writing assignment about two scenarios for cyberbullying

Cyber Bullying Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on cyber bullying.

Cyber Bullying Essay: In today’s world which has been made smaller by technology, new age problems have been born. No doubt technology has a lot of benefits; however, it also comes with a negative side. It has given birth to cyberbullying. To put it simply, cyberbullying refers to the misuse of information technology with the intention to harass others.

Subsequently, cyberbullying comes in various forms. It doesn’t necessarily mean hacking someone’s profiles or posing to be someone else. It also includes posting negative comments about somebody or spreading rumors to defame someone. As everyone is caught up on the social network, it makes it very easy for anyone to misuse this access.

In other words, cyberbullying has become very common nowadays. It includes actions to manipulate, harass and defame any person. These hostile actions are seriously damaging and can affect anyone easily and gravely. They take place on social media, public forums, and other online information websites. A cyberbully is not necessarily a stranger; it may also be someone you know.

Cyber Bullying is Dangerous

Cyberbullying is a multi-faced issue. However, the intention of this activity is one and the same. To hurt people and bring them harm. Cyberbullying is not a light matter. It needs to be taken seriously as it does have a lot of dangerous effects on the victim.

Moreover, it disturbs the peace of mind of a person. Many people are known to experience depression after they are cyberbullied. In addition, they indulge in self-harm. All the derogatory comments made about them makes them feel inferior.

It also results in a lot of insecurities and complexes. The victim which suffers cyberbullying in the form of harassing starts having self-doubt. When someone points at your insecurities, they only tend to enhance. Similarly, the victims worry and lose their inner peace.

Other than that, cyberbullying also tarnishes the image of a person. It hampers their reputation with the false rumors spread about them. Everything on social media spreads like wildfire. Moreover, people often question the credibility. Thus,  one false rumor destroys people’s lives.

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How to Prevent Cyber Bullying?

Cyberbullying prevention is the need of the hour. It needs to be monitored and put an end to. There are various ways to tackle cyberbullying. We can implement them at individual levels as well as authoritative levels.

Firstly, always teach your children to never share personal information online. For instance, if you list your home address or phone number there, it will make you a potential target of cyberbullying easily.

Secondly, avoid posting explicit photos of yourself online. Also, never discuss personal matters on social media. In other words, keep the information limited within your group of friends and family. Most importantly, never ever share your internet password and account details with anyone. Keep all this information to yourself alone. Be alert and do not click on mysterious links, they may be scams. In addition, teach your kids about cyberbullying and make them aware of what’s wrong and right.

In conclusion, awareness is the key to prevent online harassment. We should make the children aware from an early age so they are always cautious. Moreover, parents must monitor their children’s online activities and limit their usage. Most importantly, cyberbullying must be reported instantly without delay. This can prevent further incidents from taking place.

FAQs on Cyber Bullying

Q.1 Why is Cyberbullying dangerous?

A.1 Cyberbullying affects the mental peace of a person. It takes a toll on their mental health. Moreover, it tarnishes the reputation of an individual.

Q.2 How to prevent cyberbullying?

A.2 We may prevent cyberbullying by limiting the information we share online. In addition, we must make children aware of the forms of cyberbullying and its consequences.

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Teacher Tips: How to Discuss Cyberbullying in a Safe Environment

Heng Yan Lin

Within the past two years, we have seen sharp demand for virtual learning as the world grapples with the pandemic. The increase in screen time both during and after school hours has exacerbated a growing mental health crisis and cases of cyberbullying among teenagers.

Cyberspace is a convenient place for students to vent their feelings, release their stresses and get into debates as it provides them with anonymity and an accompanying false sense of security. Then there is the fact that policing cyberspace for hate speech, name-calling, harassment, doxing, impersonation, and more is virtually impossible on certain online platforms.

Under the direction of the Ministry of Education in Singapore, local schools are tasked to address this growing problem. Teachers who are the first line of contact for the students may be called upon to discuss cyberbullying issues with the class. Getting students to discuss mental health topics openly can be challenging, especially when valid concerns exist. For instance, students may be worried that they will attract unnecessary and negative attention from others or feel the class is not a safe environment to talk about such issues. In addition, mental health talks can be dry and boring for some.

Discussing Cyberbullying

In this blog, you will find 4 simple activities using ClassPoint that you can use in class to fully engage your students in conversation about cyberbullying.

Survey the Class

It is always helpful to survey the class to understand how much students know about cyberbullying. This will provide a good opening and help you determine the pace of the lesson. Use a Multiple Choice activity that allows them to choose one of the following answers. Do make sure to qualify what ‘good understanding’ means. For example, you could say that having a good understanding of the subject means that you know when cyberbullying is taking place and what you can do to stop it.

For these exercises, I used ClassPoint’s interactive PowerPoint quiz questions to conduct these in-class activities. With ClassPoint, you can add the questions into your already-made PowerPoint and have students answer the questions using their devices live, during class. If you don’t use Microsoft PowerPoint or ClassPoint, you can audibly ask your students these questions, use a different tool, or use a pen and paper.

Invite Participation

Begin with some neutral activities that would avoid making anyone feel vulnerable while participating. A neutral activity, for example, would be to ask the students the question above. Note that the question has been intentionally phrased as “that you know or heard of ” instead of “ that you have received ” as this depersonalizes the question and creates a sense of safety.

Using ClassPoint’s Short Answer tool actually allows you to hide students’ names. Answering with hidden identities can encourage participation and enables students to construct knowledge collectively. Deepen the discussion in class by leveraging on students’ responses; start a spontaneous discussion about why a certain statement is perceived as a cyberbullying message.

Many people are not always aware of what is considered cyberbullying or that there are five to eleven types of cyberbullying behaviors. Instead of simply telling them about it, why not make it fun and have a quiz? ClassPoint’s Slide Drawing feature allows them to circle or highlight their answers which can then be shared with the class.

If students don’t have devices, again this can be done on the worksheet, or you can write a list of behaviors on your whiteboard before class and have students circle their answers as a class.

Teaching students to develop perspective-talking skills is important as it can help them to develop empathy for the victims. This is done by moving them from the cognitive domain to the emotional domain through open-ended questions about feelings.

In the cyberbullying lesson, you can use Word Cloud to ask them the following question: 

Using their answers, you can easily transit into a lesson or discussion about how victims suffer from negative feelings that if left unchecked, will make them more vulnerable to developing certain unhealthy thoughts and behaviors. When prolonged, this puts them at a higher risk of developing mental health issues.

Research has found that cyberbullies sometimes lack the awareness that they are hurting someone by something they said. For example, some name-calling language might be something that the bully is accustomed to and grew up with and therefore does not see anything wrong in saying it to a stranger in an online game chat. 

However, the person who receives this may be hurt by it because he/she may happen to be struggling with low self-image and low self-esteem. Through further dialogue, you would want to draw their attention to how certain messages and behaviors (cite examples from Activity 2) can be perceived as hurtful and offensive.

Finding Out More

Mental health lessons are good opportunities for you to identify students who may be in need of help. This can be done via a Multiple Choice Activity where carefully curated questions are posed to the class without a need to publish the answer.  Below is a sample of one question that you can ask:

Discussing cyberbullying is important for students, teachers, and schools as education continues to adopt technology and as young students face the repercussions including their mental health and self-esteem when using the internet.

I hope you have seen how these interactive and engaging questions can uncomplicate the subject matter and allow you to navigate any mental health topic with ease. And by using ClassPoint, you can directly engage with every single student during your lesson and help ease into vulnerable discussions with anonymous Q&As. Learn more about using ClassPoint here.

Remember that the key is to create a safe and comfortable online environment by ensuring that students’ identities and stories are not exposed, whilst providing them with a space to seek help and ask questions.

About Heng Yan Lin

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10 Bullying Scenarios to Get Kids Talking

Bullying is a pervasive problem that we want to help kids to be equipped to handle. Bullying can hurt kids physically, emotionally, and academically. This article proposes 10 bullying scenarios to help kids collaboratively and proactively prevent and navigate real-life situations. It also includes a resource for adults, who are often not present when bullying occurs. The 14 Warning Signs of Bullying Resource is designed to help adults, including teachers and caregivers, recognize and respond to the warning signs of bullying.

What is Bullying?

Bullying is the act of seeking to harm, intimidate, or coerce someone, who is often perceived as vulnerable. According to stopbullying.gov , bullying is “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.” Bullying means that a person is intentionally causing pain to another person, whether physically, emotionally, or electronically.

Bullying may be verbal, physical, or social.

Bullying affects younger children but the problem can worsen for older children. As their social worlds become more complex and interconnected online and offline, kids will inevitably encounter bullying in the real world and in the virtual one. They will need to respond to situations in which they recognize or are affected by bullying.

The Dangers of Bullying

Bullying can threaten kids’ physical and emotional safety and can impede their ability to learn. The effects of bullying include stress, anxiety, depression, and humiliation. The result of bullying can be serious mental health problems. When kids are anxious, fearful, and depressed, they also suffer cognitively. This means that they cannot focus or achieve academically and socially at school.

Bullying has terrible effects on all those involved, including the target of bullying behavior, the person exhibiting bullying behaviors, and bystanders. It is critical that children and adults know ways to recognize bullying and strategies and skills to help stop it. It is helpful to have early conversations about bullying and to give children and adults tools to identify bullying before they encounter it.

Bullying Scenarios

Preparing to manage experiences before they occur will allow kids to better manage them in real time. Early conversations about bullying can help prepare students for when they encounter bullying situations.

Hypothetical bullying scenarios are an excellent tool for presenting real-life examples that students may not anticipate without the heightened emotions that students may experience in real social settings. Scenarios allow kids time to think clearly on the issues presented while they collaborate with peers. In group  discussions, ask kids to imagine themselves in the following bullying situations and describe what they would do.

A new student started at your school this week, and he is having trouble fitting in. Some of your friends have been laughing behind his back. What would you do?

Turned Tables

You receive an email telling an embarrassing story about another student who has often been mean to you. You know your friends would think it’s funny. What would you do?

Fighting Chance

Someone shoves you and wants to fight you. You want to stick up for yourself, but you don’t want to get into a fight. What would you do?

Unwelcome Invitation

Everyone is afraid of three mean kids at your school. You’re afraid, too. One day they ask you to hang out with them. What would you do?

Forward Faux Pas

You sent a mean text about a kid who bullies to a friend, and your friend forwarded it to others. It eventually got back to the kid. What would you do?

On Your Own

You report bullying to your teacher, but the teacher doesn’t believe you. What would you do?

You hear that someone you thought was a friend has been spreading a cruel and untrue rumor about you. What would you do?

You’re invited to a party, but your friend isn’t. At the party, some of the kids make jokes about your friend and laugh at him. What would you do?

You’re shy, and sometimes you get teased for it. You have to admit, it would be nice to have more friends. What would you do?

Recognizing Bullying

Research shows that quick and consistent adult responses to bullying sends the message that it is not acceptable and can stop bullying behavior over time. Strategies involving adults, including caregivers, teachers, administrators, can help kids in several ways. Prevention strategies, efforts to create a safe environment, and leading transparent conversations about bullying are effective.

Because of the terrible effects of bullying, teachers must also be able to recognize and respond to signs of bullying involving students at school. Only 20 to 30 percent of students who are bullied notify adults (Ttofi et al, 2011) and most bullying occurs when adults are not present. It’s crucial to know the warning signs.

The effects of bullying are far-reaching and affect kids in schools everywhere. Bullying scenarios can help kids recognize and respond to bullying when they encounter it in the real world or the virtual world. And adults, including caregivers and teachers, can be aware of more subtle warning signs of bullying so that they can support kids and prevent bullying for everyone’s benefit.

Ttofi, M. M., Farrington, D. P., Lösel, F., & Loeber, R. (2011). The predictive efficiency of school bullying versus later offending: a systematic/meta-analytic review of longitudinal studies. Criminal behaviour and mental health : CBMH, 21(2), 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbm.808

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Cyberbullying Lesson Plan: Digital Literacy

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the  Cyberbullying Lesson Plan . 

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Cyberbullying , and supports the standard of identifying and describing unsafe actions online. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Display this image from the movie (time code: 0:53): 

• How do you think this text makes Moby feel?
• Do you think this is cyberbullying? Why or why not? 

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read aloud the description on the Cyberbullying topic page .
• Play the Movie , pausing to check for understanding.
• Assign Related Reading . Have students read one of the following articles: “Graphs, Stats, and Numbers” or “Laws and Customs”. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign the Cyberbullying Challenge and Quiz , prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND  

Students express what they learned about cyberbullying while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• Make-a-Movie : Produce a PSA about the issue of cyberbullying that answers this question: What are different strategies to deal with cyberbullies safely?
• Make-a-Map : Make a concept map identifying different strategies to solve the problem of cyberbullying.
• Creative Coding : Code a conversation where a character explains how to respond to a cyberbullying situation. 
• Primary Source Activity : Read the article and cite details to answer the questions.

More to Explore

Digital Citizenship Resources: Continue to build understanding around digital citizenship with more BrainPOP  BrainPOP’s topics, games, and teacher resources.

Social-Emotional Learning Collection : Continue to build understanding around empathy and respect with BrainPOP’s six-week SEL curriculum that addresses the five CASEL competencies.

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview : Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students  to stop, think, and express ideas.  
• Learning Activities Modifications : Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support : Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

• BrainPOP Jr. (K-3)
• BrainPOP ELL
• BrainPOP Science
• BrainPOP Español
• BrainPOP Français
• Set Up Accounts
• Single Sign-on
• Manage Subscription
• Quick Tours
• About BrainPOP

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Trademarks & Copyrights

Unit 2: Creating a Bully Free Environment Within Your School

Unit 2: The Role of Others

What are some of the emotions experienced by victims of cyberbullying? What are some commonalities they have and warning signs they show (if any)?

Unit 2 Objectives:

1. Students will be able to relate to the experiences endured by victims of cyberbullying.

2. Students will be able to recognize the chain reaction of events caused by cyberbullying.

3. Students will be able to analyze the experiences of various individuals in real life cyberbullying cases and hypothetical scenarios.

What Needs to be Completed by the End of Unit 2:

1. Read the introductory text and watch the PBS video about victims and their families.

2. Read the NY Times Article about parents struggling with the issue. Click here

3. Research two newspaper articles about two additional victims of cyberbullying and complete the corresponding questions.

4. Work within groups to read various scenarios related to cyberbullying and and answer a set of questions pertaining to each scenario.

Victims of Cyberbullying

Risk factors.

Cyberbullying is everywhere, and it really hurts. It makes you want to crawl in a hole and just stay there. It makes you feel like you are the only one and no one is out there to help you; no one can help you. - Shelby Anderson, Student, Springbank Middle School

To those people who say that it is nothing, that it is not a big deal and that it is teenagers being dramatic, that is completely wrong. It affects our lives enormously. The outcome of this harassment can lead to poor performance at school, low self-esteem and serious emotional consequences, including depression and suicide, so it is much more than just teenagers being dramatic. - Mariel Calvo, Student, Springback Middle School

Every day all across the nation, people are being cyberbullied in the comfort of their own homes. Often students who are being bullied at school go home with hopes of escaping, only to find that when they get on the Internet, the bullying continues. Like traditional bullying, much of cyberbullying is grounded in discrimination, ignorance and a lack of respect for the rights of others. People who belong to minority groups or who are perceived as different are especially vulnerable, such as those who have a disability, are overweight, are members of ethnic minority groups, or, in particular, those who identify as – or are perceived to be – lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. It is important to remember that cyberbullying is not limited to just those who are perceived as different. Because of the anonymity associated with it, cyberbullies also tend to victimize those that they have had previous confrontations with or peers that they simply dislike.

Generally, children who are bullied have one or more of the following risk factors:

• Are perceived as different from their peers, such as being overweight or underweight, wearing different clothing, being new to a school, or being unable to afford what kids consider “cool”
• Are perceived as weak or unable to defend themselves
• Are depressed, anxious, or have low self esteem
• Are less popular than others and have few friends
• Do not get along well with others, seen as annoying or provoking, or antagonize others for attention

Warning Signs

There are many warning signs that may indicate that someone is affected by bullying—either being bullied or bullying others. Recognizing the warning signs is an important first step in taking action against bullying. Not all children who are bullied or are bullying others ask for help.

There isn’t much difference between cyberbullying and the effects of traditional bullying. Both cause significant emotional and psychological distress. In fact, just like any other victim of bullying, cyberbullied kids experience anxiety, fear, depression and low self-esteem. It is important to remember that cyberbullying has a CHAIN REACTION. Not only does the victim feel distress but the families of those bullied do as well!

But targets of cyberbullying also suffer from some unique consequences and negative feelings. Here are some of the common feelings cyberbullied teens and tweens often experience:

Feel overwhelmed.

Being targeted by cyberbullies can feel crushing especially if a lot of kids are participating in the bullying. Sometimes the stress of dealing with cyberbullying can cause kids to feel like the situation is more than they can handle.

Feel vulnerable and powerless.

Victims of cyberbullying often find it difficult to feel safe. Typically, this is because the bullying can invade their home through a computer or cell phone at any time of day. No longer do they have a place where they can escape. To a victim, it feels like the bullying is everywhere. Additionally, because the bullies can remain anonymous, this can escalate feelings of fear. Kids who are targeted have no idea who is inflicting the pain.

Feel exposed and humiliated.

Because cyberbullying occurs in cyberspace, the bullying often feels permanent. Kids know that once something is out there, it will always be out there. Additionally, when cyberbullying occurs the nasty messages or texts can be shared with multitudes of people. The sheer volume of people that know about the bullying can lead to intense feelings of humiliation.

Feel dissatisfied with who they are.

Cyberbullying often attacks victims where they are most vulnerable. As a result, targets of cyberbullying often begin to doubt their worth and value and no longer feel worthy. They may respond to these feelings by harming themselves in some way. For instance, if a girl is called fat, she may begin a crash diet with the belief that if she alters how she looks then the bullying will stop.

Feel angry and vengeful.

Sometimes victims of cyberbullying will get angry about what is happening to them. As a result, they will try to take revenge on the bully or bullies and engage in retaliation.

Feel disinterested in life.

When cyberbullying is ongoing, the victims often begin to relate to the world around them differently than others. For many, life can feel hopeless and meaningless. They begin to lose interest in things they once enjoyed and spend less and less time interacting with family and friends. And in some cases depression can set in.

Feel alone and isolated.

Cyberbullying often leads to teens being excluded and ostracized at school, which is particularly painful for teens because friends are crucial at this age. When kids don’t have friends, this can lead to more bullying.

Additionally, when cyberbullying occurs, most people recommend shutting off the computer or turning off the cell phone. But, for teens this often means cutting off communication with their world. Their phones and their computers are one of the most important ways they communicate with others. If that option for communication is removed they can feel secluded and cut off from their world.

Feel disinterested in school.

Cyberbullying victims often have much higher rates of absenteeism at school than non-bullied kids. They often skip school to avoid facing the kids bullying them or because they are embarrassed and humiliated by the messages that were shared. Their grades suffer too because they find it difficult to concentrate or study because of the anxiety and stress that the bullying causes. And in some cases, kids will either drop out of school or lose interest in continuing their education after high school.

Feel anxious and depressed.

Victims of cyberbullying often succumb to anxiety, depression and other stress-related conditions. This occurs primarily because cyberbullying erodes their self-confidence and self-esteem.

When kids are cyberbullied they often experience headaches, stomachaches or other physical ailments. The stress of bullying can also cause stress-related conditions like stomach ulcers and skin conditions. Also, kids who are cyberbullied may experience changes in eating habits like skipping meals or binge eating. And their sleep patterns may be impacted. They may suffer from insomnia, sleep more than usual or experience nightmares.

Feel suicidal.

Cyberbullying increases the risk of suicide. Kids that are constantly tormented by peers through text messages, instant messaging, social media and other outlets, often begin to feel hopeless. They may even begin to feel like the only way to escape the pain is through suicide. As a result, they may begin to fantasize about ending their life in order to escape their tormentors.

PBS Frontline: Digital Nation Video

Now please watch the following video clip from Frontline: Digital Nation about one boy's tragedy. PBS Frontline: Digital Nation

Newspaper Article Assignment

First read the NY Times Article about parents struggling to deal with cyberbullying. You can access the article here: NY Times Article

After reading the article, please search for two additional articles about victims of cyberbullying.Once you have read two articles, please answer the following questions in a Microsoft Word document. Save your Microsoft Word document and attach it next to your name here for others to view. Please answer the following questions about EACH article.

Article 1 Title:

Article Title:

Source (Online or print)ie: NY Times Online:

Website URL:

1) How was this victim bullied? Tell the story behind the bullying.

2) What warning signs (if any) did the victim show?

3) What were some of the effects of the harassment on the victim?

4) Did the victim report the bullying to anyone? If so, what did they do? If they didn’t report it, why didn’t they?

5) What ended up happening to the victim and the bully?

6) Please list anything else you feel to be important or pertinent to share about this individuals story.

Article 2 Title:

Source (Online or print) ie: NY Times Online:

• Once you have answered these questions, keep in mind what lessons can be learned from these stories! This will be useful to you later on in the mini course!!***

Within groups you will be assigned one or more of the following cyberbullying scenarios. Please read through your assigned scenario and then answer the following questions:

1) Who are the key players in this bullying scenario? What might have motivated this bully/these bullies to do what they did?

2) What role does technology play in this bullying scenario?

3) What other participants helped to facilitate this bullying? How?

4) What would you do if you heard this was happening to someone at your school?

5) How do you think this bullying may have affected the life of the student being bullied?

6) Do you think that the school could do anything to punish the bullies in this case? Why or why not?

Scenario #1:

In response to a dare, Cynthia secretly uses her phone to record video of Angela changing in the girls’ locker room after gym class.She posts the video to YouTube, adds a nasty comment about Angela, and sends the link to all of her friends, encouraging them to post similar anonymous comments.

Scenario #2:

Anthony’s girlfriend Melanie breaks up with him and begins dating his friend, John. Anthony begins sending daily text messages to both John and Melanie, calling Melanie nasty names and John a “traitor.” He also updates his own Facebook status everyday to reflect these same comments.

Scenario #3:

Brianna and her friend Jasmine are gossiping about another friend, Alicia, while instant messaging one night. Jasmine is angry with Alicia because of an argument they had earlier in the day, and airs her anger to Brianna, ranting about Alicia and calling her a variety of names. The next morning, Brianna has spread printouts of the instant message conversation all over the school and everyone including Alicia is reading the comments that Jasmine made in her private online conversation with Brianna.

Scenario #4:

William goes to the principal to turn in another boy, Allan, who has been dealing drugs in the school’s parking lot. Allan finds out that William has turned him in and sends him an email from his computer at home that night, threatening to physically harm him if he doesn’t go back to the principal and tell him that it was just a joke.

Scenario #5:

Christopher and Brian are a couple who decides to come out by attending the junior prom together. Over the weekend, a group of students create a “hate page” on Facebook with pictures of the two boys dancing at prom and a series of anti gay comments. By Monday morning, about 50 students have become “fans” of the page and have posted derogatory comments about the Christopher and Brian.

Scenario #6:

Ashley and Zach have been friends for a long time, but when Ashley tries to pursue a romantic relationship with Zach, he turns her down. As revenge, Ashley creates an online persona named “Christy” who frequents the forums and chatrooms that Zach enjoys. “Christy” makes a connection with Zach by claiming to share his interest in fantasy and science fiction literature and when it’s clear that Zach develops a crush on “Christy,” she then proceeds to insult Zach and make fun of him, using the personal information that Ashley knows about him to taunt him and make him feel bad about himself.

• AGAIN BE THINKING ABOUT COMMONALITIES YOU SEE THROUGHOUT, LESSONS YOU CAN TAKE AWAY, THIS WILL GUIDE YOUR LEARNING FOR THE REST OF THE COURSE!!** :) :) :)

ETAP 623 Fall 2013 - Wilde

Portfolio Page

Course Home: Creating a Bully Free Environment Within Your School

Unit 1: Introduction to Cyberbullying

Unit 3: The Role of Others

Unit 4: Creating a Bully Free Environment Within Your School

References and Resources

StopBullying.org

Cyberbullying Research Center

National Crime Prevention Council

Common Sense Media: Cyberbullying

Do Something-Cyberbullying

PBS Frontline: Digital Nation

NY Times Article

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• Digital Education Strategies

Cyberbullying Lesson Plans: Teaching Your Students About Cyberbullying

• April 2, 2019
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Just because it’s not happening in your classroom, that doesn’t mean bullying isn’t happening right under your nose. With technology making retail, information, and other conveniences easily accessible through a smartphone or any access to the internet, the same applies to communication with others. Unfortunately, some students and other children, teens, and even adults abuse this communication tool to bully others online, sometimes with the advantage of anonymity on their side.

As a teacher, you may have your own lesson plans or measures against bullying in the classrooms. Unfortunately, most teachers that teach against bullying have outdated ideas on the subject that what they tell their students may not apply to the way bullying is practiced today. While emotional, verbal, and physical bullying still exists in the classroom, the effects of cyberbullying are just as bad and degrading on students’ physical well-being, mental health, and overall self-esteem.

Lesson Summary

This lesson plan on cyberbullying focuses on two aspects: the bullied and the bully. For the first part, we talk about cyberbullying in general, how to spot if you’re being bullied, what to do, and measures your students can take against cyberbullying.

In the second part, we discuss what accounts as cyberbullying, when to know when your student is stepping over the line, and how to avoid cyberbullying others. This lesson plan is applicable to students of all ages, though some changes may be needed to adjust to your students’ level of maturity and your own teaching style.

Learning Objectives

This is a cyberbullying resource meant to help teachers learn about cyberbullying and how to effectively teach their students about avoiding being a bully as well as knowing what to do should they face a cyberbully of their own. After educating your students in cyberbullying, your students should be able to:

• Understand the characteristics of cyberbullying.
• Recognize when they are being cyberbullied by their classmates.
• Perform the appropriate action against cyberbullies.
• Avoid cyberbullying their classmates.

Background on Cyberbullying

Before the internet became a ubiquitous part of students’ lives, bullies from both male and female students have existed for a long time. From the stereotypical jocks who bully the less physically fit students, to the mean girls who look down on everyone outside their clique, bullies exist for a number of reasons, both having to do with internal and external factors of the bullies themselves.

For bullying to occur, there has to be habitual and repeated actions against the victim. For example, let’s take two students, Alex and Billy. If Alex bumps into Billy along a crowded hallway and Billy angrily pushes Alex so hard that Alex falls to the floor, then this isn’t bullying. Billy may have difficulty controlling his temper and reacting to negative situations and may get into trouble for this if Alex is physically injured or if Billy refuses to apologize, but the fact that Billy wouldn’t actively seek out Alex to hurt him another time makes this an example of non-bullying.

But if Billy decides to tease, shove, and threaten Alex with physical violence if Alex doesn’t give him money, then this is a form of bullying. Based on US legislation, regardless of which state the two live in, if Alex reports Billy to school authorities and Billy is found guilty of bullying, the school can use state legislation to punish Billy – often this leads to suspending kids like him. In worst cases, a bully may even be forced to leave the school permanently.

Legislation on Bullying

As of 2019, all 50 states have anti-bullying legislation. Georgia was the first state to create laws against school and workplace bullying in 1999, while Montana was the last state to implement laws in 2015. While all the laws generally ban bullying from schools, some legislations are stricter than others.

New Jersey currently has the strictest bullying legislation in the country, as every case of bullying (from simple teasing to severe physical and emotional bullying) must be reported to the state authorities. These authorities grades every school in the state based on their anti-bullying policies, the number of bullying incidents that have occurred in the school, and how the school plans to effectively deal with each bullying case. All school faculty are required to treat every reported bullying case seriously, and bullies may be suspended or even expelled for cases ranging from minor to major.

Cyberbullying

Also known as online bullying and cyber harassment, cyberbullying takes the verbal and emotional bullying and makes it easier for the bully to reach out to their victim because of the ease of communication provided by the internet. As such, it is arguably more dangerous as cyberbullying has the effects of traditional bullying but sometimes without the witnesses or jurisdiction provided by a student’s home or school.

If Alex were bullied in school, someone would be bound to see it or news would eventually make its way to a faculty member or school administrator. If someone were to bully Alex outside his home or inside by one of his siblings, all Alex would have to do is call for a parent who will diffuse the situation and protect Alex from the trauma of bullying.

In cyberbullying, however, the forms of communication make it difficult for Alex to seek help. If someone sends him a hateful message, he may feel like his parents are powerless to stop it as they can’t do anything about it. Since this is outside of school hours, he may also believe that the school has no power to do anything said to him online. It’s even possible that Alex’s bullies use anonymous accounts.

Effects of Cyberbullying

Just because it’s happening online doesn’t mean it won’t have any effect on a student. In fact, it can have long-term consequences on the victim, including a lower self-esteem, depression, suicidal tendencies, and emotional damage.

If Alex faces frequent cyberbullying, you may find that his demeanor at home and school can change drastically. He becomes more scared, frustrated, angry, and depressed, and because this is happening online, he might think he has no outlet to deal with his bully. Unlike a bully at school who can be reported and who Alex doesn’t have to see outside of school hours, Alex can see the taunts of a cyberbully each time he opens his social media accounts.

In worst cases, a victim of bullying may be driven to commit suicide. In 2012, a 15-year old girl named Amanda Todd was driven to kill herself due to the cyberbullying. Her bully followed her for years, sending compromising photos of her to everyone in her school and blackmailing her. Eventually, Todd was driven to kill herself by hanging after suffering anxiety, depression, and panic disorders. Prior to her suicide, she practiced self-mutilation and tried to commit suicide once by drinking bleach, but was rescued.

At this point, you’ll want your students to understand the severity of cyberbullying. Those who are experiencing cyberbullying need to understand that this isn’t just something they can continue to tolerate. On the other hand, those that are aware that they bully others need to understand how far the effects of their bullying can go.

For the Bullied Students

Why Do Cyberbullies Bully?

Your lesson plan must start by answering with the “why?” portion, especially if you’re teaching younger students. Often, we’re told that people are supposed to be nice to each other, so you have to explain why some students in their school (or even in your very classroom) are being excessively mean.

You have the free reigns of providing students with an answer you see fit. However, you must never answer in such a way that bullying is justified. If the victim is a girl and the bully is a boy, you can’t just dismiss the boy’s action and say “boys will be boys.” It’s time to end the mindset that a boy’s actions towards a girl should be accepted because “they secretly like her” or because he’s much rowdier than girls are.

In general, bullies exist because of an imbalance of social or physical power, among other factors. A “jock” may have more physical strength, and his act of physically harming a weaker student asserts his dominance over students who relate more with the victim that the jock’s own peers.

One way of explaining bullies is using animal analogies. If you look at other animals like monkeys, you can see that there is a social hierarchy there. Monkeys fight for power or position, and for a monkey to assert their dominance, they have to appear more physically and verbally more intimidating than others around him.

Some people seem to portray this behavior as well, even though it’s not necessary in a civilized community. By asserting their dominance through their actions, they’re getting the message that they’re someone you shouldn’t mess with. However, there are some people they cannot bully to assert their dominance – such as faculty, staff, and people within their circles – so to assert their dominance and avoid looking insecure, they find someone significantly weaker in terms of physical or social status.

Cyberbullying is just a byproduct of bullying throughout the years. Why stop in the playground when the internet now provides easy communication to anyone? Because of this, bullies can now bully even more efficiently any time of the day. They may even bully a victim anonymously, thus avoiding the consequences of getting caught all the while degrading their victim’s will.

Recognizing Cyberbullying Tactics            

Your students can find cyberbullying through texting, social media, gaming, or any virtual place where communication is possible. It’s not always limited to the messages sent to your students, but also other people who send or write about nasty comments online about your student.

There are times when your student may have a friend or acquaintance with just mean-spirited humor, but there’s a fine line between joking around and cyberbullying. Make sure your student watches out for the following tactics and some examples:

• When the bully post comments or rumors that are hurtful or embarrassing (e.g. Billy tells everyone that Alex can’t afford to study because he’s too poor)
• Telling someone to kill themselves (Billy tells Alex he is a waste of space and should just die)
• Posting mean pictures or videos (Billy uploads a photoshopped photo of Alex on a fat naked man’s body)
• Posting hateful names or content discriminating a person’s identity (Billy making fun of Alex for being ugly)
• Creating a webpage dedicated to mocking someone
• Leaking a person’s private information available to the public (Billy gives away Alex’s phone number, credit card numbers, etc.)
• Sharing compromising photos of any person (Billy sends a nude photo of his ex-girlfriend)

These are not the only ways cyberbullying happens; you’d be surprised how creative bullies can get when they want to bully their targets.

What Happens When You’re Cyberbullied?

Show your students the effects of keeping silent. If you’re exposed to cyberbullying for a long time and nothing is done to stop the bully, you may not realize it, but your mind reacts to the bullying accordingly, slowly changing your personality.

• A student may be emotionally distraught after accessing the internet. They then project their negative emotions towards the people around them.
• They suddenly become more secretive with their friends and families about what they do online. They may also start withdrawing from social gatherings in school or within the family.
• Their distraction may cause them to perform poorly in school.
• When they get texts or messages, they tend to get nervous (Is it Billy? Is it my mom?)

