BULLYING:PERSPECTIVES,
PRACTICE
AND INSIGHTS

Janice Richardson
Elizabeth Milovidov
Roger Blamire

BULLYING:PERSPECTIVES,
PRACTICE
AND INSIGHTS

Janice Richardson,
Elizabeth Milovidov
and Roger Blamire

Council of Europe

The opinions expressed in this work are theresponsibility of the authors and do notnecessarily reflect the official policy of theCouncil of Europe.
This publication has been producedwith the financial support of the Daphne
Programme of the European Union.
The contents of this publication
are the sole responsibility of European
Schoolnet and its partners and canin no way be taken to reflect the viewsof the European Commission.
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Cover photos: Shutterstock
Cover design: Documents andPublications Production Department(SPDP), Council of Europe
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Council of Europe Publishing
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ISBN 978-92-871-8352-1© Council of Europe, April 2017
Printed at the Council of Europe

Contents
FOREWORDNOTES ON CONTRIBUTORSINTRODUCTION – PERSPECTIVES, PRACTICE AND INSIGHTS ON BULLYINGSECTION 1 – PERSPECTIVES

5
7
11
17

1. Virtual environments – Multiple facets, multiple opportunities

19

2. New social settings – Seeking solutions29

3. Understanding cybersafety, cyberbullying and cyberwellness – The youth perspective37

4. The future of parental engagement45

5. Special needs, special cases – Tackling bullying for all

53

SECTION 2 – PRACTICE

61

6. Greece: innovating to respond to 21st-century teaching challenges

63

7. Italy: innovative experiences in tackling bullying and cyberbullying71

8. Croatia: developing a future-friendly school curriculum81

9. Denmark: group chat techniques with vulnerable teens89

10. Australia: tackling bullying through whole-school actions

97

11. Europe: implementing ENABLE

107

SECTION 3 – INSIGHTS

113

12. Social and emotional skill learning – An antidote to bullying?

115

13. When bullying crosses the screen

123

14. Social literacy for preventing, healing and empowering – Research insights

133

15. The quest to develop skills for an increasingly digital life

139

16. Mobilising peers to challenge bullying

CONCLUSIONSENDNOTES

149

155
159

Page 3

Foreword

T

he Council of Europe has, since its creation in 1949, always promoted human rights,
democracy and the rule of law, not just in its 47 member countries but also acrossa much broader region of the world. We are constantly reminded that the children
in our generation will become the leaders in the next, and will shape the world withthe values and attitudes inculcated from the social environment in which they live andlearn. Their understanding of democracy and respect for human rights will be largely
influenced by their own childhood experiences. For this reason, the protection of children against all forms of violence is a principle central to our work, and is one of the fivepriorities of the recently launched Third Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of theChild (2016-2021).1 Bullying is one of the most difficult areas of violence against children
to eliminate, especially with the ubiquitous role that internet and mobile technology
plays in their life today and the capacity this gives for bullying to continue night and day.
Prevention starts with educating children about the harmful effects that their actions
can have on others. It is nevertheless also very important that everyone working
with or raising children is fully aware of the challenges and impact of bullying andis able to provide timely, meaningful guidance. This underlines the importance of
implementing a holistic approach that tackles the problem at its roots by opening up
for children new learning opportunities to develop their social skills, their capacity for
empathy and an appreciation of just how enriching diversity can be. Such opportunities and challenges are presented in the pages of the present publication, throughthe perspectives, practices and insights of the many researchers and practitioners
who have contributed to the work of the European network ENABLE, which is oneof the many initiatives that the Council of Europe supports for the protection ofchildren’s rights. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks
to all the contributors for their dedication to this very worthy cause.

Equal opportunities, freedom of expression, participation and a life free from violence
are the essential ingredients of democracy, and the right of every child. Bullying affects
all of these rights. It is therefore imperative for the future of our society that we work
together to prevent it, at the level of governments and organisations, industry andcivil society, experts and teachers, and parents and children themselves. I hope that
all of them will use and draw inspiration from this publication to join in a common
effort to eliminate bullying from our children’s lives.

Snežana Samardžić-Marković
Director General of Democracy
Council of Europe

Page 5

Notes on contributors
Parry Aftab is a digital privacy and security lawyer. She founded the world’s firstinternet safety and help group and has received the FBI Director’s Award and the Air
Canada/RCMP Child Recovery Award, and accepted on behalf of her volunteers the
Clinton Whitehouse President’s Service Award. Parry sits on Facebook’s Safety Advisory
Board and MTV’s Public Affairs Advisory Board. Many cybersafety programmes (forexample, StopCyberbullying – www.stopcyberbullying.org – and www.cybersafety.
org) were created by Parry and, combined, have been delivered to more than two
million young people.
Amy Barnes holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and works as a health promotion researcher at the Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia. She
has been involved in school-based research addressing the health and well-beingof Australian children and young people for several years, particularly in relation
to their involvement in bullying, cyberbullying and other risky online behaviours.
Anne Collier is executive director of The Net Safety Collaborative, a national nonprofit organisation now piloting the US’s first internet helpline for schools. Anne
has written and spoken widely on the subject of youth and digital media, servedon three national task forces on youth internet safety and currently serves on thesafety advisory boards of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and ASKfm. She blogs at www.
netfamilynews.org (accessed 13 November 2016) and lives with her family in the
Seattle, Washington area.
Ken Corish is Online Safety Director for UK charity South West Grid for Learning,drawing on 20 years as an educator and 10 years as an award-winning adviser with
Plymouth City Council. He advises the UK Government, education inspectorates,
local government and schools on online safety policy and practice. He developed
and wrote the multiple award-winning 360 degree safe (online safety self-review)
tool and the Online Compass tool. He also created the award-winning BOOST toolset
for children’s settings. Ken works with a broad range of national and internationalorganisations and has spoken at global conferences across the world.
Donna Cross is a Winthrop Professor with the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and
Health Sciences at the University of Western Australia and the Telethon Kids Institute.
Donna has led over 50 applied longitudinal school and community-based researchintervention projects in Australia and the US investigating ways to enhance socialand emotional development and reduce bullying and cyberbullying among children
and adolescents. She is currently leading nine research projects investigating ways
to enhance student well-being, especially their social competence, and other skills to
reduce all forms of antisocial behaviour and mental health harm, especially among
vulnerable school-age children.
Page 7

Helen Cowie is Emerita Professor at the University of Surrey in the Faculty of Healthand Medical Sciences. For over 25 years, she has specialised in strategies to counteract
school bullying. Her co-authored book Understanding children’s development, into
its sixth edition in 2015, is one of the most popular undergraduate textbooks in thefield. Recently, she wrote From birth to sixteen.2
Katja Engelhardt is a member of the Knowledge Building Team at European
Schoolnet (Brussels) and regularly prepares reports and studies, including the current study “An analysis of educational approaches to developing Computational
Thinking (CompuThink)”.3 She has developed expertise in the areas of mobile learning,
special needs education and accessibility of information, coding as a 21st-century
skill, self-assessment and online teacher training. Katja holds a Master’s degree inInternational Law and a Bachelor’s degree in Social and Cultural Studies.

