CYBERBULLYING – HOW TO STOP IT?

Cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms and mobile phones. It is repeated behaviour, aimed at scaring, angering or shaming those who are targeted.

Examples include:

• spreading lies about or posting embarrassing photos or videos of someone on social media;
• sending hurtful, abusive or threatening messages, images or videos via messaging platforms;
• impersonating someone and sending mean messages to others on their behalf or through fake accounts.

Face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying can often happen alongside each other. But cyberbullying leaves a digital footprint – a record that can prove useful and provide evidence to help stop the abuse.

If you are worried about your safety or something that has happened to you online, you can seek help by calling your national helpline. If your country does not have a helpline, please urgently speak to an adult you trust or seek professional support from trained and experienced carers.

For bullying to stop, it needs to be identified and reporting it is the key.

It can be helpful to collect evidence – text messages and screen shots of social media posts – to show what’s been going on.

For bullying to stop, it needs to be identified and reporting it is key. It can also help to show the bully that their behaviour is unacceptable.

If you are in immediate danger, then you should contact the police or emergency services in your country.

How to stop cyberbullying in Facebook/Instagram, TikTok and Twitter

Facebook/Instagram

If you’re being bullied online, we encourage you to talk to a parent, teacher or someone else you can trust – you have a right to be safe and supported.

You can also make it easy to report any bullying directly within Facebook or Instagram.

You can always send a report from a post, comment, story on reporting pages on Facebook or Instagram.

On Facebook, you have a guide (https://www.facebook.com/safety/bullying/teens) that can help lead you through the process of dealing with bullying – or what to do if you see someone else being bullied. For Instagram, you have a Parent’s Guide (https://about.instagram.com/community/parents) that provides recommendations for parents, guardians and trusted adults on how to navigate cyberbullying, and you can also learn more about our safety tools and our anti-bullying tools.

TikTok

Everyone has the right to feel safe and to be treated with respect and dignity. Bullying and harassment are incompatible with the inclusive environment we foster on TikTok.

If you ever feel someone is bullying you or otherwise being inappropriate, reach out to someone you trust – for example, a parent, a teacher or a caregiver – who can provide support.

TikTok deploys both technology and thousands of safety professionals to help keep bullying off TikTok. They also encourage their community members to make use of the easy in-app reporting (https://support.tiktok.com/en/safety-hc/report-a-problem/report-a-video) tools to alert them if they or someone they know has experienced bullying. You can report videos, comments, accounts and direct messages so that we can take appropriate action and help keep you safe. Reports are always confidential.

You can find out more in Bullying Prevention (https://www.tiktok.com/safety/en/bullying-prevention/) guide for teens, caregivers, and educators on how to identify and prevent bullying, and provide support.

Twitter

Being the target of bullying online is not easy to deal with. If you are being cyberbullied, the most important thing to do is to ensure you are safe. It’s essential to have someone to talk to about what you are going through. This may be a teacher, another trusted adult, or a parent. Talk to your parents and friends about what to do if you or a friend are being cyberbullied.

They encourage people to report accounts to them that may break their rules ( https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules). You can do this on their Help Center (https://help.twitter.com/en) or through the in-Tweet reporting mechanism by clicking on the “Report a Tweet” option.

Source: UNICEF