What Children Need to Know

While social media is neither a part of the school or the home, a child’s well-being is the responsibility of both parents and the school. A child needs to understand that their parents and school authorities have the power to stop the bullying even if it is virtual.

We’re in an age where we’ve become so dependent on technology that you can’t tell your students to just avoid social media to stay away from the bullies. Don’t make your student believe they have to adjust and the bully gets away scot-free and continues to stay on social media.

The first thing your students have to understand is that bullying is not their fault. The fact that they have a bully says more about the bully than the student. Let them know that talking to a teacher or parent is the first and most responsible thing they can do.

While lesson plans on cyberbullying may be a bit outdated, the legislation I mentioned means that schools have provisions on cyberbullying and handling it. Some stricter schools may even get the help of local authorities to track down anonymous bullies.

A bullied student must also learn how to handle the bully or bullies. It may seem like a good idea to fight back, but what your child should do is keep a record of these messages or posts which can be used as evidence against the bully.

For the Bullies

On the other side of the bullying resource is for students who are bullies, whether they know it or not. For some, teasing and mean jokes may be harmless fun. But what is fun for them may already be distressing for the person who becomes the victim.

Peer Pressure

It’s actually possible that your student has become the bully, whether they know it or not. Herd mentality is very prevalent in schools, which is people, even if they know they are doing something wrong, may continue to act that way because they’re influenced by the way others thing and are pressured to act the same way.

Let’s say that Billy continues to bully Alex. He makes snide jokes about Alex in class, some of which make the rest of the students laugh. Billy continues to bully Alex online, publicly and for everyone to see. Chuckie is a classmate who begins to see that people are partaking in ridiculing Alex. So, he thinks there’s no harm in being in the joke and joins in. Chuckie thinks this is all just fun and games, when really, he’s actually become a bully himself.

Recognizing You Are the Bully

We all think we’re the heroes of our own stories, so it’s difficult for some people to accept that they are the bully. Encourage your students that it’s never too late to do the right thing, and if a student realizes that they’ve committed cyberbullying, the best thing they can do is apologize and actively make sure they never do it again.

This is the best case scenario. However, in more severe cases, there are some bullies who are actively aware that what they are doing is wrong but they continue to bully their classmate. In some cases, these children are actually a product of their own problems at home and at school. Because they cannot project their anger at the root cause, they’ve decided to take it out on their weaker classmates. Talking to a counselor can help them understand whether or not that have unresolved anger issues or need an outlet to divert their strong negative emotions.

In other cases, a child may bully others as a result of entitlement. In such case, you may need the help of their parents to enforce rules. Restricting their social media use or internet use only for academic purposes can help them understand how they need to be responsible when communicating with others online.

In all cases, though, never let a bully’s actions go unpunished. Your student may be a genius, a gifted athlete, or one of the best students you know, but never let that be the reason that they get away scot-free. Otherwise, it will be hard for them to understand the consequences of their actions as they’re given a pass for their negative traits.

Tips for Teachers

• Teaching these lessons to your students is pointless if they think you are unwelcoming or unwilling to help them should they ever come to you for help. Make a habit to stress that you are always willing to lend an ear and will act appropriately when they report cyberbullying.
• Sometimes, you may need to be the one who approaches your student and ask what is wrong. Often, they may not tell you what is bothering them. Do not force them to tell you, but at the same time, don’t give up when you know something is wrong. Allow them to feel safe in your presence; chances are, they’ll eventually admit what is really bothering them.
• In serious cases, be ready to contact your student’s parents or guardians. If you feel like they’re likely to do something drastic to stop the bullying inform school authorities immediately.

Cyberbullying is a serious form of bullying that makes your students feel unsafe, whether at home or in school. Teach your students the right way to deal with cyberbullying, and remind those guilty of cyberbullying that their actions can drastically harm their classmates and schoolmates in the long run.

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Practicing Scenarios: What Should Amy Say?

In this activity, activity overview, template and class instructions, more storyboard that activities.

• This Activity is Part of Many Teacher Guides

Use this lesson plan with your class!

At times, students will be a bystander to someone being bullied. They will be faced with the decision to either stand by and watch or step up and stop it. We do not want our students to accept that bullying is a norm, none of their business, or think, "At least it’s not me." We want them to step up to bullying and help their peers.

In this activity, students will practice stepping up to bullying. The provided example will show two types of bullying, cyberbullying and social bullying. The students will show how they can step up as Amy, our main character, in the scenarios . Please feel free to adjust the examples to fit your needs. The goal of this activity is to give students the confidence to stand up in tough situations and help them practice possible responses.

(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)

Student Instructions

You’ll be stepping up to bullying with Amy while creating storyboards!

• Click "Start Assignment".
• Read the bullying scenarios that have been done for you.
• Have Amy step up and stop the bullying in the next cells.
• In the third column, create what the reaction should be from Amy’s peer.

Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 6-12

Difficulty Level 2 (Reinforcing / Developing)

Type of Assignment Individual

Type of Activity: School Bullying

(You can also create your own on Quick Rubric .)

Anti Bullying Activities

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Cyberbullying: Everything You Need to Know

• Cyberbullying
• How to Respond

Cyberbullying is the act of intentionally and consistently mistreating or harassing someone through the use of electronic devices or other forms of electronic communication (like social media platforms).

Because cyberbullying mainly affects children and adolescents, many brush it off as a part of growing up. However, cyberbullying can have dire mental and emotional consequences if left unaddressed.

This article discusses cyberbullying, its adverse effects, and what can be done about it.

FangXiaNuo / Getty Images

Cyberbullying Statistics and State Laws

The rise of digital communication methods has paved the way for a new type of bullying to form, one that takes place outside of the schoolyard. Cyberbullying follows kids home, making it much more difficult to ignore or cope.

Statistics 

As many as 15% of young people between 12 and 18 have been cyberbullied at some point. However, over 25% of children between 13 and 15 were cyberbullied in one year alone.

About 6.2% of people admitted that they’ve engaged in cyberbullying at some point in the last year. The age at which a person is most likely to cyberbully one of their peers is 13.

Those subject to online bullying are twice as likely to self-harm or attempt suicide . The percentage is much higher in young people who identify as LGBTQ, at 56%.

Cyberbullying by Sex and Sexual Orientation

Cyberbullying statistics differ among various groups, including:

• Girls and boys reported similar numbers when asked if they have been cyberbullied, at 23.7% and 21.9%, respectively.
• LGBTQ adolescents report cyberbullying at higher rates, at 31.7%. Up to 56% of young people who identify as LGBTQ have experienced cyberbullying.
• Transgender teens were the most likely to be cyberbullied, at a significantly high rate of 35.4%.

State Laws 

The laws surrounding cyberbullying vary from state to state. However, all 50 states have developed and implemented specific policies or laws to protect children from being cyberbullied in and out of the classroom.

The laws were put into place so that students who are being cyberbullied at school can have access to support systems, and those who are being cyberbullied at home have a way to report the incidents.

Legal policies or programs developed to help stop cyberbullying include:

• Bullying prevention programs
• Cyberbullying education courses for teachers
• Procedures designed to investigate instances of cyberbullying
• Support systems for children who have been subject to cyberbullying 

Are There Federal Laws Against Cyberbullying?

There are no federal laws or policies that protect people from cyberbullying. However, federal involvement may occur if the bullying overlaps with harassment. Federal law will get involved if the bullying concerns a person’s race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, or religion.

Examples of Cyberbullying 

There are several types of bullying that can occur online, and they all look different.

Harassment can include comments, text messages, or threatening emails designed to make the cyberbullied person feel scared, embarrassed, or ashamed of themselves.

Other forms of harassment include:

• Using group chats as a way to gang up on one person
• Making derogatory comments about a person based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, or other characteristics
• Posting mean or untrue things on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, as a way to publicly hurt the person experiencing the cyberbullying  

Impersonation

A person may try to pretend to be the person they are cyberbullying to attempt to embarrass, shame, or hurt them publicly. Some examples of this include:

• Hacking into someone’s online profile and changing any part of it, whether it be a photo or their "About Me" portion, to something that is either harmful or inappropriate
• Catfishing, which is when a person creates a fake persona to trick someone into a relationship with them as a joke or for their own personal gain
• Making a fake profile using the screen name of their target to post inappropriate or rude remarks on other people’s pages

Other Examples

Not all forms of cyberbullying are the same, and cyberbullies use other tactics to ensure that their target feels as bad as possible. Some tactics include:

• Taking nude or otherwise degrading photos of a person without their consent
• Sharing or posting nude pictures with a wide audience to embarrass the person they are cyberbullying
• Sharing personal information about a person on a public website that could cause them to feel unsafe
• Physically bullying someone in school and getting someone else to record it so that it can be watched and passed around later
• Circulating rumors about a person

How to Know When a Joke Turns Into Cyberbullying

People may often try to downplay cyberbullying by saying it was just a joke. However, any incident that continues to make a person feel shame, hurt, or blatantly disrespected is not a joke and should be addressed. People who engage in cyberbullying tactics know that they’ve crossed these boundaries, from being playful to being harmful.

Effects and Consequences of Cyberbullying 

Research shows many negative effects of cyberbullying, some of which can lead to severe mental health issues. Cyberbullied people are twice as likely to experience suicidal thoughts, actions, or behaviors and engage in self-harm as those who are not.

Other negative health consequences of cyberbullying are:

• Stomach pain and digestive issues
• Sleep disturbances
• Difficulties with academics
• Violent behaviors
• High levels of stress
• Inability to feel safe
• Feelings of loneliness and isolation
• Feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness

If You’ve Been Cyberbullied 

Being on the receiving end of cyberbullying is hard to cope with. It can feel like you have nowhere to turn and no escape. However, some things can be done to help overcome cyberbullying experiences.

Advice for Preteens and Teenagers

The best thing you can do if you’re being cyberbullied is tell an adult you trust. It may be challenging to start the conversation because you may feel ashamed or embarrassed. However, if it is not addressed, it can get worse.

Other ways you can cope with cyberbullying include:

• Walk away : Walking away online involves ignoring the bullies, stepping back from your computer or phone, and finding something you enjoy doing to distract yourself from the bullying.
• Don’t retaliate : You may want to defend yourself at the time. But engaging with the bullies can make matters worse.
• Keep evidence : Save all copies of the cyberbullying, whether it be posts, texts, or emails, and keep them if the bullying escalates and you need to report them.
• Report : Social media sites take harassment seriously, and reporting them to site administrators may block the bully from using the site.
• Block : You can block your bully from contacting you on social media platforms and through text messages.

In some cases, therapy may be a good option to help cope with the aftermath of cyberbullying.

Advice for Parents

As a parent, watching your child experience cyberbullying can be difficult. To help in the right ways, you can:

• Offer support and comfort : Listening to your child explain what's happening can be helpful. If you've experienced bullying as a child, sharing that experience may provide some perspective on how it can be overcome and that the feelings don't last forever.
• Make sure they know they are not at fault : Whatever the bully uses to target your child can make them feel like something is wrong with them. Offer praise to your child for speaking up and reassure them that it's not their fault.
• Contact the school : Schools have policies to protect children from bullying, but to help, you have to inform school officials.
• Keep records : Ask your child for all the records of the bullying and keep a copy for yourself. This evidence will be helpful to have if the bullying escalates and further action needs to be taken.
• Try to get them help : In many cases, cyberbullying can lead to mental stress and sometimes mental health disorders. Getting your child a therapist gives them a safe place to work through their experience.

In the Workplace 

Although cyberbullying more often affects children and adolescents, it can also happen to adults in the workplace. If you are dealing with cyberbullying at your workplace, you can:

• Let your bully know how what they said affected you and that you expect it to stop.
• Keep copies of any harassment that goes on in the workplace.
• Report your cyberbully to your human resources (HR) department.
• Report your cyberbully to law enforcement if you are being threatened.
• Close off all personal communication pathways with your cyberbully.
• Maintain a professional attitude at work regardless of what is being said or done.
• Seek out support through friends, family, or professional help.

Effective Action Against Cyberbullying

If cyberbullying continues, actions will have to be taken to get it to stop, such as:

• Talking to a school official : Talking to someone at school may be difficult, but once you do, you may be grateful that you have some support. Schools have policies to address cyberbullying.
• Confide in parents or trusted friends : Discuss your experience with your parents or others you trust. Having support on your side will make you feel less alone.
• Report it on social media : Social media sites have strict rules on the types of interactions and content sharing allowed. Report your aggressor to the site to get them banned and eliminate their ability to contact you.
• Block the bully : Phones, computers, and social media platforms contain options to block correspondence from others. Use these blocking tools to help free yourself from cyberbullying.

Help Is Available

If you or someone you know are having suicidal thoughts, dial  988  to contact the  988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline  and connect with a trained counselor. To find mental health resources in your area, contact the  Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline  at  800-662-4357  for information.

Cyberbullying occurs over electronic communication methods like cell phones, computers, social media, and other online platforms. While anyone can be subject to cyberbullying, it is most likely to occur between the ages of 12 and 18.

Cyberbullying can be severe and lead to serious health issues, such as new or worsened mental health disorders, sleep issues, or thoughts of suicide or self-harm. There are laws to prevent cyberbullying, so it's essential to report it when it happens. Coping strategies include stepping away from electronics, blocking bullies, and getting.

Alhajji M, Bass S, Dai T. Cyberbullying, mental health, and violence in adolescents and associations with sex and race: data from the 2015 youth risk behavior survey . Glob Pediatr Health. 2019;6:2333794X19868887. doi:10.1177/2333794X19868887

Cyberbullying Research Center. Cyberbullying in 2021 by age, gender, sexual orientation, and race .

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: StopBullying.gov. Facts about bullying .

John A, Glendenning AC, Marchant A, et al. Self-harm, suicidal behaviours, and cyberbullying in children and young people: systematic review .  J Med Internet Res . 2018;20(4):e129. doi:10.2196/jmir.9044

Cyberbullying Research Center. Bullying, cyberbullying, and LGBTQ students .

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: StopBullying.gov. Laws, policies, and regulations .

Wolke D, Lee K, Guy A. Cyberbullying: a storm in a teacup? . Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017;26(8):899-908. doi:10.1007/s00787-017-0954-6

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: StopBullying.gov. Cyberbullying tactics .

Garett R, Lord LR, Young SD. Associations between social media and cyberbullying: a review of the literature . mHealth . 2016;2:46-46. doi:10.21037/mhealth.2016.12.01

Nemours Teens Health. Cyberbullying .

Nixon CL. Current perspectives: the impact of cyberbullying on adolescent health . Adolesc Health Med Ther. 2014;5:143-58. doi:10.2147/AHMT.S36456

Nemours Kids Health. Cyberbullying (for parents) .

By Angelica Bottaro Bottaro has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and an Advanced Diploma in Journalism. She is based in Canada.

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Teachers' Essential Guide to Cyberbullying Prevention

Topics:   Social & Emotional Learning Cyberbullying, Digital Drama & Hate Speech Digital Citizenship

What is cyberbullying? How common is it? And what can teachers do about it? Get advice and resources to support your students.

What is cyberbullying.

• What forms can cyberbullying take?

How common is cyberbullying?

How can i tell if a student is being cyberbullied, when and how should i intervene in a cyberbullying situation, what's my responsibility as a teacher in preventing cyberbullying, what lesson plans and classroom resources are available to address cyberbullying.

• How can teachers work with families to prevent and identify cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is the use of digital media (such as apps, text messages, and websites) to intimidate, upset, or harm someone. It includes repeatedly sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, or mean content about someone else on purpose.

Usually, with cyberbullying, there are other people who see cyberbullying happen. In these situations, people can be bystanders, allies , or upstanders . 

• A bystander observes the conflict or unacceptable behavior but does not take part in it. 
• An ally is someone who responds to the bullying situation by supporting the person being bullied (checking in with them, being a friend to them, etc.). 
• An upstander tries to stop the bullying by directly confronting the person who is doing the bullying or by telling a trusted adult.

Cyberbullying differs from face-to-face bullying in several key ways. For one, it can feel harder to escape because it can happen anywhere, anytime. It's also harder to detect because so much of kids' digital media use is not monitored by adults. At the same time, cyberbullying can also be very public: Large numbers of people online can see what's happening and even gang up on the target. Though the target is usually exposed publicly, the people doing the cyberbullying can hide who they are by posting anonymously or using pseudonyms. And since cyberbullying isn't face-to-face, the one doing the bullying may not see or even understand the implications of their actions.

What Forms Can Cyberbullying Take?