Luis Fernandes is a senior psychologist and has co-ordinated and supervised several projects on bullying and violence involving schoolchildren. He has conducted
professional training sessions and awareness initiatives throughout Portugal, aimed
at students, teachers, educators, officials, coaches, parents and the public in general.
With Sónia Seixas, he has published Bullying plan – Deleting school bullying and achildren’s book entitled Say no to bullying. Do not let them hurt you.

Urko Fernández has a Master’s in Business Administration from Wheeling Jesuit
University (USA). As a project manager at PantallasAmigas (FriendlyScreens), he designs
new educational materials related to healthy use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs), with particular emphasis on the prevention of child grooming,
cyberbullying, sexting, sextortion and gender-based cyberviolence.
Jorge Flores Fernández has a degree in Computer Science from the University ofDeusto, Spain. He founded PantallasAmigas (FriendlyScreens), a global initiative thatdesigns and develops educational programmes and resources for the preventionof major internet-related bullying with particular emphasis on promoting a cultureof privacy and the development of digital life skills. He has directed, authored andco-authored numerous publications and is often invited to share his experience andexpertise in various Latin American countries.
Barbara Forresi is a clinical psychologist. She received her PhD in Psychobiology
from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy). Her clinical and researchinterests are concerned with developmental psychopathology and the promotionof child and adolescent mental health as well as the use of new technologies andsocial media. As a member of Telefono Azzurro, the Italian helpline for children andadolescents, she has taken part in several European and international research projects aimed at protecting children from violence and other online risks.
Lidija Kralj is a teacher by training (computer science and mathematics), vocationand intrinsic motivation, with 25 years of experience in teaching in primary and secondary schools in Croatia. She is Vice-president of the non-governmental organisation
Suradnici u učenju, and Editor-in-chief of the digital magazine Pogled kroz prozor andthe portal ucitelji.hr. She is a member of the Croatian National Council for Education,a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert and a Microsoft Certified Educator. Author ofPage 8 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

textbooks on informatics and mathematics, she writes scientific and expert articles
and presents papers about e-learning and e-safety.
Elizabeth Milovidov is an American lawyer, law professor, children’s rights advocate and e-safety consultant at European Schoolnet. A graduate of the University ofCalifornia at Los Angeles and the University of California at Davis, she practised as alitigator in California for four years before moving to France to work as General Counsel
in two internet technology companies. She is a faculty member of the Université deCergy-Pontoise Law School in France and she teaches law and technology at L’ISCOM,
Institut Supérieur de Communication et Publicité, Paris.

Tito de Morais founded and runs Portugal’s pioneering internet safety project, Miudos
Seguros Na.Net.4 He is on the Advisory Board of the Portuguese team of the EU Kids
Online project and represented Miudos Seguros as a partner in Google’s Family
Safety Center. He has provided his internet safety expertise to companies such as
Microsoft, Symantec, Easybits, Google, Caixa Mágica, AnubisNetworks and Facebook.

Eleni Papamichalaki is a high school teacher and teacher trainer in Greece. She
holds a Master’s degree in English as a Foreign Language Teaching Methodology,
and is an accredited trainer for online safety, intra-school violence and bullying.
She has led information sessions for students, teachers and parents/carers and has
participated, as guest speaker, in several conferences on relevant issues.
Natasha Pearce is a health promotion researcher and practitioner with over 25 years’
experience working to improve health outcomes for children, families and communities. Specialising in implementation science, her current role as a Post-Doctoral
Research Fellow at the Telethon Kids Institute and previously as Senior Research Fellow
at Edith Cowan University includes a range of school and community-based researchand evaluation projects aimed at improving child and adolescent well-being. Her
particular research interest lies in using knowledge translation and implementation
science to improve real world impacts from evidence-based interventions. She ispart of the Australasian Implementation Conference Committee and the Australian
Implementation Network.
Janice Richardson, international adviser on information literacy, children’s rights
and digital citizenship, is co-ordinator of the ENABLE network and leads a rangeof projects for the European Commission, the Council of Europe and governmentorganisations from Europe, the United Arab Emirates and northern and sub-SaharanAfrica. She has authored more than a dozen publications books on literacy and citizenship for children, families and schools, and most recently completed the fourth
edition of the Council of Europe’s Internet literacy handbook in co-authorship with
Elizabeth Milovidov and Martin Schmalzried, both contributors to this publication.

Signe Sandfeld Hansen, co-ordinator and online counsellor, holds a Master’s degree
in Psychology from the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Signe has profound knowledge
about youth culture, especially in connection to substance use and abuse. She also
has a passion for exploring new and different ways to help fragile and vulnerable
children and young people. Signe started working at Cyberhus and the Centre for
Digital Youth Care (Denmark) in 2015. As a co-ordinator and online counsellor, she
Notes on contributors Page 9

initiates blogs, group chats and articles about specific themes, relevant for andco-created with youth.
Martin Schmalzried holds a Master’s degree from the ULB (Université libre deBruxelles) in Political Science. He is a sociology teacher in upper secondary education and is Policy Officer at COFACE (the Confederation of Family Organisations in
the EU). His areas of expertise include safer internet and new technologies, and hehas been involved in a number of EU projects and initiatives linked to this field. He
has supervised the development of a variety of tools such as Nutri-médias, whichaims at raising awareness of parents regarding advertising and nutrition, and the#DeleteCyberbullying app, which is designed to help teenagers, parents and teachers
deal with cyberbullying.

Sónia Seixas, from Portugal, is a member of the ENABLE think tank. She has a PhD
in Educational Psychology and researches the bullying and cyberbullying phenomenon. She is a member of the National Project Advisory Board “Social adventure” andpublished (with Luis Fernandes) Bullying plan – Deleting school bullying and in 2015,a children’s book entitled Say no to bullying. Do not let them hurt you.
Artemis K. Tsitsika is Assistant Professor in Paediatrics/Adolescent Medicine andFounder-Head of the Adolescent Health Unit of the Second Department of Paediatrics,
University of Athens. In 2000, she received the Greek Society of Adolescent Medicine
Award for her contribution to the development of adolescent health in Greece, andis the recipient of 10 scientific awards. She has published a number of books andcontributed several chapters to medical books. Dr Tsitsika is scientific supervisorof the non-governmental organisation For Adolescent Health (www.youth-life.gr,
accessed 13 November 2016), a member of the Directory Board of the Greek Societyof Adolescent Medicine and of ENACSO (European NGO Alliance for Child Safety
Online, www.enacso.eu, accessed 13 November 2016).

