Post pandemic cyberbullying

STOP IT!

With the pandemic came, months of confinement and, therefore, less school attendance and more social interaction through mobile devices.

The most common reasons for aggression via social media are physical appearance (52.5%), being different (46.4%), for the things they do or say (39.1%), for their tastes (30.4%), for being from another country, culture, race or religion (26.2%), for being new (20.1%), for their sexual orientation (15.2%) or for having a lot or less money (14.2%).

The most effective way to resolve bullying is to notify the school teacher. Working on the emotional aspect with a therapist and reinforcing positive support in the family environment but more than anything else, we must prevent this from happening.

Keys to stop cyberbullying

1.- Do not reply to messages that try to intimidate you or make you feel bad. By doing so, you will probably encourage it to happen again.

2.- Save the message: you don’t have to read it, but keep it as proof of the bullying. It is vital to have a record of the incident when you seek help.

3.- Tell someone you trust. Talk to your parents, friends, teachers, school inspectors and counselors or an organization. Let people who can do something about the problem know about it. You can take control of the situation by not putting up with content that is offensive to you or someone else. People need to know something is happening to take action inmediatly.

4.- Block the bully. You don’t have to put up with someone who is bullying you.

5.- Respect others and respect yourself. Being online means you are in a place where information is made public, even if it doesn’t always seem that way. If you see a message, photo, meme or video that offends someone else, don’t «Like» it or share it.

Although our sons and daughters may be with us for a large part of the day, we must be aware that they may be victims of bullying.

Fuente: World Vision Chile