Unfortunately, cyberbullying can take many forms . As popular social media apps for young people shift and proliferate, so have the ways kids can harass each other—or become victims themselves. Spreading rumors, sending hateful messages, or sharing embarrassing materials can occur across platforms and devices, but there are some other specific forms of cyberbullying to be aware of:

• Catfishing : Someone sets up a fictional persona online to compromise a victim in various ways, often exploiting a victim's emotions. The perpetrator's goals may be to lure them into a relationship or to intentionally upset a victim, among other reasons. 
• Cyberflashing : When someone receives an unsolicited sexually graphic image, they've been cyberflashed. This can occur on peer-to-peer Wi-Fi networks or Bluetooth Airdrop , in or outside of school. 
• Ghosting : When people cut off online contact and stop responding, they might be ghosting. Refusing to answer someone's messages can actually be a way of communicating a shift or upheaval among a group of friends. Often, instead of ever addressing the issue head-on, people will just ignore the targeted person.
• Griefing : There are people who harass or irritate you in multiplayer video games. They kill your character on purpose, steal your game loot, or harass you in chat. Repeated behavior like that is called "griefing." 
• Hate pages : On platforms like Instagram , teens may create fake accounts to harass victims, posting unflattering photos of their target, exposing secrets, or sharing screenshots of texts from people saying mean things. It's hard to trace who created the account, and the people doing the bullying can simply create a new "hate" page if one is shut down or removed. Sometimes, these anonymous accounts may be collections focused on rumors or other malicious materials targeting students schoolwide. 
• Outing : This occurs when someone reveals someone's gender identity or sexual orientation without their consent. What makes this particularly malicious is the risk this may pose for teens who report higher levels of mental health struggles and are at greater risk for self-harm.

Note that kids and teens probably use all kinds of terminology to describe the digital drama or harassment that's happening, so it's best to just ask questions than to use specific terms.

Reported data on how many kids experience cyberbullying can vary depending on the age of kids surveyed and how cyberbullying is defined. According to a 2022 Pew Research report on teens and cyberbullying, nearly half (46%) of teens reported experiencing at least one type of cyberbullying , and 28% have experienced multiple types, which represents a steady uptick over the last 15 years.

A summary of research by the Cyberbullying Research Center on cyberbullying in middle and high school from 2007 to 2021 indicated that, on average, 29% of students had been targets of cyberbullying. Nearly 16% of students admitted to cyberbullying others.

Yet not all groups of teens are experiencing cyberbullying equally, as some kids are more vulnerable than others . The Common Sense study " Social Media, Social Life " also found that girls are more likely than boys to experience it. A separate study showed that kids with a disability, with obesity, or who are LGBTQ are more likely to be cyberbullied than other kids.

Even if kids aren't the target of cyberbullying (and the majority aren't), chances are high they've witnessed it, since it often happens online and publicly. Common Sense reports that 23% of teens have tried to help someone who has been cyberbullied, such as by talking with the person who was cyberbullied, reporting it to adults, or posting positive stuff about the person being cyberbullied.

Be aware of your students' emotional state. Do they seem depressed? Fearful? Distracted? Pay attention to what's happening for students socially at lunchtime, in the hallways, or in other areas of your school campus. Has their friend group changed? Do you sense a conflict between students? Are you overhearing talk about "drama" or "haters" (two words kids might use to describe cyberbullying situations)? Don't be afraid to check in with students directly about what's going on. And reach out to their support networks, including parents or caregivers, the school counselor, a coach, or other teachers.

Obviously, cyberbullying is something to take seriously. At the same time, it's important to remember that, depending on their ages, kids are still developing skills like empathy, self-regulation, and how to communicate respectfully online. These situations can be learning opportunities for everyone involved.

School, district, and/or state policies might determine what actions you take once you've verified that cyberbullying has in fact occurred. Sometimes the recommended response is different depending on whether the bullying occurred on a school-issued device, and whether it happened outside of school hours or during the school day. Be sure to involve the students' families, school administrators, and counselor as appropriate, to ensure the intervention is effective and follows policy.

Here are a few resources to support teachers and schools in responding to cyberbullying:

• Helping Students Deal with Cyberbullying (NEA)
• Cyberbullying Fact Sheet: Identification, Prevention, and Response (Cyberbullying Research Center)
• Bullying: What Educators Can Do About It (PennState Extension)
• Responding to Cyberbullying: Guidelines for Administrators ( The No Bully School Partnership )

As educators, it's our responsibility to teach students how to use digital media in respectful and safe ways. This includes helping kids learn how to identify, respond to, and avoid cyberbullying. Given the demands on teachers to meet school, district, and state goals, it can be a challenge to figure out where these lessons fit into the school day. Fortunately, as technology becomes part of every aspect of our lives, including how we teach and learn, more schools and districts are giving teachers the time and resources to prioritize these skills. Here are a few ways to approach cyberbullying prevention in the classroom:

• Promote a positive and safe classroom culture. Whether or not you have technology in the classroom, setting norms of respectful communication sends a message to your students about what is and isn't acceptable. Find ways to demonstrate that your classroom is a safe, emotionally caring environment. Provide resources in the classroom to help students identify, respond to, and avoid cyberbullying. This could be tips on how to respond to cyberbullying (for elementary school or middle and high school ) or the phone number for the Crisis Text Line .
• Embrace teachable "dig cit" moments. Step up when you encounter a teachable moment related to cyberbullying or respectful online communication. Encourage students to pay attention to "red flag moments"—when something happens on digital media that makes them feel uncomfortable, worried, sad, or anxious. Explain to students the three ways they can and should respond if they witness cyberbullying: support the target of the bullying (be an ally); try to stop the cyberbullying (be an upstander); and/or tell a trusted adult (report it). It may not be part of your lesson plan, and it may set you off track for a bit, but every time you reinforce anti-cyberbullying messages, you're doing the critical work of cyberbullying prevention. And as hard as it may be to admit, ignoring these teachable moments also sends a message your students will remember.
•   Incorporate lessons on cyberbullying into your existing curriculum. Find connections to the content you're already teaching and make time to address cyberbullying directly. From setting norms of online communication to using historical examples of propaganda and hate speech to discussing a bullying situation in a novel you're reading, the possible connections to cyberbullying can be made with a little planning. And since it's possible someone in class is dealing with cyberbullying, it's helpful to stay attuned and sensitive to students.
• Advocate for a school- or district-wide digital citizenship program. The most effective cyberbullying prevention strategy has to involve the whole community. A fully integrated digital citizenship program gives teachers the time and resources to tackle these topics head-on, provides kids with consistent and frequent opportunities to build their skills, and supports families as they reinforce the messages at home.

The Common Sense K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum teaches students about the effects of cyberbullying on both themselves and their larger communities. They are encouraged to take the active role of upstander and build positive, supportive online communities, and they can learn how to cultivate empathy, compassion, and courage to combat negative interactions online.

Grades K–5:

• Putting a STOP to Online Meanness (Grade 2): What should you do if someone is mean to you online?
• The Power of Words (Grade 3): What should you do when someone uses mean or hurtful language on the internet?
• Be a Super Digital Citizen (Grade 4): How can we be upstanders when we see cyberbullying?
• Is It Cyberbullying? (Grade 5): What is cyberbullying, and what can you do to stop it? 
• Don't have time for a full lesson? Here's a quick activity .

Grades 6–8 :

• Digital Drama Unplugged (Grade 6): How can you de-escalate digital drama so it doesn't go too far?
• Upstanders and Allies (Grade 7): How can you respond when cyberbullying occurs?
• Responding to Online Hate Speech (Grade 8): How should you respond to online hate speech?

Grades 9–12 :

• What You Send in "That Moment When... " (Grade 9): How can we act with empathy and positivity when we're online?
• Countering Hate Speech Online (Grade 10): How can we counter online hate speech and xenophobia?
• Online Disinhibition and Cyberbullying (Grade 11): How does online disinhibition sometimes lead to cyberbullying?
• The Consequences of Online Hate Speech (Grade 12): Should online hate speech be censored?

How can teachers work with families to identify and prevent cyberbullying?

The first step is to communicate with your students' families about your expectations in the classroom and explain the skills you're helping students learn related to positive, responsible media use. When parents are informed and on board, they're more likely to reinforce the messages at home.

Since families often look to schools for guidance on dealing with cyberbullying, you can offer them the latest advice and resources on the topic. Spark a conversation by sending home these printable Family Tips or handing them out at meetings with parents and caregivers. You can also share resources in a classroom newsletter, on your class website or social feed, or at your next parent event.

Erin’s work focused on supporting students, teachers, and families for over a decade. As content director for family and community engagement at Common Sense, she provided parents and caregivers with practical tips and strategies for managing media and tech at home, and supports teachers in strengthening partnerships with families. Prior to her work with Common Sense, Erin taught public high school students and adult English learners in Kansas City. Her time as a National Writing Project teacher consultant nurtured her passion for student digital creation and media literacy. She has bachelor's degrees in English and secondary education and a master's degree in instructional design and technology. Erin loves to knit, read, hike, and bake. But who has time for hobbies with two young kids? In her free time these days, you'll find her hanging out at playgrounds, the zoo, and the beach with her family.

Related Content

We All Teach SEL: Empathy Activities and Tools for Students

Resources to help foster empathy in every classroom, every day.

Tips and Resources to Prevent Cyberbullying

Lesson plans and more to help your students recognize, respond to, and avoid online bullying.

7 Easy Ways to Get Families on Board with Digital Citizenship

Make digital citizenship a priority at school and at home.

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Cyberbullying Characteristics and Prevention—What Can We Learn from Narratives Provided by Adolescents and Their Teachers?

Jacek pyżalski.

1 Faculty of Educational Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, 60-568 Poznań, Poland

Piotr Plichta

2 Institute of Pedagogy, Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences, University of Wrocław, 50-139 Wrocław, Poland

Anna Szuster

3 Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, 00-183 Warsaw, Poland

Julia Barlińska

Associated data.

Not applicable. The respondents were informed that the raw data will not be published and available.

The purpose of this article is to present the results of the study on the specific aspects of cyberbullying and prevention measures viewed from both the students’ and teachers’ perspectives. Cyberbullying is a severe threat to the individual and social well-being of young people. For this reason, it is important to understand how they perceive the phenomenon of cyberbullying, how they identify its causes, what they think about support, and the preventive measures offered through the lens of their own cyberbullying experiences. The study was conducted in a qualitative research paradigm. Students (N = 55) aged 13–16 from 25 junior high schools located in different regions of (blinded for the review) who had experienced cyberbullying incidents as victims, perpetrators, or bystanders, and their teachers (N = 45) were interviewed. They provided in-depth answers regarding cyberbullying incidents they had experienced and presented their attitudes and interpretations concerning those cases. The raw data were analysed by competent judges who defined a posteriori important categories that were useful for understanding the psychosocial mechanisms of cyberbullying and important dimensions of its prevention. The results proved a clear connection between participation in offline and online peer violence. The analysis of the statements showed that public/private types of cyberbullying involve different psychological and social mechanisms. Our findings confirm the importance of empathy as the buffering factor in cyberbullying perpetration. In addition, the limitations and inadequacy of the support and interventions offered by adults in cyberbullying cases have been emphasised in teens’ testimonies. The results may constitute grounds for formulating recommendations on the prevention of cyberbullying in the school context, taking into account the perspective of all actors involved.

1. Introduction

The aim of the current study is to present how young people and teachers perceive the phenomenon of cyberbullying from the perspective of different actors. We also focus on experienced causes, content and consequences, and perception of prevention and intervention measures utilised in schools.

Cyberbullying is most often defined as “any behaviour performed through electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that repeatedly communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or discomfort on others” [ 1 ]. This covers a variety of different private and public methods like texts, videos, and theft of online identity that may have a different victimisation potential. Both online and offline bullying (without ICT involvement) has been associated with serious mental health problems in all involved actors—perpetrators, bystanders, but particularly victims who commonly suffer from depressive symptoms, psychosomatic problems, anxiety in the long term, and lower school achievements [ 2 , 3 ]. Bullying can lead to severe symptoms, such as self-harm and suicidality [ 4 ], which may even present in adults who experienced bullying while young [ 2 , 3 ], making cyberbullying a serious threat to both individual and social wellbeing. For this reason, it is important to understand how adolescents perceive the phenomenon of cyberbullying, how they identify its causes, what they think about support, and the preventive measures offered through the lens of their own cyberbullying experiences. The complexity of the phenomenon of peer violence requires the use of diversified research methods, comprising various theoretical perspectives and methodological traditions. Further, the respondent groups should be diversified and include adolescents, parents, teachers, and other school staff. Such an approach is an important standard recognised by the Society of Prevention Research (SPR) [ 5 ]. Particularly teachers form an important group of respondents since their knowledge and decisions influence the practice of prevention and intervention measures [ 6 ]. At the same time their incompetence and mistakes in this area may worsen the consequences of cyberbullying incidents.

Large research demonstrates the link between high-quality teacher–student relationships and numerous beneficial student outcomes such as reduced problem behaviour, increased academic achievement, enhanced school engagement, and improved social standing among peers. Synthesis of the literature on school-based interventions that included an outcome measure of teacher–student relationship quality revealed four approaches targeting teacher–student relationship quality by (a) increasing closeness; (b) decreasing conflict; (c) promoting social-emotional learning; and (d) emphasising relationship-driven classroom management [ 7 ].

Over the past fifteen years, a number of programs have focused on the prevention and education related to various forms of bullying. The crucial issue is whether these preventive measures are appropriate for the phenomenon of cyberbullying and meet the teenagers’ needs [ 8 , 9 ].

1.1. Key Knowledge Gaps in the Research on the Effectiveness of Anti-Cyberbullying Programs Addressed to Adolescents

The effectiveness of anti-cyberbullying programs has not been sufficiently assessed [ 10 , 11 , 12 ], with few studies demonstrating convincingly which methods are effective and for whom specifically. Additionally, little is known about the critical components of such programs that influence their effectiveness. It is also desirable for particular preventive actions to be part of carefully designed programs following the salutogenic model, in which prevention measures and enhancing participants’ empathic responsiveness is prioritised over combatting violence [ 13 , 14 ].

This line of thought is supported mainly by correlational studies that the cognitive and affective components of empathy have been shown to reduce aggressive behaviour [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Cyberbullies have also been found to have lower cognitive dispositional empathy towards their potential victims [ 18 ]. Few experimental research confirms the following directional relationship: affective and cognitive empathy activation significantly lowers the number of cyber-violence supporting acts by witnesses [ 14 ].

Some proposed intervention approaches are more general, with no specific provisions for cyberbullying in their prevention efforts. Among the proponents of this holistic approach are Olweus [ 13 ], as well as Espelage and Hong [ 19 ], who emphasise the need to integrate interventions aimed at traditional violence with countermeasures that target cyberbullying. Although school bullying has been explored thoroughly from the mid-1970s until the present, still little consensus regarding the relations between the two concepts has been achieved. Mostly the issues of validity of traditional bullying criteria are discussed by scientists, for example, the issue of repetition as in cyberbullying where the individual act is sometimes very harmful, as well as intentionality as it is easier to harm someone unintentionally online. For some scholars, those reasoning should lead to treating cyberbullying as a completely different phenomenon than bullying [ 1 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Some recent reports on programmes’ efficacy have indicated that dealing with only one of these phenomena on its own may paradoxically lead to increased violence [ 23 ]. However, other approaches have emphasised the need to take into account the particular characteristics of the digital media as well as specific cyberbullying mechanisms in the methodology of preventive measures, which should, accordingly, be tailored to the specifics of cyberbullying [ 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Programmes that address this second aspect tend to focus more on highlighting interventions aimed at specific roles in bullying following the triadic approach, such as mobilising bystanders [ 14 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].

Cyberbystanders are understood as students who “[notice] a social situation occurring among a cyberbully and a cybervictim” [ 30 ] (p. 124). It has been proved that cyberbystanders are the most numerous party engaged in cyber-bullying acts (20–55%) [ 30 ], comparing with 20–23% in the case of cyber-preparation and cyber-victimisation [ 31 ]; they are powerful social influence in creating both negative behavioral models—reinforcing the bullying and positive ones with responses such as intervention in cyberbullying cases [ 14 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Based on this approach, a successful programme should engage cyberbystanders and mobilise their willingness to provide informal help to their peers [ 14 , 30 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Data clearly states that the most effective factor in achieving this goal is the level of empathy in potential helpers [ 14 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Peers support along with the exploration of the role of empathy as the activator of cyberbystanders’ prosocial behaviour towards victims [ 14 ] enhance the development of behaviours aimed at coping with this form of violence.

Another under-researched area is the assessment of defensive actions undertaken by adolescents themselves. A couple of directions can be identified: the effectiveness of specific coping strategies for victims of cyberbullying, peer support and its effectiveness in diminishing the negative impact of violence on a victim’s wellbeing, as well as the exploration of the role of empathy as the activator of cyberbystanders’ prosocial behaviour towards victims [ 14 ]. Bystanders’ support for cybervictims has proved to be an important strategy in reducing cyberbullying [ 14 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Based on this approach, a successful programme should engage bystanders and mobilise their willingness to provide informal help to their peers [ 14 , 30 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Data clearly states that the most effective factor in achieving this goal is the level of empathy in potential helpers [ 14 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. The possibilities for natural activation of empathy in an online context are particularly limited, due to both cyberspace conditions and the developmental specifics of adolescence.