Eleni C. Tzavela is a developmental psychologist and cognitive-behavioural therapist
who works with adolescents, young adults and parents. Eleni is lead researcher with
the Adolescent Health Unit of the Second Department of Paediatrics of the Universityof Athens. Her research interests include individual and familial processes linked
with the development of maladaptive internet use and psychosocial difficulties inadolescence.
Andrew Williams has more than 10 years’ experience at all levels of primary school
management. Experiences as a school improvement adviser in ICTs led Andrew towork on a range of projects nationally and internationally. Andrew regularly works
with wide-ranging audiences. He is the creator of the new addition to the SouthWest Grid for Learning 360 family, 360data, which is a data protection and security
self-review tool. Andrew is passionate about the use of technology in schools andsupporting children, young people and adults with online safety and data protection issues. With skills in school improvement and self-review cycles, Andrew has aunique breadth of knowledge and experiences.

Page 10 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Introduction –Perspectives, practiceand insights on bullying
Janice Richardson… for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
– ShakespeareBullying, as the saying goes, is as old as the hills. From Exodus in the Old Testament
to Matthew in the New Testament, and from Dickens in the 18th century to the
Harry Potter books today, we learn about pharaohs, kings’ wives and Malfoys
who bullied to get their way. We sympathise with the trials and tribulations of theslaves of ancient Egypt, Oliver Twist and Myrtle, and although some of the interplay
may initially amuse us – think of Laurel and Hardy, for instance – we would certainly
not want to be in the shoes of the person on the receiving end. Nevertheless, someof us simply are not able to put ourselves in their shoes, because this requires
empathy. Indeed, there is a significant difference between sympathy and empathy,
and developing empathy along with other social and emotional skills as a means
to combat bullying and promote the well-being of every young person is what thispublication is about.

Even if bullying has long plagued humanity, it was not until fairly recently – in the
1970s – that the phenomenon of bullying became the object of systematic research,5with early investigations mainly taking place in Scandinavian countries. As ourknowledge of the brain and learning processes increased over the next quarter of acentury, and society generally became more aware and interested in the social impact
of individual well-being – or the lack of it – research became far more widespread.
In the mid-1990s, Jacques Delors, eighth president of the European Commission,
was one of the first economists to point out that democratic values and social prosperity can only be promoted through an education built not only on learning toknow and to do, the mainstays of most school curricula, but also on learning to be
and learning to live together.6 We will look at this in more depth later in this bookthrough interviews with social and mobile media companies, and a youth who has
grown up in this media-rich world.
Page 11

Bullying – The impact of social and mobile media
Although it is important to point out that, more often than not, bullying takes placeor is at least instigated in face-to-face situations,7 the emergence of social media andmobile platforms as well as our rapid take-up of online technologies have had a considerable impact on this and other social interactions, as many of the authors note inthis publication. Today, in 2016, although just 40% of the world population use theinternet, the figure is far higher in most parts of the Western world and in the UK, forexample, reaches 89.9%. We can therefore safely say that almost all children in Europe
are online, many of them even before they can walk or talk.8 The use of Wi-Fi andmobile-connected devices is progressing more rapidly than that of any other typeof device, and it is predicted that by 2017 such devices will account for 68% of allinternet traffic.

This underlines the mobility and pervasiveness of the tools young people use as they
conduct their social life in a blended world of online and offline existence. Bullying,hate speech and hurtful messages can therefore follow a child into the most private
corners of his/her life, at all hours of the day and night. More bystanders become
rapidly involved too, turning private hurt into public humiliation at the click of amouse. Technology has put Photoshopping, video-making, the uploading of fakeprofiles and a thousand other tools within the reach of all, and online harassment
can take on imponderably imaginative forms. In the “Perspectives” section of thispublication, readers will get a glimpse of some of the challenges young people
grapple with on a daily basis.
In all, authors from more than a dozen countries have contributed to this publication, presenting widely differing perspectives, practices and insights on how they
are tackling or think we should be tackling modern societal issues such as bullying
and hate speech. While some chapters focus more specifically on case studies andwhat the research tells us, others look as well at issues related to bringing up andeducating children for the world we live in. This publication is also about ENABLE,
described in the following section, and aims to introduce readers to the psychologists,
researchers, teachers, parents and social media innovators who have helped shape it.

ENABLE – Learning to be and to live together
The acronym ENABLE stands for European Network Against Bullying in Learningand Leisure Environments. It was created in 2014 by six organisations working inhighly complementary education-related domains in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark,Greece and the United Kingdom, with support and co-funding from the European
Commission. The common aim of these partners is to develop new social andemotional skill-learning models to tackle bullying, and to culturally adapt thesemodels for implementation in at least five countries and six different languages. A
secondary aim is to train a core group of teacher-ambassadors interested in rollingout the approach in their home country within the framework of a cascade model.

ENABLE strives to integrate the “learning to be” and “learning to live together”
concepts mentioned earlier, by taking into full account the ecosystem in which
Page 12 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

children play and learn. In this respect, children’s social contexts at school, at home,in the local community and, increasingly, online is of particular importance. In anutshell, ENABLE is a think tank: an approach and a repository of learning material and activities embedded holistically in a peer support programme for 11to 14-year-old children, their parents and their teachers. In little over a year, it has
been rolled out by hundreds of teachers in schools as well as by youth leaders andseveral helplines across Europe. ENABLE aims to lead children and young people
to reflect on, and better understand, their interactions and behaviour as wellas the impact of their behaviour on others. It does this through a four-pronged
process that focuses on self-awareness, social awareness, self-management andrelationship management.
The opportunities technology offers to today’s generation are undoubtedly thereason why a number of the authors in this publication have chosen to turn theirattention to skilling young people for life in the online environment. It may also
explain why digital parenting is such a hot topic nowadays. Most people will agree
that online and offline worlds have now blended into a single, vast, public space
where children learn to be and to live together in the view of all, yet where they
have to make up many of the rules as they go along. Moreover, possibly for the firsttime in history, we are letting our children loose in this vast space to play, learn andinteract without any adult presence. When examining the impact of bullying in achild’s life, the biggest challenges recognised by researchers, educators and families
are their own inability to really see and understand what is happening online, andto intervene in a timely manner.

The ever-expanding role of the internet for young people is also having a resounding impact on their behaviour and their reasoning capacity in a multitude ofways. In a recent study9 on the human attention span (actually conducted to findthe best ways to reach consumers), 2 000 people were surveyed and the brain
activity in 112 others was monitored using electroencephalograms (EEGs). The
results were alarming: the human attention span has seemingly declined from
12 seconds as measured in the year 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015, much shorter
than the attention span of a goldfish (at 9 seconds)! Although the findings andthe methodology may raise questions, we cannot help but ask ourselves: what
does this mean in terms of impact on behaviour? Does it modify in any way thecapacity of young people to reflect on their own actions and the effect they
may have on others?
Other research has aimed to look at the impact of online technology on our brains.10
This indicates that overexposure to a rapid succession of sounds and images via themedia may be resulting in underdevelopment, in children and young people, of thepre-frontal lobe: the very part of our brain needed to formulate hypotheses andpredict the possible consequences of our actions. Several of the following chapters
examine, from a practical perspective, how the meaning of literacy has changed,
and how we need to re-shape school learning if we are to ensure that the upcoming
generation can acquire the essential competencies to become active, responsible
citizens in the digital world. How can we counteract the effects of their immersion
in an environment that is not yet fully understood even by the most knowledgeable
among us?
Introduction Page 13

