spreading false rumors, and 25% receiving unsolicited explicit images).
A new study from Comparitech found:
- Kids reported being bullied 82.8% at school, 32.5% on the school bus, 19.2% on social media sites/apps, 17% at a physical location not on school grounds, 11% through text messages, 7.9% through video games, 6.8% on the internet (not via social media), 3.8% through phone calls, and 3.3% through email.
- The age breakdown of kids who had been bullied was 47.7% 6-10 year olds, 56.4% 11-13 year olds, 59.9% 14-18 year olds, and 54.3% 19 and older.
- 10.5% of parents surveyed had witnessed their children being cyberbullied.
A new survey from the Anti-Defamation League found that one in four Americans experience severe online harassment, so unfortunately online harassment is an issue for all ages, not just school-aged kids.
Stomp Out Bullying has a page dedicated to cyberbullying during COVID-19, and includes recommendations for parents.
How SafeSchools Can Help
Check out our Cyberbullying Prevention Safety Tip video for tips to help keep your school safe. We also have a previous blog with tips on how your school can help control cyberbullying.
The SafeSchools Online Training System includes a variety of expert-authored courses dedicated to helping your staff and students prevent incidents of cyberbullying, including:
Staff Courses
Student Courses
- Bullying & Cyberbullying (Grades 6-8)
- Bullying & Cyberbullying (Grades 9-12)
- Digital Citizenship (Grades 6-8)
- Digital Citizenship (Grades 9-12)
Our SafeSchools Alert Tip Reporting System allows students, staff and parents to confidentially report safety concerns, like cyberbullying, to your administration 24/7/365 via mobile app, text, phone, email, and website.
Cyberbullies’ actions can have a greater and longer lasting effect than traditional physical bullying. Cyberbullying has quickly become a serious problem among children from elementary through high school. Cyberbullying leverages tools that students use most often to communicate among themselves and has increased because these tools are convenient and often free of adult oversight. They also provide the means to inflict immediate, devastating harm on the bully’s target. That’s because the bully’s message can be transmitted to and accessed by anyone in seconds, and traditional school safeguards are often ineffective. Cyberbullying has also been linked to depression, school violence, and suicide. Even if a few students participate in cyberbullying, it only takes one to do serious harm.
Check out our Cyberbullying Prevention Safety Tip video below for the definition of cyberbullying and tips to help keep your school safe.
Here are more tips that can help control cyberbullying on your campus and keep your school safe:
- You should be familiar with your school’s bullying policy. Since cyberbullying fits the traditional definition of bullying, your school’s anti-bullying policies apply to cyberbullying.
- You should always report cyberbullying immediately. Teach your students to report cyberbullying immediately, as well.
- Always carefully preserve any evidence of cyberbullying, including text messages, voicemail messages, images, videos, webpages, and any other digital evidence.
- Recognize that students are sophisticated users of technology at a young age. Cyberbullying is not just a high school issue, it’s common in middle school and late elementary school as well.
- If you become aware of cyberbullying and fail to report it, you, as well as your school, may become subject to lawsuits and other legal actions.
- Some actions like threats of violence and distribution of explicit images do more than just violate your school’s bullying policy. They may also be against the law so don’t hesitate to report potential criminal actions by carefully following your school’s policy.
- Your school should also update its Acceptable Use Policy to prohibit cyberbullying from locations away from school.
The SafeSchools Online Staff Training System offers an Online Safety: Cyberbullying course to provide school staff members with basic information on cyberbullying, its impact on your school, and steps you can take to reduce the threat of cyberbullying.
Our SafeSchools Alert Tip Reporting System allows students, staff, and parents to anonymously report safety concerns to school officials 24/7/365. Staff are immediately notified of every tip and can easily track and manage incidents to resolution within the web-based system.
Please contact us at [email protected] or 1-800-434-0154 to learn more about SafeSchools Training or SafeSchools Alert.
