Teachers can help prevent cyberbullying. Here are tips you can use with your students to create a safer environment in your virtual classroom and beyond. 

<p>Educators are in a unique position to spread awareness and help safeguard against cyberbullying.&nbsp;</p><p>First, it’s important to understand what cyberbullying is. Cyberbullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. It can occur through text messages, private chat, social media, any open online forum, or even gaming – basically, any online environment where people can share content and interact.&nbsp;</p><p>Outlets for sharing information about oneself can be attractive to the young, developing mind seeking social connection, but this also allows for opportunities for others to leverage that information to cause embarrassment, humiliation, harassment, or even threats. The more time children and teens spend online, the more exposure they can have to cyberbullying.&nbsp;</p><p> Some cyberbullying even crosses legal definitions of discrimination or harassment and may require legal action. As an educator, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the local laws and regulations and to help empower your students and others in your community with information.</p><h2>How Educators Can Help Stop Cyberbullying</h2><p>Cyberbullying can be difficult to control since teachers and school support professionals are unable to monitor all online interactions. This poses a distinct risk because of the far-reaching access points afforded through the 24/7 interconnected cyber environment. Compounding the challenges students face in an increasingly interconnected academic and social world, many adults lack personal experience with the level of cyberbullying today’s youth encounter, making it hard to detect.&nbsp;</p><p>However, there are signs to look out for and safeguards you can implement to protect students from online abuse and bullying.&nbsp;</p><h2>Signs of Cyberbullying: What to Look Out For</h2><p>If a child is a victim of cyberbullying, they may seem:</p><ul><li>Withdrawn or uneasy about school activities</li><li>So locked into their device they are unable to hear others or process instruction</li><li>Readily distracted and nervous when attempting to complete tasks online</li><li>Jumpy, scared, or nervous in response to notification sounds&nbsp;</li><li>Frustrated or distressed after engaging in online activities such as discussion, gaming, or content sharing</li><li>Unwilling to discuss or share information about their online activities</li><li>Uninterested in social or extracurricular activities&nbsp;</li><li>Showing classic signs of emotional duress such as sudden weight or appetite changes, anti-social behaviors, depressive symptoms, or substance abuse</li><li>&nbsp;</li></ul><h2>Safeguards Against Cyberbullying: Tools and Resources</h2><p>Use these strategies to help your students ward off cyberbullying:</p><ul><li>Give students the tools to identify when they are being bullied. Teach social-emotional skills such as recognition of one’s own emotions, help-seeking, impulse-control, self-regulation, stress management, and coping mechanisms so they may know how to recognize and react to cyberbullying.</li><li>Offer safe options for students to reach out, seek help, and report when they feel they’ve been bullied. Offer counseling resources and make students aware of any school reporting protocol.&nbsp;</li><li>Remind students it’s okay to reach out even if they feel they themselves have bullied others. Often, victims become perpetrators so it’s critical to catch this dynamic before a pattern of bullying sets in; safe options for self-reporting are also important.</li><li>Encourage students to speak to their friends about cyberbullying. This can mean helping each other cope with, access resources, or report cyberbullying. It can also mean reaching out to a friend they feel may be engaging in cyberbullying behavior and letting the friend know it’s not okay (without putting them down). Friends play a crucial role in establishing norms and reinforcing codes of conduct.</li><li>Teach students how to walk away from their devices and engage in another activity when they start to feel duress during online interaction. This may help prevent, de-escalate, and disengage the interaction with the potential for bullying. Active pursuits such as walking, practicing a sport or instrument, reading a book, or anything which redirects the student’s attention are ideal. The key is just to walk away from the online interaction which causes stress. Teach that it is okay to leave a stressful online interaction without satisfying the person on the other end.</li><li>Teach students how to set timers for themselves for online engagement. Many apps offer time limits in the device or app settings.&nbsp;</li><li>Inform students about the importance of privacy settings and limiting the personal information they share. Tell them that privacy is an important norm in our online culture and that those settings exist for their protection. In particular, most apps provide an option to block bullies or unwanted accounts and content.</li><li>Students may be afraid of losing phone or internet privileges if they speak out, so do not make access to those commodities contingent on healthy interactions. Set solid boundaries for online interaction, irrespective of bullying concerns.&nbsp;</li><li>Make sure any chat forums implemented as part of your curriculum are monitored and inform students that you are able to read or see what they are contributing. Offering this information upfront helps deter cyberbullying before it starts.</li><li>Remind students that people behave differently online. Online forums lack the benefit of face-to-face interaction. This creates an artificial or even anonymized setting which allows for less authentic and often more negative dialogue because social consequences are diminished. This allows would-be bullies to take more risks in an attempt to feel powerful. This is not to be taken lightly, but it can help students contextualize and distance themselves from the impact of some negative interactions.&nbsp;</li><li>Let students know there are consequences for cyberbullying. These can include being ignored, blocked, reported, or facing school-based consequences or even legal recourse.&nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;</li></ul><h2>Educational Resources</h2><p>Bookmark these tips to help your students safeguard against cyberbullying. While you’re here, browse our other helpful resources for educators compiled by our team of teachers, school therapists, school counselors, and educational support professionals at Cross Country Education.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>

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