Tackling bullying – Learning from each other
One of the early steps that ENABLE took soon after its creation was to set up a thinktank as a means of drawing on the knowledge and experience of leading international practitioners and researchers from varying domains of activity. A dozen regularmembers continue to advise and guide the actions of the network, with input fromparents, teachers and, of course, children and teens who are encouraged to havetheir say every step of the way. Although we were unable to find any young people
willing to write their own chapter for this publication, their ideas and insights arereflected throughout these pages, along with those of both regular and occasional
think tank members.
Bullying is a vast subject and tackling it comes down to providing an environment
in which every individual is encouraged to develop self-awareness and self-management as well as empathy for others; to reflect and act rather than to react; tosense when humour is turning sour; and to know how to be supportive. The global
world we encounter online and the multicultural societies in which we live out our“real life” mean that people, especially children who are usually less guarded in theirinteractions, may have very different ways of expressing emotions. Due to a lackof cultural and social awareness, we can easily step on the toes of others without
realising it. For many young people, their teenage years are about “fitting in” andbeing accepted, which underlines the importance of their being confronted withdiversity and learning to embrace it.
In recent years there has been an emerging consensus among anti-bullying expertsthat improved social and emotional skills – or social and emotional intelligence,as it is referred to by many11 – is key to the empowerment of children and young
people and that diversity is a positive and enriching facet of any community. In thisapproach, the aim is to empower every individual to become the master of theirown well-being and an active contributor to the well-being of others around them.
Such self-awareness is also a key ingredient in resilience: the quality that enables
a person to tackle and learn from challenging situations rather than to be harmed
by them. However, the development of these capacities is rarely included in school
curricula, and the need for them barely understood by society in general. When suchskill-building is part of the school programme, especially when peer supporters aretrained to take the lead, the benefits are quickly evident in terms of a better overall
learning environment; less absenteeism on the part of pupils but also teachers; andfewer bullying incidents. Success stories from schools and from ENABLE’s Danish
partner – which runs a youth centre, a helpline and a number of youth-related projects – tell us that this social-emotional focus on the individual is proving effective
in offering new paths to reach more vulnerable children too. And what child or teen
isn’t vulnerable at some point of their childhood or teen years?

Society is facing major challenges at present, with hate speech almost commonplace in certain circles and in the media, and radicalisation a vision of terror for
many parents of teens. There is obviously no easy solution, but early findings seemto indicate that greater focus on learning to be and to live together could well be aroute worthy of further exploration.

Page 14 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Perspectives, practice and insights
Readers will discover in the pages that follow a wide range of topics and examples
drawn from the experience of practitioners working in one way or another in thefield. The one common denominator is that they are all seeking to empower children
and build their resilience so that they can respond positively and responsibly to thechallenges they encounter in today’s rather complex world.
Section 1, “Perspectives”, begins with a glimpse of the future and some of the challenges and solutions that virtual reality (VR) may bring. This is followed by an interview
with Facebook, ASKfm and Vodafone: all three figuring among the more popular
providers of social and mobile media platforms today and playing a significant rolein the life of many teens. They are three of ENABLE’s associate partners and havesupported the network since its outset. Certainly many young people will take asimilar perspective to Floran, the 23-year-old “digital native” from the Netherlands
who comments on their responses. In the following chapter, an anti-bullying expert
shares the lessons she has learned over several decades spent working with youth.
This sets the scene for the next chapter in this section, which looks at online issues
from the viewpoint of parents, and offers some useful guidance on strategies thatare proving successful for coping with the challenges and pitfalls we all encounter
when educating children in the digital age. Fittingly, Section 1 comes to a close withan analysis of some of the difficulties that children with special educational needs
and their families face. This sector of the population is often especially vulnerable
to bullying and less able to defend themselves against it, as the young people andtheir families themselves testify.
Section 2, “Practice”, takes readers in and out of classrooms in some of the countries
ENABLE is working with, and into the wings of two helpline services, one based in
Italy and the other in Denmark. The section ends with several case studies that illustrate the importance of being able to adapt to cultural and linguistic diversity while
respecting certain core principles that remain constant worldwide – for example, thecrucial role of senior leadership in promoting a learning culture and an environment
conducive to the well-being of pupils.
The final section in this publication, “Insights”, draws on the research and experienceof psychologists, educators and other experts in a range of countries from Greece
and the United States to Portugal and the United Kingdom. All authors underline
the importance of life skills such as critical thinking, creativity, problem solving andempathy, as well as examining in depth the role of the school and the family in developing these skills. Differences between bullying and cyberbullying are discussed atsome length, though all concur that a majority of bullying cases begin in “real life”
situations rather than online. They also stress the importance of encouraging peer
support in fostering a healthy emotional environment in schools.

We hope that the insights, perspectives and practice on bullying, teaching andparenting that are presented in the following pages will help open up a broader
debate and trigger new ideas and approaches. As the English poet John Donneonce observed, “No man is an island”, and this is truer than ever in our connectedworld. Like the intricate geometrical symmetries that made the Dutch artist Maurits

Introduction Page 15

Cornelis Escher12 famous, human behaviour itself is a tableau of interlocking repetitive patterns and processes, every emotion and action we emit shaping those of thepeople around us. Our aim is to cast the spotlight on evolving social interactions,foster a deeper appreciation of diversity, and strive to ensure that every child canenjoy a violence-free environment, which is, after all, a fundamental children’s right.13

Page 16 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Section 1

Perspectives

Chapter 1

Virtual environments –Multiple facets, multiple
opportunities
Martin SchmalzriedNovelty is an elusive concept. Cyberbullying is certainly a recent phenomenon,
originating from the gradual permeation of bullying behaviour into the online
world as it developed, leaving us to grapple with the implications of such things
as anonymity, outreach, 24/7 connectivity, instantaneity and permanence of data.
However, in 2016, a combination of parallel evolutions in technology has broughta truly novel experience to users with the merger of social networking/online communities and virtual environments through virtual reality (VR), with possibly new
implications for cyberbullying, online harassment, privacy and more.
Social networking and online communities, or Web 2.0, started sometime at the turnof the 21st century and expanded gradually, bringing together communities of overa billion people. Online gaming communities such as World of Warcraft, League ofLegends and Second Life gained millions of users and managed to couple entertainment with online socialisation and interaction. In parallel, the evolution of both
hardware (graphics cards, processors and screens) and software (operating systems
and graphic application programing interfaces, or APIs) led to a gradual increase in
the realism and quality of virtual environments, reaching levels of detail mimicking
reality. In fact, VR has been around for longer than most remember but has had avery shaky history, especially with Nintendo’s Virtual Boy fiasco. Nevertheless, it
was finally able to take advantage of both of the previously mentioned evolutions
to enable companies to provide a commercially viable and quality experience forend users at a relatively modest price. Indeed, VR has been used by professionals forsome time, in healthcare and by the military, but only with tailored and expensive
devices, unsuitable for widespread release.
So while neither virtual environments, social networking/online communities or VR
are new phenomena, the combination of all three is nothing short of a revolution.
This chapter will be structured in three parts. The first part will briefly review research
about the effects of VR; the second part will raise a number of risks that VR may pose
to a phenomenon like bullying; and the last part will present concluding remarks
and tentative recommendations for addressing some of those risks.