To sum up, the main issues that are important in creating effective cyberbullying prevention projects are the cyberbullying criteria (especially intentionality, since numerous hostile acts online are conducted without an intention to harm), and the need for a more in-depth exploration of the key factors that moderate cyberbullying via addressing wider groups of participants and using a wider portfolio of research methods. The most important challenge is the need for controlling the impact of specifics of adolescent behaviour and its online manifestation in cyberbullying.

1.2. Psychological Aspects of Cyberbullying: The Impact of the Specifics of Adolescence, Online Communication, Empathy and Appearance Online

The period of adolescence is characterised by powerful egocentrism with its accompanying sensitivity about oneself, as well as conformism towards the peer group. These qualities make adolescents particularly amenable to social influence [ 38 ]. The peer group is the point of reference for creating one’s self-image, as well as satisfying basic social needs of belonging and affiliation [ 38 ]. The developmental specifics of adolescence are also characterised by an imbalance between cognitive abilities and motivation to control and anticipate one’s behaviour, which takes into account social expectations only to a limited degree. This is why adolescents often demonstrate poor impulse control combined with emotional impulsivity. The contact via digital media has the potential to increase this emotional impulsivity, causing teenagers to engage in behaviours they would not normally exhibit offline [ 39 ].

The defining element of cyber violence lies with its “digital context” which acquires the form of digital space and tools. Their impact goes far beyond the digital nature and takes on a psychological meaning manifested in the impact on neuronal processes [ 40 ] and the dynamics and quality of cognitive processes (attention, control, memory) [ 41 , 42 , 43 ]. At the same time, cyber-bullying participants remain under the influence of events, experiences and also peer norms or other phenomena embedded in the offline context. Such overlapping of the two realities and, depending on the approach, the mutual influence of various elements of either of such realities is verified, e.g., in the computer-mediated communication model [ 44 , 45 ] or social information processing” theory and Parasocial and Online Social Relationships Theory [ 46 ].

1.2.1. Studies on Psychological Aspect of Cyberbullying

Some research has shown the impact of digital tools and networked environment on how information is processed [ 41 ]. Their use leads to alternating attention and increased superficiality of information processing [ 40 , 42 ]. Moreover, the mediated character of online communication creates a sense of anonymity and deindividuation, which limits the sense of responsibility by generating a cockpit effect [ 47 , 48 ]. In addition, certain aspects of computer software and how online messages are constructed, as well as information overload, collectively marginalise reflective processes, intensifying impulsiveness and multi-tasking [ 49 , 50 ]. This limits the influence of the subject on the course of cognitive processes and the evaluation of results.

The ease of activating automatic adjustment [ 42 , 50 ] manifests itself in the use of the most accessible stimulus: physical appearance, especially in relation to peer violence. Physical appearance is the first and the most accessible attribute in interpersonal contacts [ 51 ]. It plays a special role in “forming impressions” about others [ 52 ] and is a distinctive aspect of social perception, especially in childhood [ 53 ]. People tend to see in it the symptoms of one’s predilections to certain behaviours. In addition, presumptions concerning one’s character or personality features are inferred from one’s appearance [ 54 ]. Finally, physicality is the basis of stereotypes [ 51 ]. Physical appearance traits are easily used (especially by adolescents) as the basis for stigmatisation that may lead to harassment [ 55 ].

Results of multiple studies show significance of online image in the context of cyberbullying. The online image is one of the targets of attacks of cyberbullies, who in particular focus on the aspects of physical appearance. Sharing photos or video content presenting the victim in unfavourable light has significant victimogenic potential [ 35 ]. Forwarding compromising photos is seen by young people as the most serious anti-social behavior [ 56 , 57 ]. Some researchers even claim that this form of bullying has a more negative impact on the victim than peer violence used in direct contact [ 58 ].

Data indicate the significance of psychological competences for involvement in cyberbullying: empathy is negatively correlated with cyberbullying [ 18 ] and with a lack of emotional control experienced by cyberbullying victims and perpetrators alike [ 59 ]. The research findings show that inducing various actions which activate empathy in the triad—perpetrator, victim, bystander—limits the scope of aggression experienced by children at school [ 60 ]. The role of empathy as a mechanism modifying the attitude of bystanders towards victims is also confirmed by the research outcome showing that children equipped with a lower capacity for empathic reacting and pro-social involvement [ 61 , 62 , 63 ] are rarely prone to support victims. A similar relationship was found with regard to electronic peer violence [ 64 ]. Experimental studies also demonstrate that situational empathy activation has an impact on adolescent decision whether to forward or refuse to forward peer-ridiculing messages. In the conditions of the arousal of both affective and cognitive empathy, a significant decrease in the frequency of forwarding an abusing message has been found [ 14 ].

Mediated interactions generate deficits in empathic arousal. Tools and the digital space marginalise reflexive functioning and intensify automatisms. To analyse peer cyberbullying from the perspective of participants in these interactions, taking into account their perception of psychological competences (empathy) and the status of physical appearance is crucial if we are to effectively address the problem of cyberbullying.

1.2.2. Current Study

The goal of exploring the specific aspects of cyberbullying and prevention measures viewed from both the students’ and teachers’ perspectives led to the research questions regarding subjectively perceived determinants of peer cyber-bullying and factors contributing to its escalation:

• What forms of cyberbullying appear in adolescent narratives?
• How are roles in traditional bullying and cyberbullying related?
• To what extent appearance issues are a cause of cyberbullying?
• To what extent is perpetration of cyberbullying intentional?
• What role play the aspects of online and offline environment in cyberbullying engagement?
• What is the role of bystanders of cyberbullying in adolescent narratives?
• Is a level of selected psychological competence (e.g., empathy) associated with perpetration of cyberbullying?
• From teenagers’ perspective, what is the role of teachers in the process of cyberbullying prevention?
• What methodology of cyberbullying prevention is postulated by the participants?

2. Materials and Methods

A non-experimental study in the qualitative paradigm was planned. The semi-structured interview method was used. The study adopted a qualitative methodology to explore cyberbullying from the contextual perspective of various actors involved in the process (both students and teachers) [ 65 , 66 ]. Qualitative research design offers the opportunity to investigate bullying and peer aggression from the perspective of human interactions in a certain setting (e.g., school) and its cultural context [ 61 ]. Conversations and interviews create an opportunity to share one’s experiences with others, especially through constructing one’s own narrative [ 67 ]. Also worth mentioning is the usefulness of information obtained in this manner for the development and implementation of effective prevention and intervention strategies. Another advantage of the qualitative methodology, especially important in the context of adolescents assessed in the study, is its indirect character, which may lead to more open and sincere answers. In addition, the formal, linguistic aspect of the statements (available in qualitative methods) is a unique source of knowledge about how adolescents verbalise and structure their cyberbullying experiences—information which is not available through forms of measurement.

We aimed to cover all of the outlined topics during the semi-structured interviews, not in a predetermined order but rather following the flow of respondents’ narratives. The interviewers adopted a non-evaluative attitude and refrained from judgments and interpretations during the interview to assure safety and openness of the respondents who described their experiences concerning highly sensitive topics.

Participants and Procedure

The research participants were students (N = 55; 30 boys and 25 girls) aged 13–16 from 25 junior high schools across different regions of (blinded for the review) who had experienced cyberbullying acts as victims, perpetrators, or bystanders. The selection of schools was based on the following criteria to assure variance of the sample:

• Size of town (schools from larger agglomerations: (blinded for the review), smaller cities: (blinded for the review), as well as suburban villages near to: (blinded for the review), and from the (blinded for the review);
• Area of (blinded for the review) (central, southern, eastern);
• Type of school (public vs. private junior high schools).

Two or three students were interviewed at each school. First, the headmaster was contacted and asked about cases of cyberbullying that had taken place in the two years preceding the study. The headmaster was then asked to check whether the parents of the students and the students themselves who had participated in the event would be willing to provide information to the researchers. In the event of initial consent, the researchers contacted the students’ parents/guardians and provided them with the necessary information about the study. After obtaining the parents’ consent, the researchers contacted the students asking for consent and arranging the date for the interview.

From the same schools, a convenience sample of teachers who had been involved in interventions in cyberbullying situations was selected (N = 45). The recruitment procedure was similar to the one for students. The teachers were also contacted after prior approval by the school headmaster.

Interviews were conducted from October 2015 to January 2016. The duration of the interviews ranged from 15 min to 1 h, depending on the willingness and readiness of the respondents.

The ethical procedure of the study included the following elements:

• Consent of the Ethical Committee of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of (blinded for the review).
• Consent of the parent(s)/guardian(s) in the case of students.
• Voluntary participation and possibility to withdraw from the survey at any time.
• Saving and publishing research material in a way that protects the anonymity of respondents.
• Leaving the choice of method of documentation to the respondents (audio recording or written record).

Interviews were recorded and then transcribed, or their content was written down (depending on the respondent’s choice in this respect). Then the researchers read the responses and introduced categories for specific issues for analysis. The interviews were part of the Project (blinded for the review).

The transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis rooted in the constructivist paradigm [ 68 ]. This approach consists in identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns (themes) noted in the collected research materials. It is described as a method that allows for effectively identifying, ordering, and connecting diverse threads in rich, unorganised databases through a five-stage approach: compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding [ 69 ]. To answer the nine research questions, the analysis was carried out in the aforementioned stages by members of an interdisciplinary research team acting as competent judges (different from those in the first stage). In the event of incompatible assessments the final decision was made following consultations between judges and was based on mutual agreement.

Please note: G14, 18—Girl 14 y.o., interview number 18; (B15, 33)—Boy 15 y.o., interview number 33); (WT, 30)—Woman, Teacher, interview number 30; (MT, 25)—Man. Teacher, interview number 25.

3.1. The Forms of Cyberbullying in Adolescent Narratives: Between the Private and the Public

Analysis of narratives about cyberbullying acts shows that young people use a great variety of forms and technical methods to bully others online. An in-depth analysis led to drawing the main typology of those acts based on the type of computer-mediated communication (CMC) adopted: one-to-one online communication (perpetrator(s) to a victim) and public online communication. Additionally, the form of outing leading to exclusion was a popular topic in teenagers’ narratives. Young people used instruments that allow one-to-one communication, where the exchange of communication is restricted to sender and recipient.

The most unpleasant comments she sent me by private message on Facebook (G15, 16),

they wrote about her mother, that she had stolen something, etc. There were messages and pictures (…) sent privately (G15, 24).

Contrary to popular belief that cyberbullying usually involves publicly disseminated material, here the material is only known to those directly involved. The one-to-one mode of communication mostly meant that in the majority of cases the perpetrators were not anonymous, since they were sending messages from their accounts on social networking sites and were easy to identify. On the other hand, some perpetrators used channels that make hostile messages or other content (pictures, films) public. For example, they used the public conversation mode of some sites, where more than one person can read messages or communicate publicly (e.g., on so-called “walls” of social networking sites).

I have sent a modified picture of my friend in a group conversation (B14, 40).

One of the victims described it this way:

She posted sarcastic comments under my video on Facebook, such as: ‘How beautiful you are!’ or ‘Great idea! ’ (G15, 16),

My friend posted a video. And I commented as a joke: ‘You bitch from school’. She deleted the comment (B14, 45).

This distinction between private and public electronic peer violence acts is very useful from a conceptual perspective, since public mode adds new dimensions and mechanisms, primarily associated with the fact that other individuals (mostly students from the same peer group) join in the communication. Their involvement is usually described as adding additional unpleasant comments or backing up the initial perpetrators by “liking” their comments or disseminating the content further. This is particularly unpleasant for the victims when the material published is visual:

I spotted it on Facebook. And one girl was quarrelling that she didn’t want this photo up. That was her in her underpants (B15, 40), they often take photos during breaks, after training, or when somebody sleeps and then they edit them. It’s unfair. I often try to cover my face when I sleep (B14, 13).

There are cases when a perpetrator encourages other people to actively take part:

One was publishing a post and wrote ‘Please leave a like if you don’t like him’. And then the others joined and also asked for likes. And then the whole thread started (G13, 10).

In many cases, the public extended to people known from offline contexts, as the content was easy to access for others (e.g., friends of friends on social networking sites). This fact may make hostile acts potentially more harmful, since a victim may think that the content humiliating him/her is viewed and judged by a broader public and the “invisible audience”. In some cases, a victim has no access to actual content although he/she may be aware of the fact that others talk about him/her in a hostile way somewhere on the Internet:

I have a friend—I don’t know what he is about… He never liked me and started to taint my reputation and send out various things on social networking sites. One of them was Ask.fm—and people started to change the way they saw me, and that was not true… (G15, 17).

There are also forms of cyberbullying that skirt the borderline between public and private. The ones most often reported in interviews were identity theft and exclusion (ostracism). The first of these two is a cyberbullying act when someone takes over the account of the victim (e.g., stealing a password) and initiates on behalf of him/her private conversations or posts comments on social networking sites. These exchanges of messages are usually hostile towards other people, who erroneously think that they are sent by the victim. That means the reputation of the victim is endangered, since it is sometimes difficult to explain what actually happened and that a victim was not guilty. One drastic situation of this kind, when the content had been published openly, was described by one of the teachers:

One of my students forgot to log out from Facebook. The other student spotted this and started to publish stuff. (…) The content was sexual; it was not pleasant for anybody. It was about him changing his sexual orientation to a homosexual one (WT, 21).

In this particular case, the content was not only shared with other students but also the family of the victim, who alerted teachers at school about the situation. Another hybridised cyberbullying form of public and private electronic violence may take the form of exclusion:

She was banned from the class’s Facebook group. Then the girls started a new group. Everybody from the class was invited except her (MT, 7).

It is worth emphasising that in these particular cases perpetrators often used numerous technical channels and private and public ways of communicating harassment to a victim. However, in most cases one of the channels was dominant while others played a complementary role.

3.2. Offline Events as Causes of Cyberbullying

It follows from the analysis of the material that offline situations, i.e., real-life, face-to-face interactions are a source of cyberbullying. They are the source of conflict which is then transferred online, where it develops further. This phenomenon is exemplified by the response of one teacher: The conflict had been going on before; it didn’t start on the Internet (WT, 12). It sometimes happens that the perceived sources of cyberbullying are also rooted in the past. They concern previous experiences with peers that are implicitly reactivated in the context of a new stage of education. That was unfinished business from primary school (G14, 15). At times, violence starts online and is then transferred into the offline environment. They laughed at X during a group conversation but X didn’t know about it. Then it spread into the real world (B14, 20).

The responses suggest a variety of causes of bullying. They can be mundane, trivial quarrels and misunderstandings at school that are later picked up and continued in the form of posts on the Internet: (…) two girls had a fight at school and it turned into a war, and they continued with abusive messages on Facebook (B14, 6). The Internet is used as a forum to publicly harass through the way peers talk to one another in real world: We were posting pictures of how she was addressing us, e.g., “Dumb cooze” (G14, 14). Additionally, mutual hostility that escalates on the Internet where comments of people involved in various situations are posted: Basically, we never really liked each other. There was a book from the library that she’d checked out (…) the teacher reminded her a year later that she hadn’t returned it, she said she’d given it to me [the book—authors’ note] to return it, and I hadn’t. And then, when I was at the library, the teacher said the book was found, that she returned it (G14, 10).

Some acts of cyberbullying are amplified by parents who intervene by informing teachers about the negative experiences of their children. These situations result in comments among peers that constitute cyberbullying: (…) on the same day that my mom went to school to sort out the issue with the book, those [aggressive—authors’ note] questions were posted. The language was typical for that girl (G14, 10).

A recurring category of offline events that generate cyberbullying is that of direct interpersonal conflict. It becomes the source of negative emotions like jealousy, taking offense, providing motivation for behaviour aimed at humiliating, ridiculing, or taunting the target.

They found out that she, that friend of theirs, had other friends. Because she told them she also had other friends. (…) they couldn’t accept it (G14, 2).

(…) she showed screenshots of chats when they were calling me names. My friend also admitted that (…) she was badmouthing me because she was feeling offended (G13, 5).

Conflicts and resentment arising in offline situations may also provoke more violent forms of cyberbullying, specifically online hate speech.

I have two friends outside of school, they don’t like each other, they used to be friends, but one of them went nuts (…) and got into drugs, smoking, drinking (…). And they were hating on one another on Facebook, calling each other this and that. One would post that you are this and that and drop a like if you hate him, the other wrote that if you don’t like the first one, like my post and commenting started, a whole conversation, and then it got to the point where they stopped talking to each other and they broke all contact (B14, 6).

