Sesma Against Bullying

Contact Us

Cyber Bullying

With the increase of social networking sites, online activity and messaging apps, cyberbullying is on the increase.
At least two million British children experience online bullying each year, with more than a quarter of them finding it to be
worse during lockdowns compared to when schools are open, according to research by USwitch. 

What is Cyber Bullying?

Cyberbullying occurs when electronic communications such as text messages, emails, instant messages, and social media updates are used to threaten or humiliate someone. People of any age can be cyberbullied, but it happens most often to adolescents and teenagers. Its consequences can be just as serious as the effects of bullying that occurs in person. Cyberbullying is never the victim’s fault. If you’re being bullied, you can deal with it by blocking the bully online and reporting the incidents to an authority figure
Do not DELETE the messages etc, it can be used as proof.

SESMA against bullying norwich & Newmarket

Ask the bully to stop

Some bullies start out as a friend, an ex, or someone else you know well. If it’s possible to have a reasonable discussion with the person, ask them to stop.
Have the conversation in person, not through email or text. Be clear and direct, and say something like, “I saw those things you said about me on Facebook. That’s inappropriate and it hurt my feelings; I’d like you to stop saying those things about me.”

If you don’t know who the bully is, or if you’re being bullied by a group of people, attempting to talk it out probably won’t work.

Don't Respond

If talking it out won’t work, don’t directly respond to the text messages, instant messages, emails or other communications you may have received from the bully. Bullies want to elicit a reaction from their targets, so firing back a text will only make things worse. Your best course of action is simply to disengage.

Also, don’t threaten the bully to get back at them. Sending a threatening message out of exasperation will only provoke the bully to keep up the bad behavior, and it may get you in trouble, too.

Save the evidence

Screenshot or save every email, text, instant message, social-media post, and any other evidence of cyberbullying that you come across. Record the time and date that each message was sent. If you can’t screenshot the offensive messages, you can copy/paste them and save the text on your hard drive.

Having as much information as possible about the bully’s behavior will help you determine how to stop their behavior.

You can also show this evidence to an a teacher or the police to prove that you’re being bullied.

Block the Bully

Immediately put an end to the bully’s ability to harass you online by blocking that person from direct communication with you. Take advantage of social media sites’ privacy settings to make sure the bully can’t engage with you online anymore. Take the following steps to protect yourself:

Delete the person from your email contacts and block instant messaging communication.

Delete the person from your social networks and use the online privacy settings to ensure that the person can’t get in contact with you again.

Block the person from texting your phone.

Remember to copy all comments of bullying first.

Tell an adult

If you’re a child or teenager, ask an adult for help. Your parents, teachers, head teacher and school counselor are all in a position to put a stop to the situation before it goes any further. Don’t assume the problem will go away on its own; speak up immediately to put a stop to it.

You might be tempted to let the bullying run its course instead of bringing attention to the problem, but if you do that the bully will get the message that there’s no penalty for harassing someone.

Plus the comments may reappear at anytime and the cycle can start again.

Talk to your school

Tell a person in authority what’s going on, and explain to them the ways in which you’re being cyberbullied. If you’re not comfortable talking to a principal, talk to your favorite teacher or the school counselor. Every school has a policy for dealing with bullying, and more and more schools have a specific plan for putting a stop to cyberbullying.

No matter what your school’s individual policy might be, it’s part of the administrators’ job to resolve the situation.

If you’re a child or teenager, know that taking this issue to the school is the right thing to do. Other kids at the school may be experiencing cyberbullying, too. The school needs to be made aware of the problem to take steps to end it.

If you’re a parent, set up a meeting with the school principal to address the problem head-on.

Report the Bully

Report the bully to your service providers and social media sites. Cyberbullying usually violates the terms of service laid out by social media sites, cell phone providers, and other service providers. Read up on your providers’ policies and take steps to report threatening behavior. The provider may decide to penalize the bully or delete their account as a result of your report.

You may have to send your records of the cyber bully’s messages to the provider as proof you are being bullied.

You can also report bullying to an organisation called Report Harmful Content online and they can help to get things taken down

Contact the Police

In some cases cyberbullying may be classified as a crime, which places it beyond the jurisdiction of schools and service providers. If the cyberbullying involves one of the following elements, call the local police (101), or report to the officer stationed at your school.

  • Threats of violence or death.
  • Sexually explicit photos or descriptions of sex acts. If the images are of a minor, this may be considered child pornography.
  • Secretly-recorded photos or videos that were taken without the subject’s knowledge.
  • Hateful texts or online messages that single out and harass the victim on the basis of certain features, such as race, gender, religion, or sexual identity.

parental control

This software or app will block attempts at bullying and prevent your child from seeing inappropriate online content. If you don’t already have this, then ask your parents about installing it.

