Cyberbullying - Curbing its tentacles

Late January this year, the Telstra Foundation announced it had provided a $400,000 social innovation grant to a youth-led movement against bullying known as Project Rockit. The project engages Australian school students between 7-9 years in learning and understanding the issues of bullying, cyber safety and leadership. Personally, I see this as an extremely encouraging development given the regular number of cyberbullying cases sprouting in schools/institutes globally. A McAfee survey in 2014 concluded that the number of school children in London being bullied on the internet has doubled in the past year, with more than one in three victims.

India is no exception. Some weeks back when I was rushed into a closed door meeting to tackle one such instance. A couple of students had made a fake Instagram account of a classmate and sent across messages to other classmates and a student from another school. The students involved and their parents were spoken to. The police officer of the area police station, investigated the matter and addressed the students and the parents in the presence of the principal, making them aware of the detrimental impact of such an involvement.

The advent of technology has not only shifted children out of playgrounds to their living rooms with their gadgets but with it, bullying too has shifted from playgrounds to the virtual world!  In fact, the ‘viral’ nature of cyberbullying makes it so much more convenient and simple to send humiliating texts, pictures, videos while still remaining anonymous. Cyberbullying occurs when children lose sight of the consequences. They fail to think that sending messages which they see as “just messing” or “joking” is actually a form of bullying, and don’t understand how it can hurt and emotionally uproot a person.

Internet anonymity empowers the perpetrators to believe they will not be known and traced as they see the internet as not a real world. As with traditional bullying, pressure from friends can be a trigger for cyberbullying too or a mere act to appear cool or have some fun at the expense of another. In more serious cases, it entails receiving threats that can seriously dent the self-esteem and emotional health of a child.

This brings us to an important question. How prepared are we as custodians of our children to tackle this? Clearly, any step needs to be tailored in congruence with an empathetic and sensitive approach for both the bully and the victim. Remember, children may not want to let you know that they are victims of bullying due to embarrassment or fearing intrusion on their personal space. Teachers and parents both must keep a vigil over any sudden behavioural change or attitudinal shifts.

At our school we are creating awareness among students about

- Their rights and responsibilities online.

- Making sure they are aware that the internet is not a ‘private’ place.

- Advocating the positive use of technology.

- Promoting good netiquette and personal safety issues.

- Inculcating a “telling” atmosphere – so that their peers will report cyberbullying, publicise different ways of reporting cyberbullying to give confidence to bystanders.

- Anti-bullying policies will be set which will be constantly updated and amended to deal with cyberbullying as it evolves.

Some of the ways parents can help tackling cyberbullying are -

1.    Choosing battles wisely: It’s best to not engage with unpleasantness or vile behaviour; it is what bullies target for. However, limits definitely need to be set for taking stern action against the perpetrator.

2.    Privacy settings – Block the bully or any unknown numbers from contacting on child’s phone. Consider logging off altogether if the app or messenger only seems to distract your child, for a couple of months.

3.    Report fake profiles/information – Report any occurrences of fake profiles and indecent pages to the website as well as the cybersecurity cell.  

4.    Trust your child – It won’t be easy for them to come out and admit something to you, so don’t judge them.

5.    Listen – This is the most undervalued skills but one that can give an idea about the state of the mind of the child either bullying or getting bullied.

 Our students are being encouraged to make friends and promote a positive and supportive atmosphere in the school which will ensure that cyberbullying or any form of bullying does not thrive.  Forbidding technology is definitely not the solution but to guide the students from making choices responsibly. What worked for us undoubtedly is the bringing together of the parent, the management and the law on the same platform to address the children together. This should be a combined body working as a unit to empower the students to make each of their voices heard. 

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