The participants pointed to offline conflicts and discord as sources of online aggression. The issues were often typical for this age group, involving quarrels over a girl/boy, jealousy, betrayal, taking offence, and seeking support from adults. The blending between the digital and the offline worlds is perceived and experienced, and the interaction between the two produces circumstances that trigger various symptoms of cyberbullying. This is clearly shown in a statement by one of the students: Your life on the Internet affects your personal life, here at school and outside of school… (G14, 14). This is also confirmed in the responses of teachers:

This conflict had been going on before; it didn’t start on the Internet. (…) then the next step was on the Internet (…) (WT, 12).

Sometimes they fight in real life and it spills over. And sometimes the fight starts on the Internet (MT, 3).

Perhaps the fact that aggression has moved to the Internet is the reason research shows reduced aggression, and we as teachers have noticed a similar trend, but it is simply going on elsewhere (MT, 7).

3.3. Appearance-Based Cyberbullying

Physical appearance traits easily dominate perceptions, thus giving a pretext for negative comments. This is well captured by one of the students’ statements: Different in some ways, often in appearance (B13, 11). Any deviation from so-called normal facial features is often immediately recognised and often becomes the object of nasty comments: (…) these are the kids from the inclusive classes, (…) they are typically on the receiving end of taunts because for them they are different, so this is the person to laugh at, make jokes about, that difference (WT, 20), or vulgar comments on physical attributes: Fat, greasy pig, dumb blonde (B15, 9).

Adversarial comments may also use embarrassing photographs, often purposefully distorted or modified.

He took a picture during class. It looked like I was picking my nose. He immediately posted it to Facebook. With a comment: ‘a pig in class’ (B15, 40),

(…) a girl uploaded a photograph and someone modified it maliciously (G13, 9),

in primary school, they were also photoshopping my pictures, but they deleted them quickly (…) Here, they also often take pictures of one another during recess, after training, or when someone is sleeping, and then they modify them… (B14, 13),

someone doodled something nasty on someone else’s picture, modified it, or they added captions to pictures, saying you are this and that (B14, 13).

The same is true of physical limitations: (…) the reason was short videos recorded by a girl who was excused from PE; she was a rather vicious person who was simply recording her friends struggling during PE. The girl who was being recorded (….) was particularly awkward and later a clip [was posted—authors’ note] showing how she is straining, trying to jump over the vaulting horse, doing other stuff (WT, 3), or untypical behaviour, She (the victim) is strange. Different or something. She behaves like… (unable to explain) (G14, 30), which becomes the reason for bullying.

3.4. Intentionality and Cyberbullying

Perpetration of cyberbullying, in the testimonials of Polish teenagers, rarely takes the form of intentional activity. Many bullies described their actions as impulsive, undertaken without planning, and with no intention to hurt another student. The following two accounts illustrate this point: Seriously, no, the other person did not take it seriously, because I wasn’t being serious. I called someone a “moron”, but later I started laughing about it with my friend and we started calling each other “moron” just for fun (G14, 20). There are these funny situations and you just post something with an inappropriate picture, on purpose, taunting someone, for example, about their name (B15, 18). Teachers express similar opinions, saying that online aggression for adolescents is often a form of entertainment (WT, 10) and joking (MT, 24).

Moreover, aggressive behaviour is often justified by teenagers as having been provoked by some stimulus, e.g., a communicative act by their victim on the Internet. They started calling our classmate names (online) because that guy from our class was calling them something, (…) someone said he was this and that, the other started calling him names and another printed what the other one wrote and complained to the teacher, he was summoned, so he came to school acting all sorry, thinking he was the victim (G 13, 27). In addition, young people say that this type of scenario often results in the escalation of the conflict. He was her ex-boyfriend (…) it was just out of anger because he broke up with her or something and so it happened/friends of that girl went after that boy, so the friends of that boy went after the friends of that girl for picking on him, and it was like this vicious circle (B15, 26). When describing the vicious circle, teachers mention that, with each retaliation, the students are more and more cruel (WT, 23).

Another frequently mentioned feature of cyberbullying among peers is the inclination to blame the victim: If she wasn’t keeping to herself so much, it would have been different (G14, 26); She shouldn’t have told her mom, who made a big deal out of it (B14, 45). The teenagers in our interviews have a way of talking about victims that appears to ignore their emotional perspective: She (the victim) is strange. Different or something. She behaves like… (G14, 30). Teachers’ statements also identify the students’ distant attitude towards the victim: It’s difficult to get through to that person (victim) (WT, 23), sometimes echoed by the teaching staff: You cannot help someone against their will (MT, 24).

Bullies often struggle to explain the motivation behind their actions. When asked about it, some answered I don’t know, I just did it (B14, 44) mainly due to distancing and avoiding. Such phenomena may result from moral disengagement, a situation-based cognitive reconstruction that leads to positive or neutral attributions of moral transgression and violence approval, which is confirmed by other participants, i.e., student bystanders who are only describing what they saw: (they do) the first thing that comes to mind, without regard for consequences (G16, 33), and school teachers/counsellors/psychologists: I don’t think they realised it was hurtful (…) I’d say in most cases it is the failure to realise, not just that they are breaking the law, but not realising how they are hurting someone else (MT, 7).

Cyberperpetrators often become aware of potential consequences for the victim only when he or she talks about them directly or when someone else (e.g., the parent of the student who has been the target of cyberbullying) brings up this issue: While I was having ‘fun’ with others (co-perpetrators), I wasn’t feeling sorry for her. But then I started feeling sorry for her (G14, 26). In some cases, bullies fail to appreciate the harm they have caused even after some time has passed (even despite clear evidence). But there was no fighting and no one got hurt (B14, 45). When that happens, an apology tends to be forced, artificial, and rarely leads to actual improvements in peer relations: They said they were sorry, but they were afraid. They said sorry, but it was forced because they got scared and only then deleted all the comments, but by then there were screenshots (G14, 44); I apologised to her on Facebook, making it look as if it were my idea, so as not to get into more trouble (…) It was better to do it on the Internet (B14, 45).

3.5. Online Environment and Social Influence as the Sources of Cyberbullying

The digital environment and electronic devices create specific conditions that induce adolescents to engage in negative and inappropriate behaviour. The sense of anonymity offered by the Internet facilitates actions that violate social norms. (…) there they could feel, they thought they would be anonymous, that they would get away with it (WT, 12) or as a student notes it is simply easier to write certain things than to say them to someone’s face (G14, 4). Writing on the Internet is a massacre; it’s spreading (G14, 6). It also creates opportunities for those who have little chance to express aggression in real life: Shy people are more likely to talk back on the Internet than in real life (B14, 24).

Teachers also point to digital communication as conducive to the brutalisation of peer relations: but discussion forums are also the place where vulgarisms appear and students are offended. The thing is we do not know who the person we are dealing with really is. (WT, 2). Technological advances offered by the Internet carry a potential for harming others: (…) in my opinion the fashion for showing one’s pictures and reporting on almost every minute of one’s life and competing for the number of “likes” is a tremendous threat (WT, 14). The teacher also stresses the negative role of social networks: (…) first and foremost all those social networks that cause so much harm to children (MT, 2).

On the other hand, reports provide material in support of the overpowering authority of the peer group for engaging in reinforcement or perpetration of cyberbullying. The commonness of a given behaviour within a group institutes a kind of social norm that serves as a standard for behaviour. Criticism is limited, and the dominant attitudes are conformism, as well as impulsive reproduction of the behaviour within the peer group. We’re all doing it for fun and no one takes offense... It didn’t occur to me at all that he could be angry about it. I got pranked like that as well, and maybe it felt a little uncomfortable, but when I saw everybody was doing it, I relaxed and made no fuss about it (B14, 9).

Some people said I was exaggerating because everybody was doing it and I was the only one to take offence (B14, 18).

(…) I don’t know how she could take offence, all my friends were surprised (B14, 24).

When girls and boys started reminiscing about it all, I was really upset; I didn’t know what to do… I was crying (G14, 15).

There is peer pressure (WT, 23).

What is more, the victims’ reports suggest that even if the expressions of cyberbullying are privately renounced by adolescents, it has little impact on their behaviour. Despite the sense of unease associated with hurting others, they replicate that behaviour for fear of being criticised by the group and for the need for social approval and affiliation. Some were saying that, for a long time, they had been feeling uncomfortable when pictures and comments were directed at them, but they didn’t say anything, because nobody did. And so it started to look like everybody was having fun (B14, 9).

I don’t intervene in any way or else I’ll get blamed as soon as I have a problem myself (B13, 1).

The mechanism of generating such a group is often underpinned by fear and group exclusion anxiety. It is revealed in a statement by one of the teachers: One person likes tormenting others. Other girls joined in so as not to get on her wrong side. (…) They are more powerful as a group, they feel strong (WT, 30)

Cyberviolence can also be triggered by a group that is established to fulfil this very aim, i.e., doing harm (perceived, obviously, as having fun). The consequences of the operation of such groups are subjectively experienced by the victim as particularly distressing. They set up this group [on Facebook—authors’ note] and humiliated me on that group together with others. I felt horrible. I was psychologically vulnerable and every insult was getting to me. So when I read all those comments on that group and all that, let me tell you, I didn’t feel like going to school, I just didn’t want to be seen (G14, 15).

Distancing oneself from a close-knit peer group is sometimes seen as a violation of unspoken rules and often gets punished online. This is illustrated by a girl’s statement, which reveals reasons for cyberbullying: If she wasn’t keeping to herself… (G14, 24). Groups also punish members for breaking the rule of not notifying adults about peer behaviour: We knew she was talking (with adults about the matter). She should have talked to us (G14, 14). This aspect of social pressure is captured perfectly in the following statement by a teacher: I think there is great fear of being the same as the person targeted, they stick to that one way or another, taking the side of those acting cool and seen as funny (WT, 1).

3.6. The Role of Bystanders in Cyberbullying Dynamics

The statements of young people in our qualitative research also suggested that the actions of bystanders are of key importance in the dynamics of online aggression: Some people support them, others post comments for them to stop and calm down, and there is a third group that sees everything but does not respond (B14, 4) ; Everyone picks the side they want to be on, I have my friends, she has hers, they will obviously be on her side, and my friends on mine. And then there are the bystanders, those who are, shall we say, not associated with either of us, I heard they were making fun of her for taking offense for this sort of thing (G14, 19). In the accounts of teachers, it is not the victim but teenage bystanders who are the most likely to intervene when someone is targeted online: Witnesses, more often than victims, come with screenshots and files on pen drives. It’s a measure of our success that children know what to do. This is thanks to teachers’ training (WT, 24) ; In most cases, we find out from other students (MT, 25). The role of bystanders can have a prosocial impact, as in the following account, where they actively defend the victim: When someone was criticising some post because it was poorly written, I defended the person that was criticised (B15, 6).

However, passive behaviour is a much more common response: When I saw that, I just ignored it, because I didn’t want to make it worse for her by taking part (B13, 1) ; I don’t intervene in any way, or else I’ll get blamed as soon as I have a problem myself (B15, 2). Defending might be perceived as risky, since the bystanders have to challenge popular, powerful bullies—which requires both skill and courage. This is apparent in the following account by a young girl: These girls that were gossiping online are seen as dominant, they get even, they ridicule others. Nobody responds for fear of retaliation (G14, 20). Thus, it may seem more reasonable and safer to remain neutral as a cyberbystander and to avoid the company of low-status victims, or even to support the bullies. This behaviour can be also interpreted via the social influence and peer pressure mechanisms confirming the complexity of mechanisms underlying online teenage bullying. As teenagers observe and monitor each other’s reactions to cyberbullying episodes, they might conclude that a lack of defensive actions is because the majority approve of what goes on. Young people we interviewed stated that for a bystander to intervene takes strength and courage: In primary school, I had this classmate who was in his world and others were making fun of him and taking pictures of him. I reacted by saying that it was idiotic to take pictures of someone against their will only because they were acting strange. These images were never uploaded, by the way (G13, 9) , as well as specific values and model behaviours that may solve the problem not only for the victim but sometimes also save the bully from the painful consequences of his or her actions, as is illustrated by the following statements: Some people have their heads on straight and they can help. And they did, and so I wrote to that person and apologised, and it all turned out well (B15, 5) ; I started having second thoughts when older guys made me realize what I had done. That I’m younger, and I’m the one who’s mocking (G15, 25).

When they do take action, bystanders in cyberbullying cases collected in our research were more likely to join the bullies and reinforce the victimisation rather than help the victim. Bystanders’ active participation in the victim’s persecution can manifest both offline: I was in trouble both online and at school. The girls in other classes who were reading the comments would whisper to one another when they passed me. They didn’t do anything to me, just whispered (G14, 44) , and online: It was funny. I usually joined in (on Facebook) (G14, 26). The actions often take the form of harming the victim thoughtlessly and reflexively: I mean, you don’t think what you “like”, you just give likes to everything? In general, I click like on everything. Why shouldn’t I? (G13, 10). Teachers also emphasised the role of group mechanisms that may intensify thoughtless antisocial actions of cyberbystanders: There is peer pressure. When confronted individually, they seem to realise [what they are doing—authors’ note] (WT, 23). This corresponds with a well-established mechanism, which is also true for offline bullying. In both contexts group norms concerning bullying and peer group, hierarchical structures influence bystanders’ willingness to defend the victim.

Another important feature of cyberbullying that emerged in the interviews was role overlap. This overlap, or even evolution within a given role, seems particularly pronounced in the case of cyberbystanders, and is to a large extent a consequence of role ambiguity. The unique character of online environment and the way people function in cyberspace means that, unlike in direct interactions, boundaries between roles are blurred, which young people describe as follows: I don’t know, I try to avoid those situations and not get involved because sometimes I like both people and I don’t know whose side to take. And sometimes it’s hard to be objective (B14, 3). A good illustration of role evolution typical for bystanders is the story of an individual who started as a bystander adding to the cybervictimisation of the victim ( reinforcer ), then offered support to the victim and reported the case ( defender ), but in legal proceedings was eventually declared to be an accomplice: This picture was sent to me as well, and I forwarded it to one other girl. I sent it to her, and she went all in, because she sent it to everyone, even to people who didn’t know her. I mean, this is no excuse, because I also did something wrong by passing it on (…) and this is why we have to appear in court soon. … (Then) I started feeling sorry for her, so many people have seen it and laughed at her (…) I wanted to help her so it wouldn’t get worse and so people would no longer mock her, but the school counsellor talked to them and said they were to stop it and start helping that girl (G, 13, 9).

The transition towards prosocial behaviours in the accounts of teenagers contains themes of affection, empathy, and regret: I started feeling sorry for her, so many people have seen it and laughed at her (…) It was funny at the time, but part of me wanted to make sure more people wouldn’t see it, so I told the teacher. After all, I like her (G13, 9). The teenagers also made references to schoolmates’ solidarity and positive peer norms that disapprove of violence. Maybe not in online comments, but in private they did, my friends. To show their solidarity in this conflict, they recorded a similar video and posted it just for laughs on their profiles, to show that they too could imitate the same as me. This was a positive response. They were very supportive of those two close girlfriends of mine (G14, 19). With respect to generating positive, prosocial norms of behaviour, i.e., responding to violence, teachers emphasise the importance of modelling such behaviours among peers, which helps overcome the pervasive indifference towards acts of cyberbullying: All it takes is writing that you are not cool with what is going on and that your opinion is different. It’s like opening a door so that the next person finds it easier (WT, 4).

3.7. Lack of Particular Psychological Competences as a Source of Cyberbullying

Deficits in adolescents in terms of empathically responding to a peer’s discomfort are often mentioned in the accounts of teachers and labelled in a variety of ways, e.g., as lack of awareness: (…) they didn’t realise (…) (MT, 9) , they don’t do it maliciously (…) they do it as a joke (MT, 10), I think it usually results from lack of awareness, but not only of the fact that they could be breaking the law, but the lack of understanding how one person can hurt another (MT, 9) , cruelty, Young people are cruel (WT, 14), or joking, for him it was a good joke (WT, 12) , these youngsters treated it as a joke (WT, 14) , It’s a form of entertainment (WT, 15), Yes, it was a picture and what can I say… You know, it was an opportunity to have some fun, so I did (G15, 12). A telling symptom is that even personal, negative experiences of victimisation fail to engender positive, empathic responses: I felt really stupid, you know, how I could have behaved that way, having been treated like that by others, knowing how the other person must be feeling. It was just this reflexive action (G15, 12). In other words, one of the key learning mechanisms of cognitive empathy, namely, one’s own experience can be inhibited in the digital environment.

The suffering of others is often overlooked, unnoticed, and, most importantly, not anticipated. Even external intervention containing a message about the state of the other person does not later arouse empathy, but fear focusing on the Self: They said they were sorry, but they were afraid. The apology was forced because they got scared (…) (G14, 24). I apologised to her on Facebook as if it were my idea, to make it go away, it was better [to apologise—authors’ note] on the Internet (B14, 24).

