Cyberbullying is a form of bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. It can occur through SMS, text, apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content[1]. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can also involve sharing personal or private information about someone else, causing embarrassment or humiliation[1].

Some common forms of cyberbullying include:

• Spreading rumors or lies about someone online.
• Posting embarrassing or hurtful photos or videos without consent.
• Sending threatening or abusive messages through social media, text messages, or emails[2].
• Impersonating someone to send mean messages or post inappropriate content.

Cyberbullying can have serious consequences for the mental health and well-being of victims, leading to anxiety, depression, and even affecting their academic performance[3]. It’s important for parents, educators, and children to be aware of these threats and take steps to prevent and address them.

Warning Signs a Child is Being Cyberbullied or is Cyberbullying Others

Many of the warning signs that cyberbullying is occurring happen around a child’s use of their device. Some of the warning signs that a child may be involved in cyberbullying are:

• Noticeable increases or decreases in device use, including texting.
• A child exhibits emotional responses (laughter, anger, upset) to what is happening on their device.
• A child hides their screen or device when others are near, and avoids discussion about what they are doing on their device.
• Social media accounts are shut down or new ones appear.
• A child starts to avoid social situations, even those that were enjoyed in the past.
• A child becomes withdrawn or depressed, or loses interest in people and activities.

Technical steps you can take to combat cyberbullying:

Facebook:

We have a number of anti-bullying tools across Facebook and Instagram:

• You can block people, including any existing and new accounts they might create.
• You can mute an account and that account will not be notified.
• You can limit unwanted interactions for a period of time by automatically hiding comments and message requests from people who don’t follow you, or who only recently followed you.
• You can use ‘Restrict’ to discreetly protect your account without that person being notified.
• You can moderate comments on your own posts.
• You can modify your settings so that only people you follow can send you a direct message.
• We will notify someone when they’re about to post something that might cross the line, encouraging them to reconsider.
• We automatically filter out comments and message requests that don’t go against our Community Guidelines but may be considered inappropriate or offensive. You can also create your own custom list of emojis, words or phrases that you don’t want to see.

For more tips and ideas, visit Instagram’s Safety page and Facebook’s Bullying Prevention Hub. We also offer resources, insights and expert guidance for parents and guardians on our Family Center.

Snapchat:

We want teens and young adults to be aware of the blocking and removal functions on Snapchat. Clicking on the person’s avatar will bring up a three-dot menu in the upper right-hand corner. Opening that menu offers the option of “Manage Friendship,” which, in turn, offers the ability to Report, Block or Remove the person as a friend. Know that if you block someone, they will be told that their Snaps and Chats to you will be delivered once the relationship is restored.  

It’s also a good idea to check privacy settings to ensure they continue to be set to the default setting of “Friends Only.” This way, only people you’ve added as Friends can send you Snaps and Chats.  

We also recommend reviewing your Friends’ list from time to time to ensure it includes those people you still want to be friends with on Snapchat.  

TikTok:

Alongside the work that our safety teams do to help keep bullying and harassment off our platform, we provide an extensive range of tools to help you control your TikTok experience. You can find these in full on our Safety Centre. Here are a few highlights:

• You can restrict who commentson your videos to no one, just friends or everyone (for those aged under 16, the everyone setting is not available)
• You canfilter all comments or those with specific keywords that you choose. By default, spam and offensive comments are hidden from users when we detect them.
• You can delete or report multiple comments at once, and you can block accounts that post bullying or other negative comments in bulk too, up to 100 at a time.
• A comment prompt asks people to reconsider posting a comment that may be inappropriate or unkind, reminding them of our Community Guidelines and allowing them to edit their comments before sharing.

X:

We want everybody to be safe on X. We continue to launch and improve tools for people to feel safer, be in control and manage their digital footprint. Here are some safety tools anyone on X can use: 

• Select who can reply to your posts – either everyone, only people you follow or only people you mention
• Mute – removing an account’s posts from your timeline without unfollowing or blocking that account
• Block – restricting specific accounts from contacting you, seeing your posts, and following you
• Report – filing a report about abusive behaviour
• Safety mode – a feature that temporarily blocks accounts for using potentially harmful language or sending repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions.

References:

Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA). (2019, December 5). Cyberbullying tactics. StopBullying.gov. https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/cyberbullying-tactics

Abramson, A. (2022, September 7). Cyberbullying: What is it and how can you stop it? https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/topics/bullying/cyberbullying-online-social-media?form=MG0AV3