Page 19

The impact of VR – An incomplete picture
Research on the impact of spending time in VR is still in its infancy, with the exceptionof a number of restricted clinical trials of VR, generally designed to help test subjects
rather than test any negative effect. Nevertheless, some side effects of immersion
in VR have been identified.

Overcoming traumatic experiences and resolving certain
mental health-related issues
As VR is now being used as an innovative means to help patients suffering fromstress-related and other disorders, and even to better apprehend challenging situations, we cannot help but wonder if it could lend itself to overcome trauma for
victims in areas related to bullying and hate speech, for example. One of the more
dramatic recent applications of VR has been in the treatment of post-traumatic stressdisorder (PTSD), especially for soldiers who have endured a traumatising experiencein combat. For instance, for soldiers who cannot stand the sound of a helicopter,taking a ride in an actual helicopter can help them get past the trauma. However,helicopter rides are expensive, and the immersion of the patient in a VR helicopter
ride can have similar effects to an actual helicopter ride.14
Another experiment showed that VR environments can help depressive patients
who have trouble expressing self-compassion and thus find it difficult to get outof their depressive state. By making them express compassion towards a virtual“depressed” character and then experiencing compassion from another virtual
character, the VR environment significantly reduced the severity of their depression
and their self-criticism, enhancing self-compassion.15 Imagine applying a similar
application of VR to raise compassion and empathy in bullying or hate speech situations. Beyond “self-compassion”, VR has shown promise in identifying and possibly
addressing issues such as body image disturbance (BID), which is heavily associatedwith eating disorders, especially among young women. By immersing test subjects
in a VR environment where they could interact with virtual characters of varying“body sizes” in a number of settings such as a beach or a party, researchers could
monitor the responses of test subjects and how much they were affected by BID.16

Phobias can also be reduced using VR. One experiment aimed at treating social
phobia by exposing patients to a dozen 50-minute sessions of relevant images in
VR. Results showed a significant drop in social anxiety, even six months after thetreatment.17 Treating phobia via VR will likely become increasingly popular since
it is much easier, logistically speaking, to treat patients via VR than using “real life”
situations, for example in treating spider phobia.18 Another example is the management of music performance anxiety. Subjecting musicians to VR simulations ofgiving a concert in a variety of environments and to a variety of audiences yielded
measurable improvements in the quality of their actual performances and anxiety
levels.19 Finally, VR has even demonstrated its potential to treat addictions such as
nicotine or drug dependence by placing the patient in virtual situations that allow
them to smoke a cigarette or experience the feeling of drugs, psychologically rather
than physically.20

Page 20 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Developing empathy
In the United States, Stanford University has a research branch dedicated to looking
at the impact of VR on human interaction. The Virtual Human Interaction Lab has
published a number of papers on the encouragement of empathy, or more generally
understanding, by placing individuals in a different “social perspective” where they are
obliged to see themselves in someone else’s situation. One experiment, for instance,
placed the viewer in the perspective of his older self in order to encourage saving
for retirement. The study showed a marked impact on the test subject’s propensity
to save after the experiment.21 Other studies focused on increasing empathy or
understanding towards ethnic minorities or people with disabilities such as visual
impairment or those that require them to be in a wheelchair.22

Carrying out otherwise unethical research
Carrying out research on human reactions in delicate situations such as violent
altercations between other human beings to measure their propensity to intervene
would be highly unethical. VR simulations can help address some of these ethicalconcerns and gain insight into important human behaviour such as the phenomenon of bystanders. One study, for instance, measured the likelihood of 40 maleArsenal supporters (an English football team) intervening in a VR-simulated violent
attack against an individual. The test was meant to measure the likelihood of suchfans intervening depending on whether the victim of the assault was an Arsenal
supporter or not. Unsurprisingly, the number of interventions was much higher
in cases where the victim was also an Arsenal supporter (in-group as opposed toout-group).23
Even more controversially, a study demonstrated the use of VR to help identify sex
offenders or paedophiles by measuring their arousal level or penile plethysmography(PPG) to VR simulations featuring computer-generated child characters. The researchshowed that the measurements for distinguishing the PPG of sex offenders compared
to non-deviant males were much more accurate with the use of VR as opposed tostandard methods using a screen.24

In a number of studies, VR has proven a powerful distraction from pain or real world
stimuli. For instance, one application has been to distract overweight children
from the pain or difficulty of physical exercise.25 In fact, using VR to distract frompain has seen many applications including dental care, surgery, burn treatment
and oncology treatments for cancer patients. The studies provide evidence that
VR is immersive enough to dull pain signals received by the brain. This effect is notunique to VR. Traditional virtual experiences using a screen have shown similareffects and have given rise to conditions such as Nintendo Wii tendonitis, where
players fail to pay attention to their bodies’ pain signals while playing Wii games
involving repetitive motions such as Wii tennis.26 VR arguably adds another layerof realism and immersiveness, which provides an even stronger distraction forthe brain.

Perspectives Page 21

Side effects
Through all of this research, some side effects have been noted including: disorientation and temporary loss of motor skills due to “past-pointing”;27 panic attacks
during prolonged use;28 injury due to sudden moves while in VR and an inadequate/
unsafe surrounding environment or visual discomfort.29 Other side effects haveincluded headaches and nausea,30 potentially enhanced occurrences of game transfer
phenomena31 and potential impact on the eyes, such as seeing ghost images when
closing one’s eyes. However, all these occurrences are only based on testimonies
and have yet to be substantiated by research.32

General implications
All of the research above proves one essential point: VR has pushed the boundaries
of realism so far that it manages to successfully trick the brain into believing a virtual environment or experience is “real”, with real psychological and even physicaleffects (e.g. physiological reactions or the production of hormones). This has major
implications for areas such as therapy and health, but also in terms of risks.

