How can your organisation help beneficiaries that are being cyber-bullied?
RECOGNIZE
How do you recognize someone that is being bullied? How do you recognize someone that is a bully? Has your organisation developed an identification process for the above?
RESEARCH
Are you familiar with the social media apps children are using? Do you monitor online activities, daily or weekly? Are you following trending hashtags? Have you created an online forum for adults to be whistle-blowers? Do you have children in your immediate community that can help notify you of cyberbullying?
REACT
The WORST thing you can ever say to a victim of bullying: JUST IGNORE IT. Don’t say that, it never works, it only makes the situation worse. When a child tells you that they are being cyberbullied: 1) LISTEN, ATTENTIVELY 2) BUILD CONFIDENCE, IMMEDIATELY 3) FOLLOW UP BY CLOSE MONITORING
RESPONSIBLY REPEAT
Once you have been made aware of a cyberbullying incident and you have addressed the issue with the victim, it is time to turn to your community to help raise awareness of the dangers of cyberbullying and to help the victim in the healing process. Equip your community with the correct tools and build a partnership with local social workers and guidance counsellors.
[bctt tweet=”#Tech2EndGBV – Tech tools to help end cyberbullying ” username=”tech2endgbv”]
TECH TOOLS TO HELP END CYBERBULLYING
Google Alerts: Monitor Blog Posts or Forum Discussions by setting Google Alerts for certain words or phrases. An example: “Sams Primary School”
Google Search: When last did you search your school, nonprofit or own name?
Google Image search: Use this to identify authors of images to help trace who uploaded the image first
Whatsapp Groups – similar to neighbourhood watches, create Whatsapp Groups for school teachers, parents etc to: Whistle-blow| Raise Awareness | Seek Advice
Social Media – KNOW YOUR APPS FIRST! Spend the time and get trained on
Social Media and the complex apps available that help children mask their
identity. Know how to use the programme before creating a profile to use for
monitoring
Email – make use of your powerful email contacts to send out regular
reminders that your community needs to start talking about cyberbullying
In-App Search – Use Facebook’s Search function to look for terms like:
“Somerset West under 18’s” or “Sy is n SLET – Kaapstad”
BLOCK | REPORT | DELETE – Learn how to block, report and delete someone
off various social media accounts
Screenshots: this is crucial to building a portfolio of evidence against a bully –
teach the youth that if they are ever bullied online, they MUST take
screenshots
Sponsored Posts – Create adverts on Social Media and then boost them to
general public to help spark conversations about cyberbullying – when a
bully feels he or she is being watched by his or her peers, they tend to back
down
CANVA – create free graphics online to post on your Social Media to raise
awareness of cyberbullying
Protect Accounts – change security settings
Organisations to follow for other resources:
www.thatsnotcool.com | www.commonsensemedia.org | www.connectsafely.org | www.athinline.org
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