Taking Action Against Cyberbullying

To introduce key concepts of this lesson, students can complete the Digital Heartbreak storyline in the Digital Compass. This is a fun way for students to take a look inside the lives of another with an exciting 'choose your own adventure' component. 

Warm Up Discussion: Cyberbullying

Do you have a nickname your family calls you? 

How would you feel if your friends, for a joke, started calling you by this nickname? 

What if they added a funny adjective to it? Perhaps they might call you Sassy Sam (an example for a student named Samuel or Samantha). Or what about Snarky Sam? 

While we all might say that it depends on who is creating and using the nickname, most of us agree that being called something like Sassy/Snarky Sam wouldn't be all that fun. 

Now let's say that someone takes the negative adjective and nickname they've come up with and they post it to every single picture they can find online, on Instagram, on Snapchat, etc. Maybe they even post a picture of you to their account with the insulting nickname. Would that be OK? Or, would it depend on the type of relationship you have with that person?

You are likely feeling like this would not be ok. That's because this would be cyberbullying and there is no circumstance under which this would be acceptable behavior. 

Empathy

When we considered the nickname scenario, we were discussing how the situation might make us or another person feel. What we were doing was called empathizing, or showing empathy. This is when we imagine the feelings that someone else is experiencing. 

Why do you think it might be important to empathize with others? 

Allow sharing before covering these ideas:

• Make decisions about how they treat people

• Make decisions about how they allow others to treat them

• Build relationships with others

• Decide on what they think is right and wrong

Now, let's read a story about Kevin and Jose to further learn about empathy. 

Kevin sends his friend José a short video he made at home, a reenactment of a famous fantasy movie scene. José, laughing at how Kevin looks, shows it to another boy, Max, at school. Max laughs at Kevin, too, and then decides to post it on a video-sharing website. Hundreds of people then view Kevin's video. Many nasty comments are posted. Every day, Kevin goes online to check the site and sees more comments like "idiot" and "fat nerd." Every day, he goes to school and hears similar cruel comments from some of his classmates. No adults know about the situation, not even Kevin's parents. One teacher at school overhears the boys laughing about the video but isn't sure what they're talking about.

Is what Jose did in this scenario OK? Why or why not?

What Jose did was not OK because, if we were to empathize with Kevin, it's likely that Kevin was extremely embarrassed and even devastated by what happened. This is an example of cyberbullying. 

Could this situation have turned out differently? 

If so, how? To answer this, you are going to take the perspective of one of the people in the story. 

Roles:

• Jose

• A friend who received and forwarded the video

• The teacher who overheard the boys laughing

• Kevin's parent

Write down the person you are taking the perspective of and then complete the columns in the table on this handout. 

Reflect

After considering another perspective and talking about it, complete the reflection questions on the second page of the handout. 

Follow up questions to the reflection: 

• Why might that action have been difficult for the person to do?

• Is there something else they could've done instead?

Being an upstander and ally

An upstander is someone who responds to a bullying situation by confronting the bully directly or by telling a trusted adult. 

An ally is someone who responds to a bullying situatoin by supporting the person being bullied (ex: checking in with themn, being a friend to them, etc.)

One last scenario 

Mia is going through her Instagram feed. She sees that her friend Tess has posted a photo with her where they’re both making funny faces while eating frozen yogurt. Mia also sees that people they go to school with have commented on the picture.

"OMG lay off the sweets, fatty"

"Soooooo lame"

"Looks pretty dumb for someone who's supposed to be so smart" 

"WHAT is she wearing?"

Imagine you are Mia's friend. What could you do to be an ally or upstander when you see these comments online?

What challenges might there be to doing the actions you described above. How could you address those challenges. Are there alternative actions you could take?