As Jeremy Bailenson from the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab has put it, “Thebrain treats virtual experience as if it’s real. The same as if you saw another person
in a room – the brain reacts the same way to a virtual person”.33

Cyberbullying and VR
Treating trauma, causing trauma: a double-edged sword
VR environments have successfully demonstrated their therapeutic effects in helping
patients to get over certain traumatising experiences. Thus one can only assume
that VR also has the potential of causing trauma. Some content creators in VR havealready expressed their concerns about “scaring” players in VR, given the increase
in realism, and advocate the setting of standards. Alex Schwartz, chief executive ofOwlchemy Labs, has commented that “scares in VR are borderline immoral”.34 Otherssuch as Richard Marks, a Sony lead VR engineer, take the view that “[j]ust like any
medium, [VR] can have good effects and negative effects. I think people can get justas immersed in a book.”35
Besides trauma from in-game programed content, bullying in online gaming can also
have a profound impact on a victim, given the increased feeling of “presence”. For
example, some online players intentionally restrict your field of view. As annoying
as that may be on a computer monitor, in a VR setting, such an action could have asimilar impact to someone invading your private space in real life. To go even further,
online games often include pre-programed taunts to “spice up” the game.36 In VR, inorder to increase the sense of presence, the controllers held in each hand also serve
to move the characters’ arms, which means players have a much higher degree of
freedom to communicate via gestures with other players. Such gestures can simply
be signals to move closer or away during a team-based multiplayer game, but also

Page 22 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

to mimic all sorts of obscene gestures or actions such as physical violence or sexual
harassment (e.g. masturbation or coitus).
Violence and sexual harassment against women in VR is a serious concern. Sexual
harassment is already a well-known and widespread phenomenon in online gaming.37 Women are exposed to death and rape threats, extremely offensive language(in both written and spoken form), and demands to share sexually explicit content
or favours. A VR environment adds a further layer of “realism” to these occurrences.
It is almost inevitable that eventually content that simulates rape or murder will
be made available on VR. Such content has already been developed by third party
individuals in the form of “add-ons” or “mods” for games like Grand Theft Auto,38 andthere is every reason to believe that this will happen in VR as well. Palmer Luckey,
the founder of Oculus Rift, has acknowledged that “it’s impossible to control thosekinds of things. You just have to accept it.”Furthermore, harassment is not limited to video games. Social networks such as
Twitter have a longstanding reputation of poorly handling harassment and abuseof women.39 According to a Women, Action & the Media study,40 this is due to manyfactors including anonymity producing low accountability for one’s actions and poor
reporting mechanisms. Transposing this phenomenon to VR environments might
have an even stronger impact on women.
A further reason to worry is the development of products aimed at increasing
the realism of VR. Several companies are testing haptic suits, which simulate thesense of touch in VR, essentially via electrodes stimulating muscles. For instance,
the Teslasuit not only provides a full suit simulating touch but also the feeling ofwarmth and coolness.41
The Impacto project tries to simulate the effect of physical impact through its own
Electric Muscle Simulation technology.42 Finally, a number of companies are working
on treadmills like Virtuix’s Omni.43 These are specifically designed to enable users
to walk in a VR environment or even build or adapt spaces for a fully immersive VR
experience: a sort of laser tag game combined with VR.44
In terms of cyberbullying, such technologies could prove to be not only traumatising
but even dangerous. Think about an online game where several players gang up
on another and decide to shoot them continuously. If the victim is wearing a haptic
suit, they will feel every blow and depending on how the game and the suit are
configured, this could even physically hurt.
No doubt extreme, graphic violence and/or sexual assault in VR, potentially enhancedwith haptic feedback, will renew the longstanding debate over the impact oftechnology on “real life” behaviour.45 Although the topic is not new and doomsday
predictions about the impact of media violence on children have been around forsome time, VR achieves such levels of realism that increased caution is necessary.

Online empathy
Many point to the impersonal and seemingly anonymous online environment as
part of the explanation for cyberbullying, since “real life” signals that should trigger

Perspectives Page 23

empathy towards a victim are not present. An online bully does not realise that thevictim is hurt. Furthermore, many cyberbullies say and do things online they would
never do offline, believing their actions are shielded by anonymity and thus impunity.
Since VR aims to create an environment that is realistic to the point that it mimics
reality, it could include some of the signals that should trigger empathy such as expressions of sadness or distress. In VR interactions, be they in games or social networks,
individuals are represented by avatars and, in some instances,46 by realistic virtual
representations of themselves. With technology able to read in real time the emotionsof a person, the virtual representations will be able to adapt and display a smilingface or a sad face. The question is whether such reactions from avatars will trigger
the same kind of empathy that “real life” signals do. According to the few research
papers published on empathy and virtual reality, there is hope that such signals will
be rightfully interpreted by individuals and thus potentially reduce cyberbullying.
However, offline bullies that take their bullying online will very likely be unaffected by
VR’s ability to convey distress signals, since these signals are already ignored offline.

Identity theft and release of private information
In the sub-section above, we mentioned the possibility of creating a photo-realistic
avatar in 3D for VR interactions between users, especially through social networks. In
fact, the technology enabling the digitisation and 3D modelling of a real life model
is evolving fast. Widely used open-source game engines, such as Unity 3D, alreadymanaged such a mapping three years ago,47 and the hardware and software necessary to film in 3D for VR is developing fast.48 This will enable just about anyone tocreate a photo-realistic avatar for themselves that is usable in any VR environment– games, meetings, virtual social gatherings. They will also be able to customise
these avatars according to their taste: by making them slimmer or removing facial
blemishes, for example.
However, this also means that identity theft will be a much greater risk. A victim ofcyberbullying may be “mapped” via a 3D video taken without their consent, without
them noticing or hacked from their profile or videos. A photo-realistic virtual character could then be created and captured doing obscene or embarrassing things ina virtual environment. Creating photo-realistic scenes for humorous purposes likethe photo-realistic sketches of world leaders sitting on the toilet49 is not new, but
the use of VR to do this could be extremely harmful in the case of cyberbullying.
Use of VR environments may also aggravate incidents of “doxing”: the practice of
searching for and publishing private information online with malicious intent. VR
environments will be spaces to interact socially with others through games, virtual
parties, meetings or private virtual get-togethers. However, unlike in “real life” where
one can make sure no one is recording while one is acting foolishly or saying foolishthings, VR can be entirely recorded. How will humans react to this false sense ofprivacy in VR environments, which will nevertheless look very real? A user could feelthey are in a private situation (e.g. being alone in a VR room) but in fact be visible
to thousands of users observing them and recording their every action. This mightexacerbate the risk of being “exposed” or ridiculed online through the release of“genuine” embarrassing content as opposed to a convincingly realistic fabrication,

Page 24 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

as described above. It might also fundamentally change the way we perceive privacy
and private spaces, triggering paranoia about being observed at all times, not only
online, but also offline.

Peer pressure, societal norms, invisible bullies
The definition of cyberbullying clearly relates to an individual or a group of individuals
who carry out a repetitive action with the intent to hurt someone: but what about
more subtle or invisible forms of bullying? Can peer pressure or societal norms,
under certain circumstances, become forms of bullying? In this sub-section, we
will suggest that they can be, while recognising that the question deserves to beaddressed in more depth.