The reports by teachers point to egocentric projection as the basis for anticipating the states of others: for him, it was a joke, he didn’t see it as hurting his friend (…) he thought his friend would be laughing as well. That’s how it was. He saw nothing wrong with it (WT, 2). Taking a group’s standards as the reference point favours a reinterpretation of bullying: It didn’t occur to me at all that he could be angry about it. They had pranked me like that as well, and maybe it felt a little uncomfortable, but when I saw everybody doing it, I relaxed and made no fuss about it (B14, 9). Friends were saying ‘how could someone take offense at that’ (B14, 24). This justifies negative behaviour and inhibits empathy as a response.

Perpetrators’ statements showed inadequate perception of their behaviour as benign. They tend to think that their actions bring no harm to others: I mean, that’s why you send those jokes. It’s like a game, a conversation; you wonder what the other person comes up with. It’s like a competition, but mainly just a joke (B14, 9).

The categories used in descriptions of other people’s discomfort are vague and unspecific: she wasn’t feeling great, it wasn’t fun for him (B14, 9) or I don’t think he felt cool (B14, 8), (…) he was not doing well (G14, 15). A teacher’s statement confirms this interpretation: I think they can’t call it (WT, 13).

The analysis of language used by adolescents indicates difficulties in verbalising the affective states of peers (emotions or moods). This seems to be an important factor inhibiting the activation of reflective (cognitive) empathy with its underlying concept code. The problem with naming peers’ affective states is due no to ignorance of these categories but rather to their selective availability. There is a clear asymmetry between the descriptions of perpetrators and victims. Victims verbalise their affective states precisely and appropriately: I felt sad that he humiliated me in this way, (…) also ashamed—after all, someone was sort of fiddling with my picture, used it and modified it just for laughs (…) then I was simply mad, I think (…) (B14, 9), I was really upset, I didn’t know what to do… I was crying (G14, 14) ; For me, it was mostly about health, it was really stressful (…) I generally tend to get sick from time to time, and when he started all that, it got worse and I had terrible headaches, almost to the point of fainting (G15, 8). The perpetrators’ reports are unspecific, general, and inadequate. The difference in perspective is hardly surprising, given what we know about egocentrism in adolescence.

In some cases, cyberbullying gets reinterpreted and becomes transformed: But there was no fighting and no one got hurt (G14, 24). This statement clearly shows that the consequences of offline physical violence are directly available and therefore have greater regulatory potential. Online violence lacks that spectacular expression, making its symptoms more difficult to spot and more susceptible to reinterpretation.

The analysis of teachers’ statements confirms deficits in control and behavioural inhibition: And when they get angry, they either start fighting and brawling, or they take the phone and write to one another. On Messenger I think (B14, 6); Recently, there’s been a fight, and it also started on Facebook, because the boys put each other through the wringer so much that when they met in real life, fighting ensued. (…) Those three said they were provoking and they apologised, they should not have provoked and the other one shouldn’t have hit them or shouldn’t have let himself be provoked and we decided that was his weakness, he gets provoked, so when he is ready to get physical, he is to turn on the spot and come to me or his friend (MT, 3).

The statements of adolescents indirectly suggest that their behaviour online is typified by the lack of thought about its consequences: It hadn’t occurred to me what someone else could feel (B14, 9). Impulsivity and reactivity are manifested by the widespread use of vulgarisms: I saw her post the video and this jester’s nature awoke in me, and so I wrote ‘you cunt’ to her (B14, 24). Negative, vulgar expressions dominate communication (…) Your face is like a vomited, expired squirrel cutlet; Why weren’t you at school you prick; I can’t bear to look at your mug, you must be a faggot (WT, 6). Impulsivity and lack of control are also manifested in problems with clear and logical verbalisation of thoughts, causal formulation of narration. They include large numbers of interjections and digressions, confounding the argument and detracting from its communicative value. The reports indicate the dominant role of automatic regulation, deficits in attention control, and routine and repetitive behaviour: I, for one, am in this group on Facebook called “Fame Seekers,” and there (…) we like each other’s photographs. I don’t even look at them, just click like, like, like immediately (G13, 5).

3.8. The Role of Teachers in the Process of Cyberbullying Prevention

The material collected includes a number of thematic threads pertaining not only to acts against violence but also to education and prevention. The school counsellor always helps us (…) There were talks with the counsellor and she persuaded us to stop bullying this girl [i.e., the victim—authors’ note] and to accept her instead, and this was a breakthrough, at the beginning it seemed funny, so we were sharing it, and only then most people understood that it may not be cool or funny (G13, 9).

An important factor in preventing situations potentially leading to peer violence and providing solutions to them is a proactive approach by the teacher, which may involve the use of social media, not only as a platform for conveying instructional materials but primarily as a tool for promoting educational goals and building social bonds with young people. I’m on Facebook as a school counsellor. I keep this account just for my students, next to my private account. (…) They do write various things on their walls and being on Facebook allows me to pick up on what’s going on with them. So I contact them in private and write that I can see that they are sad, and I offer my help, to which they typically reply that they would like to come and talk (WT, 21) ; I write to the sender that this post should not perhaps have appeared when I notice something on the school Facebook group (MT, 7).

As the collected data indicate, the victims and witnesses of cyberbullying seek help from adults: the majority of respondents reported an act of cyberbullying to an adult person—a parent and/or teacher/school counsellor, especially if the act was highly victimising. Those who come are mostly victims, sometimes also witnesses (…) these kids know that they can get help here (MT, 7); From the very beginning I kept my mum informed and we went to see the teacher together the next day (G14, 44). The interviewees note a positive tendency to turn to adults for assistance: It seems to me that students’ attitude towards teachers and parents has changed for the better. Now they tend to see adults as competent users of the Internet, who know what goes on there, and not like some aliens from a completely different world (MT, 6). How adults are contacted by the victims and witnesses of cyberbullying depends on many factors and may not involve face-to-face interaction. It depends on the circumstances on both sides. Those involved may do it directly or through their mates. Sometimes they put an anonymous note under your door saying that there is a problem and asking you to visit a website and see (…) (WT, 21). The main criteria based on which adolescents choose the addressee of their request for help are trust and expectation of an adequate response (i.e., lack of exaggeration and being discreet). A friend of mine went to see the school counsellor, who then called that guy [the perpetrator—authors’ note] and they simply had a conversation (MT, 13).

As the material obtained in the study indicates, present-day educational goals can be achieved thanks to a significant presence of adults both on the Internet and offline, as evidenced by this testimony of a young person: One of the coaches is my Facebook friend. He’s an active Facebooker (…) and president of the sports club, posting a lot of sports events and some info about the club (…) (B15, 12). Even though such activities may not seem to be strictly connected with counteracting cyberbullying, they are a form of what is known as positive prevention, which relies on the enhancement of individuals’ resources. The relationship between an adult educator and a young person provides many opportunities to strengthen the potential of the latter, with the Internet being a convenient medium for prevention and with teachers availing themselves of the “bright side” of social media: For young people, the Internet is a socialising space, a source of information and personality development. Internet activities are an alternative to ‘doing stupid things’ (G15, 8). The next statement by a school counsellor demonstrates the awareness that well-established bonds with young people should be perceived as an important protective factor: When you have good contact with them, they indeed come (to talk about various problems) (WT, 24).

Recognition of the Internet as a platform for building positive peer relationships in virtual communities, whether they are the sole form of contact between peers or complement an existing offline relationship, can be seen in this statement provided by a school employee: I know and it is really interesting for me that kids establish such class groups with teachers. There’s a group admin and a vice-admin who post reminders about class tests. When someone has missed classes they ask others what the lesson was about, so this group is really helpful as a source of information about the current class and school affairs. Some teachers are members of such groups and others, who are not, may be informed by students about what is going on in the class social media (WT, 16).

It is crucial for teachers to be aware of the fact that they have to identify students who are likely to become victims, bearing in mind that cyberbullying is often a mere extension of traditional forms of peer violence. Victims are typically chosen from the group of pupils with a weak position in the class. They become victims of aggression; you don’t attack someone strong (WT, 24). Some of the interviewees seem to notice opportunities in online activities typically seen as dangerous or morally dubious, such as online games: playing games supplied by foreign servers, he had to learn the language and his English improved in writing and speech (WT, 15). Another statement showing appreciation of the opportunities offered by the Internet for developing interests and training social skills is this: (…) [The Internet –authors’ note] is a space, where—I can see that—even kids who seem to not have any hobbies, get interested in something. They come across videos showing people doing some things and they get inspired to develop some new interests. They are looking for information, they want to discover something about the world (…) after some searching they may find something they will start to identify with; (…) They work through everything that happened in the school, using their specific language, of course. Perhaps they are venting their anger and other emotions that arose in them in response to what happened in the school but they could not show their reaction in front of the teacher. This is very frequent in such groups (WT, 16).

3.9. The Methodology of Cyberbullying Prevention—Perception, and Expectations

In the light of the collected material, both the preventative and interventional measures undertaken at school are often rooted in punitive, retributive philosophy. The following testimony corroborates this observation: I think we’ve had one class [about cyberbullying—authors’ note] and we were threatened with the perspective of dealing with a prosecutor (G14, 26) ; One student was told that he would get a low conduct mark but ultimately he got a good one; Each school has a statute based on education law and the only penalties stipulated in the statute are the teacher’s or head’s reprimand, so they were officially reprimanded. Because the situation took place in the spring, they got low conduct marks at the end of the year—if you get an official reprimand, the final conduct mark has to be the lowest on the scale. But students couldn’t care less. Penalties don’t work, their effect is zero (WT, 12). Anti-cyberbullying actions are typically undertaken post factum, rather than as preventive measures: Students were bullying another student on Facebook (…) The class teacher asked me if I could do something about it. So I said I’d devote a class to this problem (MT, 7).

Another recurrent topic in the material under analysis was that of divergences between young people and adults concerning their respective assessment of frequency, appeal, and efficiency of prevention and intervention actions. And the next day after the lesson the fake account of that student was deleted. So they got the message (MT, 8) ; We did have such classes but not many. We wrote something, we talked, and played the game called “Mafia”. These activities were supposed to build a bond among us, but they didn’t change much. We surely won’t miss each other (G14, 30). These statements, however, were produced in different situations and conclusions should be drawn with caution. Another testimony given by a student exemplifies the ambivalence in assessing the effectiveness of interventions undertaken at school: In fact, little was done at school in my opinion, lowering the conduct mark didn’t have any effect because it was not on his certificate. His parents weren’t even notified; he only talked to a psychologist. Well, our relationship got better; he stopped doing what he used to do, so it really is better for me, but on the other hand… (G15, 17).

One of the most important conclusions supported by the young people’s testimonies is that educational meetings about violence prevention are typically conducted in the form of lectures and they inspire little interest on the part of participants: Not very interesting. The teacher just talked to us (G14, 26) ; They could organise it differently. It’s mainly theory (B14, 28). Furthermore, the content of such lectures is often considered to be abstract and quite far removed from reality: We had classes on how to use the Internet in a safe way, conducted by some teachers. And they weren’t really interesting. They should talk about situations in which we can find ourselves and, for instance, how to solve problems. What we heard instead was that the Internet is something blah blah and that it cannot be deceived (B14,16) ; we had lessons on cyberbullying too, both with people specially invited to our school and as part of the IT course, most basic stuff (…) It was a talk (…) generally we weren’t listening too closely (…) it was just obvious things, like if we notice someone is being abused we have to report it, but surely we don’t need to be told such obvious things … (G13, 39). These statements point to a discrepancy in perspectives (of students and teachers) from which the prevention of cyberbullying is approached.

Ambivalence can also be found in the students’ evaluation of the usefulness of educational meetings on violence prevention: The meetings are obligatory so we attend. Cool, classes are cancelled during those meetings (B14, 28) but also: We miss important classes, and then we are behind on the material (G14, 30). The meetings are typically described as boring and largely ineffective: These meetings are not particularly successful (B14, 28); It’s neither interesting nor encouraging (G14, 30) ; There are boring programs—some people talked about something (B14, 45). These statements illustrate the perceived passive character of efforts that make no use of young people’s activity and involvement. Efforts of this kind are not suitable for the existing challenges. Due to the fully controlled nature of this kind of address, a lecture is a “safe” form of delivery for the teacher. When the meetings are well designed and prepared, they do exert a real positive influence, as noted by this student: [after a class on cyberbullying—author’s note] our understanding and acceptance increased (…) people no longer tease this girl but they are trying to help her (G14, 20).

According to individual teachers, intervention measures are often graded (e.g., a reprimand first, then being summoned by the school headmaster, notifying parents, and finally informing external authorities), as this statement indicates: if I have a perpetrator, I have to scare them off first, my aim is to make sure that what they did will not happen again. I don’t want to appeal to their emotions because it would take longer and may not have an immediate effect, but my method is effective—the perpetrator gets it at once. Further work may also be necessary, but most of the time the first step is sufficient (MT, 7).

Many students participating in the study point out that effective cyberbullying prevention, or, more broadly, Internet threat prevention is necessary. More specifically, they suggested that cyberbullying prevention should be carried out through the same medium in which it occurs: the Internet should be discussed on the Internet (B14, 11). Interviewees expressed expectations related to the interactive character of the medium, its attractiveness, and motivational systems: a lot of videos and rewards (G15, 25). It is also necessary to recognise the varied character of young people’s educational needs, and the limitations of preventive actions carried out sporadically, as evidenced by this statement: I know my peers and I know that such a film [about a woman being a victim to cyber aggression—authors’ note] won’t change their conduct on the Internet (B13, 8). This might point towards a tendency in educational work to use stereotypical cases that do not stimulate reflection or can even promote habituation—a desensitisation to exposure to others’ discomfort.

Using narratives based on authentic experience in planning prevention can be conducive to its effectiveness. The need to have educational materials illustrated with examples is also reflected in the following statements: It would be much better if those directly involved had a voice (B14, 28); Better give examples—it’s more interesting (B14, 45). Young people’s suggestions include greater interactivity and a strong emotional context, as reflected in this statement: More communication with the instructor. To encourage those who would like to take an active part but won’t volunteer (G14, 29); Avoid showing slides. Somebody should talk without shying away from graphic details (G14, 30). Well-thought-out use of knowledge obtained from students—addressees of prevention measures—in designing anti-violence programs should contribute to their effectiveness. Being open to the addressees’ perspective helps in obtaining precious knowledge about whom they follow on social media and who is, therefore, an idol and authority figure for them: Serafin is a Youtuber making funny videos that he posts as comments about the hits of the Internet. But recently he started posting more serious stuff, for example, about refugees or the school system reform (G15, 16). Another advantage following from diagnosing young people’s needs regarding violence prevention is becoming familiar with specific topics and problems that can be taken up in school activities, such as debates or workshops: It should contain a definition and deal with privacy issues, such as the degree of privacy on Facebook so that we can find out what others know about us and what can happen. Not everybody is aware that photos and posts they upload can be seen not only by their friends but also by strangers (G14, 10); I think that posting those silly videos should be restricted, so when a stranger decides to watch something like that, they would have to accept it, it’s just stupid and unnecessary. People have no sense of shame today and post anything; it didn’t use to be like that … (G14, 2).

4. Discussion

The aim of our qualitative projects was to gain a more in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of peer cyberbullying: its features, conditions, and relations with the offline reality, from the perspective of young people involved in different roles in cyberbullying as well as their teachers. Our analyses confirmed the legitimacy of taking up the issues contained in the research questions.

Based on our results, we can conclude that both forms of cyberbullying via private identifiable means and public communication channels are used. This latter could be interpreted as an online version of indirect bullying, establishing negative attitudes against the victim and opening the door to other direct forms of bullying [ 70 ]. From a practical perspective, both identified forms of cyberbullying need to be addressed separately through effective prevention and intervention strategies. This is due to different underlying mechanisms and coping strategies that are based on different types of online communication. This is mainly connected to public dimension of some cyberbullying acts that made them more severe in terms of victimisation [ 71 ].

Offline situations as the cause of aggression exhibited on the internet seem to explain what teachers describe as declining aggression in direct contact. It would therefore seem that aggression has not diminished, but rather transformed, migrating into the digital space [ 72 ]. The opposite direction has been very rare—still we have found testimonials when young people situated origins of bullying online—e.g., in closed classroom fora.

Victims of bullying often go on to become bullies themselves, while perpetrators are victimised, with offline problems replacing online ones, and vice versa. Substantial evidence points to various links between offline and online bullying roles in terms of cyberperpetration as a predictor of traditional school bullying, traditional school bullying perpetration experience as a cyberperpetration predictor, and links between the roles (the bully–victim status) [ 30 , 73 ].

