The high prevalence of cyberbullying estimates that approximately 40-55% of school children have been involved in bullying, either as victims, aggressors or observers. Harassment produces serious consequences on an emotional and cognitive level, leading to suicide in the most serious cases. Faced with this, it is extremely important to establish an intervention to detect harassment, but it is even more important to be able to carry out prevention to prevent these behaviors from occurring. However, the prevention of violent behavior in new technologies is currently an educational challenge, due to their wide scope.
In this Psychology-Online article, it will be explained how to prevent cyberbullyingspecifically how to prevent cyberbullying on social networks, based on educational conditions that have the objective of promoting prevention tasks against cyberbullying.
What is cyberbullying prevention?
The expansion of new technologies has transformed society, especially from infants to young adults. However, the rise of these technologies has facilitated the increase in violent behavior between peers, giving way to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a type of crime that, due to its characteristics, produces serious consequences for minors. It’s important to know . In order to combat cyberbullying, it is essential to provide prevention against it.
Obviously, in a cyberbullying prevention program, the educational community must include a training space regarding good practices and habits of use of new technologies, so that good management of their use is established. However, true cyberbullying prevention has at its core awareness and feelings presented in the face of this set of moral decisions that appear in these harassments. So that, Moral education must be the fundamental pillar of cyberbullying prevention, beyond the disciplinary models that must be followed or the legal consequences that this harassment may entail. Since if the preventive objective is to educate, work with the internalization and management of the set of moral guidelines involved in these situations is relevant.
Faced with this, the solution to bad practices is not based on resorting to drastic measures, such as prohibiting the use of technologies, since the good use of these brings many benefits. The solution goes through teach how to make good use of technologies from moral education and internalization of what these behaviors entail. In summary, it must be clarified that education in moral values contrary to abuse will be what stops abuse at its roots, whether direct or virtual.
Cyberbullying prevention strategies
There are different strategies to prevent cyberbullying. The main objectives of cyberbullying prevention strategies are:
- Help children, adolescents or young people in resolution of moral dilemmasthe work of and their behaviors and the managing your feelings and emotions.
- Make students the protagonists of prevention and technology management.
- Group coexistence workof equality and the richness of their differences.
- Promote reflection on cyberbullying: become aware of the scope it has and the effects on the emotional and cognitive level that it generates.
- Involve the educational center and family members in the detection of violent or cyberbullying behavior for early detection. Providing family members with information so that they can help their children make good use of the networks.
- Acquire habits for responsible usehealthy and safe from new technologies.
Cyberbullying on social networks
The truly alarming aspect of social media is the little control that young people have over their personal information, which can be driven by the ignorance of the risks or excessive confidence. Among young people, sharing passwords, talking to strangers, having the social network open without a privacy filter with very personal information exposed, is very common. These behaviors of social media users can be used to generate cyberbullying situations. So that, the lack of control of the information that is shared It can place the social network user in a defenseless circumstance due to the loss of privacy. Faced with this, we will show a set of guidelines that must be worked on to reduce harassment and prevent cyberbullying on social networks.
How to prevent cyberbullying on social networks
Below, we list strategies to prevent cyberbullying on social networks.
- Promote care for personal privacy. Establish healthy habits against self-protection in virtual spaces: work on the internalization of self-protection and self-regulation guidelines. To do this, it is advisable to change the passwords on social networks to increase their protection, review the list of contacts on social networks and try to eliminate those who are not trustworthy. Establish a private profile in the privacy options, take into account the information that is shared and who has access to it. Finally, it is important to avoid sharing information that reveals important details about the person.
- Establish healthy habits against protection of the privacy of others: asking permission to tag photographs in which other people appear and using the tags in a positive way, not with the aim of harming, insulting, violating or humiliating the other.
- Consider the risks to avoid.
- Promote values in virtual content such as respect for differences, honesty, sympathy, etc. It is essential, not only to prevent cyberbullying on social networks, but to improve interpersonal relationships and avoid harassment.
This set of actions must be presented through school and family education, so that young people learn to exercise the correct functioning of social networks.
In addition, social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter offer a “security center” space where the user can report harassment that is occurring on the social network, whether its own or someone else’s, with the aim that the application itself can intervene and stop the harassment situation. For example, Instagram explains what must be done to be able to report an account on the platform that is being used for harassment purposes, or if the objectives of certain comments on a photo are to offend. Also offering an informative space on behaviors that should raise alarm bells on social networks. Facebook, for example, shows how to act if you are a victim, witness harassment, or even if you were a harasser and regret it. On the other hand, it offers resources for family members and educators.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to prevent cyberbullyingwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- Antúnez, E. (2013). Design and validation of a cyberbullying prevention program in secondary school tutoring. UNIR: International University of La Rioja.
- Avilés, J. (2013). Psychosocial analysis of cyberbullying: keys to moral education. Papers of the Psychologist, 34, 65-73.
- Castro, A. (2013). Train for Internet cybercoexistence and prevention of cyberbullying. Integra Educativa, VI, 22.
- Del Río, J., Sábada, C & Bringué, X. (2010). Minors and social networks?: from friendship to cyberbullying. Youth Studies, 88, 15.