Even though peer pressure or societal norms do not intend to hurt a person, theend effect can be very similar to cyberbullying given the element of repetitivenessand the powerlessness of victims who suffer from low self-esteem, anger, sadness ordepression. Of particular significance are issues such as racism, gender roles, genderstereotypes and body image.
While many would dismiss video games as entertainment, the design, character choice,environment and scenario of a game inevitably conveys messages. Who is the “hero”
of the game and what does he (or, highly unlikely, she) look like? Who is the “bad guy”
and what does he/she look like? Beside the issue of the gross underrepresentation of
female characters in video games other than “bimbo” characters such as that of Lara
Croft in Tomb Raider, issues around racism and ethnic representation have been widely
brought up in both research50 and the media.51 For instance, Arabs and Muslims havebeen represented as being hostile and as terrorists, flattening and simplifying thediversity of Arab cultures and religious identities. Some research has already looked at
how the Western video game industry struggles to depict a more accurate picture of
the Arab world, notably through serious games.52 Other research has also clearly shown
the link between how Arabs are represented in the media and the violence they may besubjected to in their daily lives.53 In effect, ethnic groups that are negatively depictedin the media including in virtual environments, will not only suffer directly from such
depictions but will also be more exposed to violence from others, including in theform of cyberbullying. Once again, VR can be considered a double-edged sword, withresearch showing that VR can be used to increase empathy towards ethnic minorities
and at the same time accentuate racist attitudes and preconceptions.

Gender roles, gender stereotypes and body image are also an area of concern.54
Besides the violence and harassment women are subject to online, the depiction of
female characters in virtual environments also constitutes a form of psychologicalviolence towards women. Female characters already suffer from underrepresentationin virtual environments,55 but when games offer the possibility to play with a female
character, their appearance suffers from several gender stereotypes including excessive
skinniness, unrealistic body proportions (huge breasts, tiny waist) and sexualisation(minimal body coverage, sexually explicit attitudes). Faced with criticism, the video
game industry has made some efforts, especially with characters like Lara Croft,which has gradually moved away from being a cyber-bimbo with ridiculous body

Perspectives Page 25

proportions to a realistic female heroine.56 VR has shown the potential to help users
accept their body image, but at the same time, could induce a new form of “virtualcompetition” for skinniness or sexiness via female virtual characters or even VR social
network avatars. In the online virtual world, Second Life users are free to model theappearance of their avatars. With avatars becoming more and more realistic, what
will women and especially young women make their avatars look like on VR social
networks? Societal pressure might push female users to “trim” or “edit” their virtual
selves to match societal norms or perceived peer expectations, triggering a race tothe bottom and exacerbating problems like BID and anorexia.

Finally, there are many other groups that suffer from their depiction in virtual environments such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people and people with disabilities.
All of these groups may also end up suffering from online hatred and violence dueto the effects of VR on an already hostile online environment. For instance, being
called a “fag” or “gay” is already commonplace in video games57 that convey hyper“masculine” values.58

Tentative conclusions and recommendations
Many of the issues that have been identified above are not new and are alreadypresent in today’s offline or two-dimensional online world. VR will most likely exacerbate existing problems but we can at least be assured that we are not dealing withtotally new challenges. Nevertheless, given the increased impact VR can have, both
psychologically and physiologically, tackling these issues will be even more pressing
if we are to maximise the benefits of VR and minimise its potential harm.

Furthermore, some unknown factors remain. Will human beings behave in VR settings much like they would in the “real world”, given the increased sense of realism?
Or will humans eventually be able to successfully convince the brain that what they
are seeing is not real and thus behave differently from “real life”? In the latter case,
we may find that VR will fail to trigger empathy similar to real life situations, which
would undermine human interactions in VR settings and exacerbate the existing
online harassment or cyberbullying that stems from anonymity and lack of understanding for the victim. As Jeremy Bailenson has so eloquently put it, “I think virtual
reality is like uranium: it’s this really powerful thing. It can heat homes and it can
destroy nations. And it’s all about how we use it.”59
In conclusion, we can identify some tentative recommendations that may help prevent cyberbullying or other forms of harassment in VR environments. We recommend
reinforcing core values such as empathy, self-esteem, authenticity, autonomy, liberty,
open-mindedness, deliberation, critical thinking, privacy, and social and emotional
learning (SEL) through all relevant parties such as schools, content providers, service
providers, families, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society. Setting
up a “virtual” environment that reinforces and actively promotes such values is key
in this respect and is the responsibility of private actors. This could have a positive
impact on issues such as body image, gender stereotypes and homophobia. For
example, algorithms that determine the ranking of news or posts are already configured to maximise revenue and profit. So, such algorithms could easily be configured

Page 26 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

to favour certain types of content that respect and promote positive values anddownplay negative content. The recent social experiment carried out by Facebook
proves the feasibility of this, as long as such “tweaking” of algorithms is done withfull transparency to avoid the sort of outcry that followed Facebook’s “manipulation”
of its Newsfeed. Some might argue that such initiatives infringe freedom of speech,
but we should remember that ranking content will always in a way limit freedom ofspeech, regardless of whether it is for the purpose of maximising advertising revenue
or promoting certain values.

Promoting socially responsible VR design can also help prevent the occurrence ofcyberbullying. Examples of socially responsible design include:
f setting up appropriate game play structures that minimise the possibilities
of “trolling” or bullying. For example, the “hit box” or “colliders” of a game canbe set up so players can pass through each other instead of being able toblock each other, thus creating the possibility for “trolls” to annoy or evenbully other players by blocking their path. Game play can also set rules for
how “close” players can get to each other, thus minimising the possibility, in
a VR setting, of players being able to “invade” each other’s private spaces;
f creating easy ways to pause or interrupt a VR experience if the user feels
uncomfortable, without spoiling the game;f designing an efficient reporting/blocking system to minimise the damaging
effects of harassment or other negative behaviour. This could include ways
to deal with identity theft and doxing, as well as implementing a certain
accountability for negative behaviour. Examples of such measures include
the League of Legends Tribunal, which is composed of players of the gameand is responsible for sanctioning players who have displayed negative
behaviour with temporary banishment from the game.
Issuing guidance and properly informing VR users about potential threats, safetymeasures and where to find more information or help should they experience a
problem is also recommended, as well as proactive monitoring of VR as it develops to quickly address any unforeseen risks through measures such as updating
design, privacy and security functions according to the advice of key stakeholders
such as academics, researchers, policy makers/law enforcement and civil society
representatives.

Perspectives Page 27

Chapter 2

New social settings –Seeking solutions
Janice Richardson

An interview with Facebook, ASKfm, Vodafone and Floran
van HoutsTo state that internet and online technology have upset the very way we communicate and interact is somewhat of an understatement – children at school
today, and even some of their parents, have never known a world without e-mailand internet. Online platform providers have fashioned unprecedented informationaland creative opportunities for the 40% of people across the world who have accessto the internet,60 and one quarter of the world’s population will own smartphones
by the end of 2016.61
However, while opening up new opportunities, information and communication
technologies (ICTs) are pushing age-old concepts of literacy, knowledge, friendship and family to the limit. Back in 1996, Jacques Delors62 spoke of the emerging
tensions being triggered by the rapid advance of technology – between the local
and global, the universal and the individual, tradition and modernity, short- andlong-term considerations, and competition and equal opportunity. He underlined
the importance of building education on four essential pillars: learning to know, todo, to be and to live together. A rapid look at education systems across the world
seems to indicate that the latter two pillars have become lost in curricula and key
attainment levels. On the home front, have they been lost too through our scramble
to keep pace with technological evolution and our eagerness to look at life throughthe eyes of the media and the lens of our mobile phones? Is the rise in bullying, hatespeech, radicalisation and the many other forms of violence that we are seeing today
just a sign of the times, or a direct consequence of some of the tensions that Delors
tried to draw our attention to?