Generally, our findings help interpret the results of much quantitative research, which often finds an overlap between offline bullying and online bullying [ 21 , 74 , 75 ]. Effective prevention programs should therefore also acknowledge offline situations viewed as a potential source of cyber-bullying.

Our analyses confirm that social media is perceived and used by young people as a space for presenting visual aspects, including external appearance. With its open and interactive nature, social media is an ideal arena for self-presentation and publishing photos ridiculing others. Both forms of activity exploiting the external appearance fulfil the self-valorisation function and serve as a status generating tool in the Internet, with the latter being a particularly acute form of cyber-violence.

Many expressions of cyberbullying are aimed at the features of physical appearance. This is confirmed by the salience of physical features in social perception [ 51 ]. Appearance-related attributes are very “concrete” and stereotyped in their nature: they dominate perceptions and become an easy excuse for derisive comments. Additionally, our findings showcase the need to emphasise the topic of cautious online self-presentation in cyberbullying prevention programs. It remains equally important to emphasise a simplified character of inferring about a person’s traits based on his/her physical attributes [ 55 ]. Materials and exercises that reveal the superficiality and inadequacy of such a strategy may cause addressees to reflect upon their behaviour and re-examine reasons for cyber violence.

From the data collected in the interviews, we can conclude that both bullies and bystanders, whether adult or adolescent, tend to describe the perpetration of bullying as thoughtless, unintentional, and unpremeditated. These results provide evidence for the need to implement non-restrictive no-blame approaches for perpetrators in cyberbullying prevention and intervention actions. Other data clearly show that the dynamics of cyberbullying cases are dependent upon other unintentional factors, such as specific technological settings, friend vs. acquaintance of the cybervictim, the bully’s popularity, clear vs. unclear circumstances, perceived fairness of the behaviour of the involved parties, directness or proximity to the cybervictim, the severity of the act, etc., which influence the process and the outcomes of bullying acts [ 36 , 37 ]. Those mechanisms spark a tendency to blame the victim and adopt attributions that show emotional and rational distance. That was partially proved by results of other studies suggesting that students avoid victims, especially in classes with strong status hierarchies and imbalance of power, where friendship with victims increases the risk of loss of position and being victimised oneself, which makes the likelihood of intervention low, as bullies select victims with few or no friends [ 76 ].

In some cases, bullies fail to appreciate the harm they have caused even after some time has passed (even despite clear evidence). This stands in line with quantitative data on moral disengagement of cyberperpetrators [ 77 ], which is higher and much easier in the online context due to reduced social and contextual cues available [ 78 ].

The adolescents’ and teachers’ statements confirm that the specifics of communication mediated by digital tools create particular circumstances that facilitate behaviour that reinforces online aggression. The content of the narratives usually suggests that peer violence on the Internet is viewed not as a category of behaviour, but unrelated, isolated acts of violence, each of which has a unique context. The adolescents failed to draw more general conclusions, e.g., about the category of situations that trigger aggression. However, many accounts contain a more or less openly expressed intuition that the specifics of the online environment facilitate involvement in and reinforcement of bullying. These findings correspond with many previous reports pointing out that the sense of anonymity (sometimes present even in situations when a perpetrator is known to a victim) concerning both parties in the interaction is a key modifier of mediated communication [ 48 , 79 ]. Based on these results, enhancing teenagers’ knowledge on the impact of computer-mediated communication on their behaviour seems an important condition for an effective approach to reducing online aggression.

Another aspect of the analysis of collected material suggests that the peer group active online is perceived as the source of norms that regulate behaviour, which is especially apparent when computer mediated communication is used. Harmful online behaviour subordinated to peer norms increased victimisation. The universality of peer standards and fear of consequences of exclusion seem to justify and, at the same time, be the cause of negative actions on the Internet. This is why it is crucial to take into account the dynamics and significance of peer group in developing effective cyberbullying prevention programs. Particularly important is raising awareness concerning peer influence and the automatic and impulsive online behaviour that may be caused by it.

Our results highlight the importance of bystanders’ reactions to cyberbullying as a powerful social influence mechanism in creating positive anti-bullying behavioural models [ 14 , 30 , 36 , 80 ]. The collected findings on the role of bystanders stand in line with the knowledge of the bystander effect [ 81 ] when those who witness bullying shift responsibility for responding to it to the teacher or the victim’s friends [ 61 ]. Bullies are accepted according to pro-bullying class norms with certain strategies or unintentional actions, bystanders can reinforce bullies or support and defend their victims, both online and offline [ 82 ]. It underlines different factors and mechanisms operating in school class contexts that influence bystanders’ behaviour: adherence to peer group norms; perception of group hierarchy; homophily; pluralistic ignorance; bystander effect; social identity; and moral disengagement among adolescents, which might contribute to how bullying is perceived, shape responses to it, and explain why it is so pervasive [ 83 ].

Analysis of the statements indicates control and inhibition deficits. They increase the probability to engage in hostile online behaviour. The control functions, as well as empathy, are subject to changes through education programs. Therefore, it is of crucial importance for the prevention programs to include strategies directed at enhancing various manifestations of executive functions. These should include improvements to implementation plans and strategies, operational memory, and mindfulness training [ 84 ]. Additionally, the kind of preventive measures that include the element of induction appear to optimise empathy [ 85 ]. Cognitive empathy responses, especially role-taking, are shaped by environmental factors, i.e., parental and teachers influence and preventions programs. Modelling, the use of induction and perspective-taking are often mentioned as parenting techniques that facilitate the development of cognitive empathy [ 85 , 86 ]. Though we have not measured empathy levels, our interviews provided unique insights into the way participants perceive and interpret the suffering of others, and the responses it elicits. Furthermore, the method offers a glimpse of how costs and benefits are calculated with respect to responding to the apparent victimisation of peers, as well as the awareness of others’ perspective and ability to anticipate their emotional states.

Online mediated contact with those suffering reduces involvement of the basic mechanisms of automatic, affective empathy [ 86 , 87 ]. This is due to the lack of direct contact with a universal stimulus (e.g., facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures), which would automatically trigger aversive arousal [ 88 ]. In addition, advanced mechanisms responsible for triggering reflective, cognitive empathy [ 86 , 89 ] are impeded. On the one hand, this is the product of the characteristics of digital devices that reinforce superficiality and impulsivity; while on the other hand, the problem lies in the developmental specifics of adolescence: deficits in inhibition, control, and self-distancing. Numerous results confirm the importance of empathy in reducing cyberbullying both as a personality disposition [ 18 ] and a situationally activated factor [ 14 , 35 ]. This needs to be addressed in the process of creating effective online bullying preventive measures.

A key role for effective prevention and problem-solving is teachers’ commitment to building and strengthening traditional (offline) relationships among young people and supporting their online engagement. As the findings show, students seek help from adults with whom they have a good relationship and who appreciate the importance of new media in the lives of young people. This positive image should not however be generalised to teachers as a group, as it pertains to individual adults, especially psychologists and school counsellors, who are trusted by young people. Such individuals typically undertake actions, often informal ones, on their initiative rather than act within a general scheme developed at the institutional level.

A crucial component emerging from our research is that solving issues related to cyberbullying needs to be implemented within the “understanding approach” of the teachers. There is a need in developing diagnostic competency in recognising potentially problematic situations (e.g., the importance of identifying high-risk groups as an element of systematic action against peer violence [ 90 ].

The most important conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis of the material collected in our research is that a significant number of measures undertaken by educators draw on many different approaches and models rather than on a systematic program of peer violence prevention and intervention. This clearly shows the need for a teacher approach shaped by an empathetic, personalised understanding of adolescents’ needs and motives. This approach also requires openness and a non-judgmental attitude towards young people and their problems, both offline and online. Nonetheless, our data shows the opposite. The typical approach of teachers may be characterised as rather distanced and based more on punitive strategies than real interpersonal contacts. This may negatively impact the students’ willingness to turn to teachers as helpers and mediators during cyberbullying incidents. This negative tendency may be even reinforced by unattractive didactics of many educational meetings concerning online risks as stated by our young respondents.

In terms of their universal characteristics, the interventions given as models in the literature tend to be multifaceted and interdisciplinary [ 74 , 91 ]. As such, they involve integration of interactions addressed to individuals (e.g., victims), the whole class, and/or the whole school community, incorporating both regular and occasional activities, proactive as well as reactive, i.e., initiated on an as-needed basis. The interdisciplinary approach is defined as involving experts from various disciplines (educators and psychologists, but also IT specialists, lawyers, police officers, etc.). The programs themselves should have strong foundations in theory, empirical findings, and knowledge of best practices, with systematic assessments of their outcomes [ 5 , 9 ]. This approach to cyberbullying prevention has proved to be particularly effective [ 80 ].

Another apparent shortcoming of preventive measures seems to be educators’ lack of ability to move from an abstract, often oversimplified level of description of the phenomenon to particular strategies acknowledging the experience of young people. Pupils express preference for an entirely different approach in prevention (e.g., more interactive, engaging forms, more taking into account the context of new media). It is also worth mentioning the need expressed by young people to use in educational activities the personal stories of individuals involved in cyberbullying. This kind of approach is likely to appear more worthwhile to target groups, since stories told by peers are more engaging than purely theoretical information. Moreover, such stories are also more memorable and comprehensible, as pointed out by Kreuter, et al. [ 92 ]. The fact that the online environment is not only the source of the problem but also a medium through which it can be solved was noted by Vandebosch [ 11 ]. This means that its engaging character is a clearly important distinguishing feature of the Internet as a means for preventive actions. Deliberate use of this quality seems to be important in terms of making productive use of the Internet in this context.

5. Conclusions

We have explored the key influencing conditions in order to show the complexity of the phenomenon of cyberbullying as well as its dependence on various contextual and relational factors. Implementing these results into effective prevention and intervention measures, in particular educational settings, is a challenge.

One of the fundamental aspects is to create a prevention strategy that would be more sensitive to the perspective of individuals who have important and unique knowledge. Unfortunately, the question of how young people perceive the source of cyberbullying, efficacy, and appropriateness of prevention and education efforts is rarely asked. Anti-bullying programs developed and/or implemented by their addressees based on participatory research are few and far between [ 34 , 93 , 94 , 95 ], with even fewer that take into account the perspective of not only adults, i.e., teachers, but also that of the adolescents themselves [ 29 , 93 , 95 , 96 ]. On the other hand, the importance of this approach finds support in this article’s reported data as well as empirical findings that show that ignoring the needs of adolescents or implementing inadequate interventions when dealing with peer relations that involve cyberbullying discourages students from seeking adults’ help, thereby limiting the range of effective forms of support available in these difficult circumstances [ 66 ]. This is precisely why asking what we can learn from the young victims, bystanders, and perpetrators of cyberbullying are so important. Opinions of the addressees of these actions (satisfaction, needs, perceived outcomes) should constitute the foundation for creating new and improving existing support programs, as was done in the research presented here.

The study is a source of both recommendations for future studies on cyberbullying prevention as well as for effective preventive measure creation.

The specific prevention strategies we recommend based on our results are as follows:

• Cyberbullying is not a monolithic phenomenon but rather a collection of qualitatively different sub-phenomena that should be adequately addressed when developing preventive measures. This as our results shows may be caused by differences in technology use (methods) but also social aspects such as connection to traditional bullying or public versus private mode of hostile attacks.
• Cyberbullying prevention should include online communication mediated in private and public channels as well as offline problems of young people, particularly those connected to traditional bullying.
• Cyberbullying prevention should address all three roles present in cyberbullying cases: victims, perpetrators, and bystanders, as all actors influence the dynamics of particular cases. Bystanders have an especially powerful social influence in creating positive anti-bullying behavioural models.
• Cyberbullying prevention measures should be adopted from the individualised perspectives of young people and teachers, since attitudes of young people in this respect closely relate to actual behaviour (e.g., providing support or indifference while witnessing cybervictimisation)
• Cyberbullying prevention should emphasise the topics that are universal for the stage of adolescence: cautious online self-presentation as well displaying manifestations of the superficiality of judgment based on looks; the significance of the peer group and its consequences.
• Cyberbullying prevention should focus on enhancing teenagers’ knowledge on the impact of computer-mediated communication on their behaviour in cyberbullying actions.
• Cyberbullying prevention should focus on developing in adults an understanding of the importance of new media in the life and education of adolescents and on supporting teachers in online engagement. Another crucial element is to sustain and deepen traditional (offline) relationships with young people in the new media environment, underlining the role of teachers in modelling antibullying standards.

Thus, the results of the study provide both educational recommendations and suggestions for future studies on cyberbullying prevention. By using a qualitative approach, we were able to better capture the context and perspective of adolescents and teachers. This ensured a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities of violence perpetrated with the use of new technologies from the perspective of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders.

The study naturally has its flaws and limitations. The first limitation of the gathered data is its local context. The study was conducted only with (blinded for the review) pupils and teachers so its generalisability to other countries is limited. Yet, the issue of generalisation of our findings seems more complex. Although the achieved results are not representative in a statistical sense, the idea of their generalisation seems to be justifiable. Based on the rules of sample selection criteria in qualitative studies the sample meets the requirement of homogeneity (our respondents were precisely selected with regard to the education stage) and internal differentiation (selection of schools from various urban and rural settings, public and private schools, schools equipped with various Internet infrastructure as well as various socio-economic backgrounds). Specificity of qualitative research permits finding generalisations as long as the research is aimed at seeking qualitative knowledge, i.e., that concerning the motives and mechanisms of cyber-violence, as well as relations, for example, those between a witness’s experiences and offering help to victims, or configurations of, for example, competences regarding empathy and control and the phenomenon of cyber-violence. Thus, their significance lies in facilitating the recognition and understanding of the respondents’ natural environment. They also serve as a prerequisite for generating hypotheses concepts as well as application requests. The repetitiveness of observations in subsequent interviews is, most certainly, a pivotal factor [ 97 ].

Second, it seems overly optimistic to expect that the presented qualitative material will provide a definite response as to what kind of preventive measures ought to be taken. Likewise, no clear-cut methods of compensating the deficit of competences conducive to violent behaviours can be inferred. Our interlocutors told us about their feelings, experiences, and behaviours, but it lies with the researcher, who also takes into account other data from this domain, to decide how the gathered material could be used to develop a preventive strategy.

Third, due to the complexity of the attitudes and behaviours of young people, as well as the experiences and events described by them, one ought to remain cautious about the provided straightforward responses. For example, the attractiveness of the Internet should not fully determine one’s decision to use it as an exclusive tool in education programs with the form of a lecture, considered as “dull”, being eliminated. There are advantages and deficits to both forms. For example, online conditions increase superficiality and rashness [ 41 , 42 ], whereas an interesting lecture may engage reflexivity. Everything depends on the adequateness and attraction of the content of the message—the choice of the medium seems much less important.

Fourth, our study is situated within a qualitative paradigm. Thus, we do not have the data that allows us to provide credible comparisons between different subgroups (e.g., boys and girls). This shortage is also connected to our sampling that is not representative for such comparisons. Nonetheless, our findings may be implemented in further quantitative research, particularly for defining variables and categories and constructing research tools.

Finally, the limitation of semi-structured interviews is the use by participants of subjective criteria to evaluate what they identify as the root cause of the phenomenon. Thus, it sometimes happens that they do not distinguish between the causes and symptoms of a phenomenon. Nevertheless, such material offers an opportunity to identify the subjective perspective of people directly involved in a given phenomenon.

Funding Statement

This research was funded by Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju PL (The National Centre for Research and Development). Grant number: /IS-2/31/NCBiR/2015 https://www.gov.pl/web/ncbr-en (accessed on 10 July 2022). Grant recipient: Praesterno Foundation https://www.praesterno.pl/programy-biezace/cyberprzemoc/ (accessed on 10 July 2022). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.P., P.P., A.S. and J.B.; Data curation, J.P., P.P., A.S. and J.B.; Formal analysis, J.P., P.P., A.S. and J.B.; Investigation, J.P., P.P., A.S. and J.B.; Methodology, J.P., P.P., A.S. and J.B.; Validation, J.P., P.P., A.S. and J.B.; Writing—original draft, J.P., P.P., A.S. and J.B.; Writing—review & editing, J.P., P.P., A.S. and J.B. All authors contributed equally to this work. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethical Committee of Faculty of Psychology of the University of Warsaw, Poland. The ethical procedure of the study included also the following elements: Written parental/guardian consent in the case of students, voluntary participation and the opportunity to withdraw from the survey at any stage, saving and publishing research material in a way that protects the anonymity of respondents and leaving the choice of method of documentation to the respondents (audio recording or written record).

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cyberbullying Scenarios

Use these scenarios to discuss the issue cyberbullying. What is your role in preventing or responding to these incidents?

From: Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2015). Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications (978-1483349930).

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