2024

Recent survey data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control indicate that approximately 22 percent of students in grades 6–12 reported they were the victims of repeated harassment online, or cyberbullying. The prevalence and popularity of smartphones, computer access, and popular social media sites for children (e.g., TikTok and Instagram) means that school bullying doesn’t end when the school day ends. Victimization can now extend to nights and weekends. Research has indicated an association between cyberbullying and self-harm, and, indeed, there have been well-publicized cases of suicide by children who were victimized by texts, emails, and social media posts. What can educators and parents do to reduce cyberbullying? What policies are needed?

To answer these and other questions, we asked Dr. Sameer Hinduja, Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University and Co-Director of the Cyberbullying Research Center. Dr. Hinduja is also Co-Founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Bullying Prevention. He also presented at a Congressional Briefing on school safety jointly hosted by the JPRC with George Mason University’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy.

What is cyberbullying?

With my long-time colleague Dr. Justin W. Patchin, we have historically defined cyberbullying as willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. In this definition, you can see that the behavior has to be intentional and involve harm inflicted multiple times. This is similar to face-to-face bullying. What distinguishes cyberbullying from face-to-face bullying is that victimization occurs using some form of communications technology that we are familiar with—phones, tablets, desktop or laptop computers, gaming platforms, and so on.

Does cyberbullying affect victims differently than face-to-face bullying?

I would conclude “yes.” One way is that the audience of the bullying is potentially much larger, and so many others often not only see the harassing or hateful content but may also gang up and participate in harming the target. Additionally, the content posted to bully targets can remain online unless the platform on which it is posted responds promptly to any help reports that are filed and acts to remove it. The audience and the longevity of the hurtful/hateful comments could heighten the negative emotional and psychological effects that victims experience, compared to face-to-face bullying.

How is cyberbullying changing with recent advances in technology?

What is top of mind for me has to do with (1) metaverse risks and harms and (2) generative AI risks and harms.

The “Metaverse” provides a richer, deeper, and more visceral experience of heightened emotionality, and it stands to reason that youth may be increasingly susceptible to a variety of harms on these immersive platforms. In a recent paper titled, “Metaverse risks and harms among U.S. youth: Experiences, gender differences, and prevention and response measures,” we analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 5,005 U.S. adolescents ages 13 to 17, and we found that girls are more susceptible to sexual harassment, grooming, predatory behavior, and gender-based attacks. We also found that girls tend to utilize specific online safety strategies more frequently but that in general, children infrequently use the available platform safety mechanisms.

Generative AI technologies, on the other hand, can be exploited to create deepfakes, facilitate catfishing, automate harassment, generate hate speech, and enable privacy violations through doxing and sextortion. The ease with which AI can produce and disseminate harmful content at scale poses a serious threat to online safety, particularly for youth. The ability of generative AI to analyze personal data and create highly targeted attacks further increases these risks.

In your experience, what are the most effective strategies schools and educators can implement to prevent cyberbullying and to create a safer online environment for students?

I believe we need to prioritize the building of positive school climates marked by shared feelings of connectedness, belongingness, emotional warmth, peer respect, morale, safety, and school spirit. In one of our studies, we found that in schools where students perceived a better or more positive school climate, there was significantly less cyberbullying (as well as less school bullying, violence, and other problem behaviors). This makes sense because—surprising, perhaps, to some of your readers—most cyberbullying among youth occurs between individuals who know each other at school—not between strangers who only connect online. Specific school programming toward this end can help reduce the frequency of cyberbullying, as well as contribute to increased student attendance and participation, higher student achievement, and fewer disciplinary issues.

I’m also a big fan of cultivating resilience. Resilience is the capacity to bounce back and successfully adapt in the face of adversity. Some interesting findings on this topic came out of one of our studies. Here, resilience was measured using a 10-item scale by Campbell-Sills & Stein, the items of which “reflect the ability to tolerate experiences such as change, personal problems, illness, pressure, failure, and painful feelings.” Those with the lowest resilience were more likely to say that it negatively affected their school experience. Students with high resilience who were cyberbullied were more likely to utilize prosocial responses—like reporting it to a school authority or to the site or app on which it occurred, changing their screen name, blocking the harasser, or logging out. They believed in themselves and their ability to do something about the problem. However, those with the lowest levels of resilience, when cyberbullied, did nothing. They suffered silently, because they didn’t know they had agency and autonomy to control their online experience.

Finally, educators and administrators should consider implementing more social norming initiatives in schools. Social norming involves modifying the environment or culture within a school to encourage appropriate behaviors and make them widely perceived as the norm. Schools should strive to create a setting where responsible use of social media is simply “what students do” and “how it is” among the student body. This can be achieved by strategically highlighting the majority of youth who use social media in positive, constructive ways. Rather than focusing on negative statistics, such as the percentage of students who engage in cyberbullying, schools should reframe these figures. For example, if 12 percent of students in the school cyberbully others, the emphasis should be placed on creating cool and relevant messaging strategies that highlight the vast majority (88% in this case) who use social media with integrity, discretion, and wisdom. By defining what is normal and typical among the student body, schools can help induce the remainder to conform through the power of positive peer pressure. This approach can effectively promote a culture of responsible online behavior and digital citizenship within the school community.

