On International Day against Violence and Bullying at School, including Cyberbullying, we highlight the importance of digital skills as a countermeasure against cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is a serious problem with far-reaching and devastating repercussions. It is not enough to simply disconnect students and children from the digital world. Instead, we need to teach them how to use digital technologies safely and responsibly.
Digital skills such as the ability to identify and evaluate information, create and communicate content, and solve problems and think critically can help children to protect themselves from cyberbullying.
For example, data and information literacy skills can help children to distinguish between misinformation (incorrect or misleading information) and disinformation (deliberately deceptive information). This is important because cyberbullies often use misinformation and disinformation to target their victims.
Empowering students and children with digital skills is only the beginning. Building a safe support network for them is crucial – from caring and informed parents to skilled teachers. It’s worth noting that globally, digital skills training for teachers still needs to be widely available. An analysis of the 211 GEM Report’s PEER country profiles on technology in education indicates that only 21% of countries explicitly incorporate online safety into their teacher training programs. In Australia, the eSafety Commissioner is making significant progress by providing valuable information on application features that can increase exposure to content-related risks, and equipping teachers with resources to combat the issue of cyberbullying.
The level of parental awareness and engagement in supervising their children online interactions plays a pivotal role in shaping adolescents’ responsible and appropriate behaviour when utilizing digital technologies. Countries address the need to enhance parents’ digital skills, promote a balanced approach to technology-mediated parenting, and encourage active involvement in fostering their children’s digital skills, as the 2023 GEM Report, Technology in education: A tool on whose terms?, highlighted. These approaches encompass distributing digital devices with essential internet safety components (in New Zealand), offering guidance and kits for cyber wellness, implementing parental controls and navigation tools (in Singapore), and actively engaging parents in overseeing their children’s digital skills via mobile phone participation (in Senegal).
Parents also take proactive steps in the battle against cyberbullying to ensure their children’s safety and well-being online. In 2022, a groundbreaking court decision in the United Kingdom set a significant precedent by holding social media algorithms responsible for the tragic outcome of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old girl. The foundation established by Molly’s parents actively advocates adopting the Online Safety Bill in the UK, which aims to minimize young people’s exposure to harmful content and hold social media platforms accountable for protecting them from various risks. In August 2023, the parents of Marie, a 15-year-old who tragically passed away, also lodged a formal complaint against the social media platform TikTok.
As technology continues to advance, so too must the required efforts to protect individuals from cyberbullying. On this International day against violence and bullying at school, including cyberbullying, we again emphasize the importance of implementing policies and practices that best suit each country’s context to promote digital skills among students, teachers, and parents, enabling them to recognize and address cyberbullying effectively.
