Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a form of bullying that can be defined as both verbal and relational bullying as they can both happen through the usage of technological tools. To begin with, we have to understand what is bullying, bullying is a behavior that is intended to mean harm to the other person. There are different forms of bullying, it can be verbal, physical or rational. Verbal bullying include the acts of teasing or threatening another person. Physical bullying include hitting, harassing, pushing or kicking the other person with the intentions of hurting them. Rational bullying include the acts of spreading rumors, harming friendships and harassing the other person. Cyberbullying can also be regarded as a form of aggression, as people react in a hostile manner towards their peers by using social media platforms and this hostility can result into harmful effects, such as suicide or self harm.(Smith,2015)

Cyberbullying takes place in a variety of settings, school setting is an important setting of them all as studies have shown that it has increased at an alarming rate at this setting, as a result of having technology and social media integration in schools. As a result of this, schools should pay attention to this form of bullying and students should be aware of this.(Myers and Cowie, 2019)

This can simply be done by having events that address this issue as it is likely that many students lack knowledge about this form of bullying, and some take it lightly. As learners are the ones who are most likely to participate in this form of bullying as a result of wanting to gain recognition from their peers by spreading rumors and embarassing others, the focus of the event should be shifted to them rather than the educational stakeholders, as they are able to engage respectfully and actively in social media spaces. Learners should know that this kind of behaviour cannot be promoted in schools, and it can also be regarded as an offence and they can find themselves in trouble for such behaviour. Cyberbullying builds one a negative digital citizenship as it means that you are unable to navigate your digital environments in a safe and responsible manner and engage actively and respectfully in these spaces.

In order for learners and educational stakeholders to be good digital citizens, they have to make sure that they avoid cyberbullying by standing up to it when they see it happpening and by reporting it to relevant people, such as the police or their teachers or principals. They must not condone the acts of cyberbullying by sharing or spreading what they have heard or what they saw, as this will mean that they are also taking part and that can make them have a negative digital footprint resulting them in being bad digital citizen.

Learners prevent cyberbullying by practicing the 6R's, which are Rules, Recognize, Report, Respond, Refuse and Replace. The first R which stand for rules means that there should be rules that are set or have a policy that is against bullying. The second R which stand for recognize mean that learners and stakeholders should be taught how to recognize bullying in the educational spaces. The third R that stand for report, is straightforward that learners should report bullying after recognizing it. The fourth R that stand for respond meaning that learners that witnessed this bullying should be taught how to respond to bullying. The fifth R that stands for refuse means that learners should be taught how refuse bullying and stand with the victim when doing this. The sixth R, which is the last one and it stands for replace, means that students must be helped to replace aggression with acceptance. (Borba,2018)