Cyberbullying

Despite having more tools than ever to communicate with each other, Jeremy Hyler, a middle-school English teacher in Michigan, says he notices that communication breakdowns among educators, parents and students are increasingly common. In this article, he shares that technology-based communication, where tone can often be misinterpreted, may be at the root of the problem. He also discusses a common problem known as “keyboard courage.” “Keyboard courage” he says is the courage to say things to individuals that you would not normally say if they were standing in front of you. Some of Hyler’s tips to combat miscommunication when using technology include reading a potential post out loud to a friend or family member to gauge its tone, or writing your response in a word processing document first. His biggest advice? Put your digital device down and talk with the person face-to-face (or at least do that when the current health crisis is over).

New research from Kantar reveals that while Generation Z (those with birthdates between the mid 1990s and mid 2010s) is more active on social media than any other age group, their favorite apps aren’t YouTube, Facebook, SnapChat or TikTok. Kids in this generation are most at home in the private and creative world of video games. Nearly 90% of them are gamers (compared to 59% of the total population) and are finding social communities within games such as "Fortnite." Kantar's Michelle Brisson says, "They are just changing the way social media works for them, participating in smaller, niche ecosystems."

If you are not already aware of it, Instagram has a “Restrict” option that givers users control over what comments their followers see on each of their posts. Instagram instituted the option after it was found that young people are reluctant to block, unfollow, or report a bully because it could escalate the situation, especially if they interact with their bully in real life. With this tool, a bully will still be able to see their own comment on their target’s post, but other Instagrammers won't know the comment exists. By restricting a bully, the user is in full control over mean comments while keeping a bully unaware that others are not seeing their taunts.

How can users take advantage of this feature? To restrict comments from a certain account, users should first find a comment that was left on any of their photos. If you swipe left over the comment, a "restrict" option will appear. The person you restrict will not receive a notification they've been silenced. Instead, they'll be able to continue posting their nasty comments to an audience of only themselves.

Other social media platforms are making similar changes. Twitter introduced a feature called "hide replies," which is similar to the Instagram "Restrict" idea, but with one main difference. When a Twitter user hides replies, they are still accessible to the public through a drop-down menu that allows any user to see what hidden comments were left in the thread.

Many schools are using anonymous safety tip lines for more than just gun violence prevention. The pipeline to school administrators is now addressing bullying, drug use and suicide risk among students, according to a new report that surveyed 1,226 principals nationwide. Of these respondents, 66% believed tip lines allowed their schools to respond more effectively to bullying.

Cyberbullying is terrible, but sometimes kids figure out how to get the world to help. That was the case in England when Callum Manning’s older sister tweeted about how unfair it was that her 13- year old brother was being cyberbullied because of his Instagram account reviewing books he liked. Her tweet went viral attracting more than 185,000 likes and over 24,000 retweets. Twitter users responded by making Callum's Instagram follower count surge to 252,000 followers from just 40 – all in three days, making a statement about the community’s disapproval of the bullying. Publishers, authors and book lovers are now seeking his reviews.

Looking for a guide to get yourself up to speed on exactly what bullying and cyberbullying are, the difference between teasing and bullying, and the warning signs of bullying? Check out these short video guides put together by The 74, a web site that looks at a variety of education issues. The site refers to these guides as “Flashcards,” but they are simple to understand presentations on different aspects  of bullying and cyberbullying that can help you and others understand the problem and move to do something about it.

TikTok, a popular app with teens, has revised its community guidelines and provides more specifics outlining 10 unacceptable content categories, including violence, hate speech, bullying, dangerous acts and threats to minor safety. As of yet, however, the platform did not detail how it will determine which content providers are breaking the rules.

School assemblies, poster campaigns and lectures are largely ineffective at curbing bullying among students, writes clinical psychologist Jeff Nalin. In a blog post, Nalin suggests seven strategies to help educators and parents address bullying behavior, including modeling the desired behavior, teaching coping skills and rewarding prosocial behavior.

Have you been getting a lot of spam calls on your mobile phone recently? One study shows that nearly half of all calls to mobile phones are fraudulent, and scams are getting more sophisticated. Call-protection company First Orion says that hacker breaches of major consumer-oriented businesses, such as retailers, give scammers data such as names, phone numbers and more that they can use to impersonate brands or charities in phone calls or emails to consumers.

In an effort to make the platform a more positive place, Instagram has rolled out a new feature that prompts users when something they are about to post might be offensive. Users can ignore the prompts and proceed to post the content, but Instagram is hoping the alerts might make people think twice before posting something they might regret.

Whether or not this proves effective is still up in the air. Instagram said that its efforts to reduce bullying in comments have been "promising," but that doesn't guarantee similar performance for the posts themselves. Someone caught up in the heat of the moment might hit "share anyway," and not worry about the consequences. And there will be moments where a vicious tone may not represent bullying at all -- calling the policy of a politician or public figure stupid may not be constructive, but it's not bullying. Still, this could be helpful if it leads even a handful of people to mend their ways.