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Preventing Cyberbullying: An Urgent Need

By John Casey | September 2023

On May 23, 2023, the United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health. While acknowledging that social media may have benefits for some children, he stresses that “there are ample indicators that social media can also pose a risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

“The most common question parents ask me is, ‘is social media safe for my kids’. The answer is that we don't have enough evidence to say it's safe, and in fact, there is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health,” wrote Dr. Murthy. “Children are exposed to harmful content on social media, ranging from violent and sexual content, to bullying and harassment. And for too many children, social media use is compromising their sleep and valuable in-person time with family and friends. We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address.”

In many schools, online bullying, or “cyberbullying,” has been on the rise. The website stopbullying.gov defines cyberbullying as “bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.”

Unfortunately, the use of social networks in place of face-to-face socialization makes it easier to intensify the effects of bullying. People can carelessly say more extreme things online than in person. There is no immediate feedback to signal how painful their words are. Also, the bullying doesn’t stop when you leave the direct presence of the bully. It can be persistent, continuing 24/7. Social media also allows for others to join in on the harmful behavior, worsening the scope and severity of the harassment. Finally, the power to edit and post photos makes it possible to create visual images that can be public and permanent, potentially causing more harm than words. It is no wonder cyberbullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use and suicide.

School counselors have an important role to play in the prevention of cyberbullying.  A comprehensive school counseling program should include ongoing antibullying and harassment-prevention programs. Classroom lessons and school-wide presentations should emphasize the benefits and risks of social media, the importance of respecting privacy and the need to protect personal information. Students should also be made aware that cyberbullying harms the online reputations of everyone involved – not just the person being bullied, but those doing the bullying or participating in it.

All 50 states have antibullying laws and/or policies in place that require schools to report, document and investigate instances of bullying within a certain time frame. In Illinois, Governor J. B. Pritzker recently approved an update to the state's antibullying law that shortens the window schools have to contact parents if their student is bullying, or is the target of bullying, from 10 days to 24 hours. School counselors should be aware of the content of their own state and district policies. They are often a good guide on how a school should respond to an incident. State-level policies and procedures can be found at stopbullying.gov in the Laws & Policies section.

Most research emphasizes that adult relationships make a difference in how emotionally safe students feel reporting incidents of bullying. Although school counselors are well trained in building rapport and trusting relationships with students, it only takes one adult not listening to make a student feel like nobody cares. It’s important to work with administrators and staff to create a proactive and supportive environment at school that encourages students to report bullying and to seek help should they need it.

John Casey is a member of the ISCA Board and Advocacy Committee, and a school counselor at Cameron Magnet School of the Arts in Chicago.

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