If you’re a parent, then go ahead and install protective software—or turn on privacy apps—as a protective measure.

electronic devices sesma martial arts norwich & newmarket against bullying

There are many ways of bullying someone online and for some it can take shape in more ways than one. Some of the types of cyber bullying are:

Harassment – This is the act of sending offensive, rude, and insulting messages and being abusive. Nasty or humiliating comments on posts, photos and videos on social media sites, chat rooms and gaming sites. Denigration – This is when someone may send information about another person that is fake, damaging and untrue. Sharing photos of someone for the purpose to ridicule, spreading fake rumours and gossip. The photos can also be altered for the purpose of bullying. Flaming – This is when someone is purposely using extreme and offensive language and getting into online arguments and fights. They do this to cause reactions and enjoy the fact it causes someone to get distressed. Impersonation – This is when someone will hack into someone’s email or social networking account and use the person’s online identity to send or post vicious or embarrassing material to/about others. They may also create fake accounts to cause hurt and humiliation. Outing and Trickery – This is when someone may share personal information about another or trick someone into revealing secrets and forward it to others. They may also do this with private images and videos too. Cyber Stalking – This is the act of repeatedly sending messages that include threats of harm, harassment, intimidating messages, or engaging in other online activities that make a person afraid for his or her safety. The actions may be illegal too depending on what they are doing. Exclusion – This is when others intentionally leave someone out of a group such as group messages, online apps, gaming sites and other online engagement.

 

Facebook – click on their profile, then on the ‘message’ button dropdown and you will see the option to ‘unfriend’. You can also block a person this way.

Twitter – to remove or block someone on Twitter, click on the button with a head icon on it next to the ‘Follow’ button on a user’s profile. If you click on this you will see a menu with the options to BLOCK the user to prevent them from seeing your profile, and vice versa, and you can also REPORT FOR SPAM, which will alert Twitter to any users who are abusing the service. Read our article about Twitter safety.

YouTube – go to your account page and click on “All Contacts” link in the “Friends and Contacts” section. Choose which person you want to unfriend and the click on “Remove Contacts”. From then on the person won’t be on your “Share Video” list.

WhatsApp – You can click on the name and then you will be taken to a dropdown menu and you can then choose to block the person.

Snapchat – to block a user who added you follow the steps below. Tap ‘Added Me’ on the Profile Screen. Then tap their name, and tap the wheel icon next to their name. Press ‘Block’ to prevent them from sending you Snaps, Chats, or from viewing your Stories.

Instagram – when you block someone, they can’t see your profile or posts. People aren’t notified when you block them. To block or unblock someone, tap their username to open their profile and then tap the three dots and press the option to block user.

Facebook – You can report bullying on Facebook using the report links which appear near the content itself, as 3 dots and will give you an option to hide or report the comment or post. They will investigate and let you know their outcome. You may want to read their help pages on bullying. 

Twitter – On Twitter you can choose to protect your tweets so that people can only follow you if you approve them first. You can select this by going into the ‘settings menu’ then ‘security and privacy’ and ticking the box for ‘protect my tweets’. Find out more about the difference on Twitter between public and protected tweets.

YouTube – To flag a video you think is inappropriate (click on the little flag bottom right of the video) and YouTube will take a look at it to see whether it breaks their terms of use. If it does then they will remove it. YouTube rules say you can’t upload videos with hate content, nudity or graphic violence and if you find one on someone else’s space, click on the video to flag it as inappropriate. If under comments, you are being bullied, harassed or threats are being made, they have a reporting tool page where you can report the bullying and they will investigate.

WhatsApp – You can find out more by emailing them at support@whatsapp.com.

Snapchat – If you receive an inappropriate photo or someone’s harassing or bullying you, report it by filling out their online form.

Instagram – Their advice initially is to block and unfollow the person who is being abusive. However, if it continues or it has gotten worse, you can use their in-app reporting tool. This page has details on how to report the abuse directly to them.

Facebook – to deactivate your Facebook account go to the “settings” tab on the Account page. That will remove your profile and content and nobody will be able to see your details or search for you. But if you decide to reinstate the account later then the whole lot will be restored, including your friends and photos. If you would like to permanently delete your Facebook account, log in to your account, click ‘Privacy and Settings’, ‘See More Settings’ and select ‘Delete my account’. Once you have confirmed your wish to delete your Facebook account it can take up to fourteen days for it to happen. 

Twitter – on the settings tab on your profile, you will see ‘deactivate my account’ at the bottom. Click on this to delete your account. You have 30 days to change your mind otherwise your profile, all of your tweets and data will be permanently deleted. 

YouTube – click on “My Account” in the top right hand corner and under “Account Settings” click on “Delete Account”. Give the reason you’re quitting the site and your password and then click “Delete My Account”. Log out by clicking the link in the top right hand corner. Your videos will be removed from the site immediately and the thumbnails will disappear as soon as YouTube is updated. Your profile is removed permanently. 

WhatsApp – you can remove the app from your smartphone either through app management in settings or by going into the settings of WhatsApp.

Snapchat – Open the Snapchat app, login and tap the Settings icon in the upper right corner. Navigate to Support and then Learning the Basics and then click on delete an account.

Instagram – Log into Instagram from a mobile browser or computer. You can’t temporarily disable your account from within the Instagram app. Click your username in the top right and then select Edit Profile. Click temporarily disable my account in the bottom right and follow the on-screen instructions. If you want to delete your account permanently, go to the Delete Your Account page. If you’re not logged into Instagram on the web, you’ll be asked to log in first. Select an option from the drop-down menu next to Why are you deleting your account? And re-enter your password. The option to permanently delete your account will only appear after you’ve selected a reason from the menu. Click or tap permanently delete my account.