Exploring Cyberbullying

The group started the exploration on cyberbullying by watching
Ryan Halligan's story as told in a video on YouTube by his father:
They shared how this video affected them, and the point was made that it was important for young people to be shown real stories like this so that they could understand consequences of actions. This was followed by a discussion on all the factors that relate to cyber bullying with the following points being highlighted by the
young people :






































The young people felt that the Ryan's story was a very moving as it was narrated by his dad; they felt it highlighted the role of the bystander (and how powerful that role is, and that young people should be educated to not simply turn a blind eye, but to take action to tell an adult if someone was being bullied); they also felt that there was more need for young people to understand the social, emotional and legal consequence of cyberbullying (and bullying) and the fact that in the UK there has already been a case of a young person who was jailed for cyber bullying: See:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208147/First-cyberbully-jailed-Facebook-death-threats.html

The young people felt that such stories needed to be shared, as young people needed more information and support. We also discussed that the best ways for schools to address this was through an ongoing programme - rather than one-off sessions, as it was felt that thinking and behaviour cannot be changed in simple lessons; they felt that peer education programmes for younger pupils would be a good way of addressing this - they also said that cyberbullying should be addressed as a whole school programme - for staff and young people.

The group watched the UNICEF video on cyberbullying:

 and gave the following feedback regarding the video. They felt that the animation was: