Cyberbullying!

Description of the activity:

Step 1: Search in advance for a number of videos about cyberbullying, for example on the video site www.youtube.com.

You can opt for campaign videos using the search term “stop cyberbullying”. Many of these videos were made by governments, others by students as part of school or class projects.

Step 2: show the video you have chosen as a class. Then have the students work in four groups to think about various aspects of the video. Guiding questions are:

• Group 1: What is cyberbullying? What forms of bullying occur, e.g. verbal bullying, psychological or physical bullying, exclusion or social bullying, indirect bullying (inciting people against someone). What are the digital forms of such forms of bullying?

• Group 2: Why do children bully others?

• Group 3: What could be the consequences for the victim? Are the consequences different if cyberbullying occurs?

• Group 4: What can you do if you are being bullied? And what do you do when you witness bullying? How can you prevent bullying?

Step 3: the answers lead to a classroom discussion. As a teacher, you can make links with the school policy on bullying. You can reflect before or afterwards about the role that mobile phones play in the videos.

Points of attention

A lesson on such a sensitive topic can sometimes be very confrontational for children of the age of 14+ who have previously been victims of (digital) bullying or are still being bullied. Be extra alert about this.

If you notice that there is a bullying problem in the classroom, address it immediately with the students involved, their parents and school principals.

After the lesson, always leave an opening for learners who want to return to the problem later, e.g. by referring them to the school's confidential/counseling teacher, the children's and youth telephone line, etc.