What role do parents play in preventing and addressing cyberbullying?

First and foremost, parents should ensure their child feels safe. The well-being of the child should always be the foremost priority, even though parents may be inclined to blame their constant use of online platforms or convey that they are indirectly responsible in some way. It is crucial that parents demonstrate unconditional support, because otherwise the child may never open up to them again in the future. In this tense moment following the cyberbullying incident, parents should talk with and listen to their child. They should take the time to learn exactly what happened, and the nuanced context in which it occurred. Parents shouldn’t freak out, but also shouldn’t minimize the situation or make excuses for the aggressor.

Next, it’s vital that parents collect as much evidence as they can. They should print out or make screenshots of conversations, messages, pictures, and any other items which can serve as clear proof that their child is being cyberbullied. Parents should keep a record of any and all incidents to assist in the investigative process. Also, they should keep notes on relevant details like location, frequency, severity of harm, third-party involvement or witnesses, and the backstory. This will help them then work with the school. All schools in the U.S. have a bullying policy, and most cover cyberbullying. Parents should seek the help of administrators if the target and aggressor go to the same school. Their child has the right to feel safe in their learning environment, and schools are responsible for ensuring this through their investigation and response.

When professionals work with youth targets of cyberbullying, they often hear that the children don’t want anyone to make a big deal of what happened, and they don’t want the “bully” to get in trouble. Instead, they just want the problem to go away. As parents, they can help make this happen. They should contact the online platform, and typically these companies will respond to the complaint in 24–48 hours. There is an ever-growing list of contact information of these businesses available at cyberbullying.org/report. Parents will want to send them as much information as possible, such as screenshots, screen recordings, user account information, and specific locations where the offending content appears.

Also, parents should remind their children that they can control their online experience by blocking, muting, and reporting other users who have harassed or annoyed them. Every major social media app and online multiplayer game has that functionality built in, and youth don’t need to subject themselves to interactions with people who are mean. Also, they should not hesitate to unfollow or unfriend anyone who compromises the quality of their online experience. It’s hard to do so sometimes—even for adults—but it’s necessary.

I also think we need more intentionality when it comes to building empathy. Our published research has highlighted that lower levels of empathy are consistently linked to various problem behaviors, including cyberbullying, while children with higher cognitive and total empathy are significantly less likely to engage in such harmful actions. To cultivate empathy, parents can encourage sensitivity to injustice, helping their children recognize and be moved by unfairness in any form. Given the increased exposure to hate speech and xenophobia in recent years, parents must actively counteract these influences to prevent the normalization of contempt toward those who are different. By reminding children that everyone fundamentally desires love and belongingness—and that their words and actions are powerful—parents can instill a deeper sense of empathy which will translate to less harmful actions toward others, both face-to-face and online.

Finally, and as alluded to earlier, parents should try to cultivate resilience in their child when they deal with relational conflict that is minor in nature. Too often, parents respond in a knee-jerk fashion to protect their child from any and all social problems. Unfortunately, this then keeps their children from learning the skills to overcome relational hardships. The reality is that everyone has to deal with people who are rude and malicious and spiteful in adulthood, and so adolescents should face and rise above some of these milder incidents with the support and guidance of loving parents. This can provide parents with the opportunity to make sure that their children’s self-worth isn’t solely rooted in peer perceptions but instead in who they are becoming as a person and what their future is going to look like. Finally, parents should help their children to understand the typical motivations behind why people are hurtful toward others (jealousy, personal stressors, insecurities, family problems, self-hatred, lack of empathy and maturity, intolerance), and help them recognize when those issues in their own life need to be addressed.

Lastly, what approaches do you believe will play a significant role in mitigating cyberbullying?

In my opinion, the future of cyberbullying prevention lies in a strengths-based approach that focuses on cultivating positive attributes in youth, such as empathy, resilience, and hope. These protective factors not only deter young people from engaging in harmful online behaviors but also help lessen the impact when they become targets themselves. Plus I believe that by leveraging the extensive reach and influence of social media platforms, we have a unique opportunity to partner with tech companies to develop really compelling, relevant educational initiatives. These programs can be designed to resonate with young users and promote better online decision-making skills while fostering an ethos of digital citizenship. I’d like to see more partnerships between platforms, academia, nonprofits, and others to create innovative, engaging content that can actually move the proverbial needle with youth. Finally, there are many critical research questions related to tech use, overuse, and misuse among youth that need to be answered, and our Cyberbullying Research Center welcomes partnerships with funders in the upcoming months as we continue to uncover knowledge that promotes youth safety, mental health, and well-being.