ENABLE63 is a project co-funded by the European Commission from 2014 to 2016
under the Daphne programme. It aims to support children and young people within
their schools and families in learning “to be” and “to live together” through the development of their social and emotional skills. This is equally important if children are toincrease their capacity to reflect on their own behaviour and learn to systematicallyweigh up the potential consequences. Given the predominant role that social media
and mobile technology play in the communication and interaction that take place
among young people, ENABLE would not be able to fulfil its aims without a close
partnership with the platforms where young people spend much of their time.64
These partners have accompanied ENABLE on every step of its journey: on the one

Page 29

hand sharing with us valuable insights and participating in youth-friendly activities,
but also developing through osmosis a deeper understanding of how their platforms
can help colour interaction.

To delve more deeply into the value of these partnerships, we interviewed people at
Facebook, ASKfm and Vodafone who have been involved in ENABLE, and we sharewith readers some of their insights in the following pages. In order to get a broader
picture of the opportunities and challenges confronting young social and mobile
media users today, we also gathered reactions from a young person, Floran, who
has often been involved in peer support activities and was eager to comment onsome of the ideas that emerged from the interviews with partners from industry.

The opportunities
Q. Over the past two decades, online technology has opened up a vast range
of opportunities. What do you consider the priorities?
Facebook: Giving people the power to share and enabling positive interaction on
things closest to their heart! We also aim to provide a place where people feel safe
themselves, and feel that their content is safe. And we’re constantly striving to bringpeople new tools, better connectivity and new ways to engage.
ASKfm: Our platform allows people to ask and answer questions. We see that the
Q&A format is a powerful tool for young people for connecting with their friends,
exploring issues around their family and broader society. The ability to ask anonymousquestions facilitates self-exploration and communication with other users on theplatform. We are very happy to notice that in many cases ASKfm is used to promote
and advocate social change, democratic principles, tolerance and rule of law.
Vodafone: Innovation has delivered a myriad of online content and services as wellas the increased internet speeds that enable you to access them and do so wherever
you are. Innovation is the key to allowing the internet to grow and the gigabit society
to become a reality. Ensuring that the internet continues to innovate and provide
opportunities, for education, employment and entertainment, is the priority; andthat also means maximising the positive experiences for young people.

Q. What are the most essential skills young people should be developing to
make a positive contribution as citizens to society?
Facebook: One crucial skill is understanding how their message is received andperceived, and the impact it can have on others. This is something children have tolearn at a very young age. They need to have plenty of opportunities to find their
voice, and be willing to hear disruptive ideas.

ASKfm: We believe that active citizens nowadays need strong critical thinking skills,
and the ability to reflect, analyse content, search information and build relationships.
In addition, making a positive contribution to society requires listening skills, empathy and tolerance. More than anything, young people need to receive professional
support in learning about their emotions and how to manage them in order to build
healthy relations with their peers and broader society.

Page 30 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Vodafone: The reach and the permanence of what we say or read about ourselves
and others on the internet coupled with the predominance of immediate-response
text communication, requires the skill to express one’s feelings or views, in real time,
without the use of intonation and body language: sometimes in no more than
140 characters. While emojis may help to express sentiments, “think before you post”
still holds true to ensure that contributions remain positive.
Floran: The most essential skill is to think before you speak and reflect on what you
are going to say before you say it. It is a little far-fetched to believe that young people
need professional support to learn how to act responsibly; the majority are able tolive together without racism, and it is only a minority who don’t. This has always been
the case, but today we hear more about this minority because technology amplifies
their voice. People also misinterpret things quite fast online because they can’t feelthe undertone … Jokes can rapidly be misinterpreted whereas in face-to-face communication you can quickly clear up any misunderstanding. It’s the same problem
on social media, where things can really be blown out of proportion.
Q. We hear a lot about resilience, empathy and entrepreneurship today. Are
they as important as they are made out to be, and how can we help young
people develop these qualities?
Facebook: Empathy is integral to digital citizenship, and needs to happen bothonline and offline. Resilience is a part of the learning process, and implies being
able to pause and reflect, not immediately react. It means having healthy coping
mechanisms, knowing who to turn to and what is normal rational behaviour. Whenchildren’s parents and teachers are left behind, it creates a big gap; because, whenit comes to building resilience and empathy, nothing can replace conversations
between children and their parents.

ASKfm: We believe that the ability to communicate effectively and creatively is an
important aspect of entrepreneurship, and our platform is an incredible tool foryoung people to develop their communication skills. ASKfm users learn to express
their point of view in writing and by using images in a creative way. In addition, as
members of a global community, ASKfm users can explore various world views. Thisin turn can help to develop their empathy and resilience.
Vodafone: While the tools that are available to both parents and young people tomanage their online activities such as privacy settings are important, they will neverprovide 100% protection. Where young people find themselves in new environments,
although they may not have any previous experience of a particular situation, they
can be prepared by developing their ability to manage or cope with such situations.
While parents and teachers play an important role in supporting young people indeveloping these qualities, young people also respond well to peer-to-peer initiatives,
especially as they can relate to their contemporaries’ online experiences.
Floran: Empathy is something you experience at a young age and is at the core ofyour personal self. You can’t teach it at a later age and you can’t learn it at school. You
can only learn to “reason” about it at school. You can’t teach people to be resilient
either, but you can motivate them to give resilience a boost. Perseverance and apositive self-view are key to resilience.

Perspectives Page 31

IssuesQ. What new trends are you seeing in bullying?

Facebook: People show amazing creativity in using online tools and platforms; andthis both surprises and challenges our team, especially when we see the reactionsof people on the receiving end. Some trends such as using hashtags and emojis in
special ways are local; and getting feedback from young people, teachers in schools
and helplines is important as it contributes to understanding local contexts. Other
trends such as posting hurtful comments and tagging people in strange ways inphotos can also be locally nuanced; understanding them is, as always, a questionof context. We also see that sometimes things that start out very small can havea copycat or snowball effect. Other things we see fall outside of what is generally
considered bullying; for example, when strangers create impersonation profiles orpost nasty comments on the profile of someone they don’t know. Interactions aretricky to understand at the best of times, and we strive to make sense of some ofthe very interesting dynamics we see.
Floran: I’ve never really been involved in a bullying incident, but through the news
it seems that bullying is shifting to social media, which allows bullying to take place
all day long. Maybe this is because it is really easy to send messages via social media.
False tagging as animals is more something that happens among a group of friends.
Bullies don’t always do things with the intent to hurt, but people who are moresensitive can see this as bullying.
Q. What is “self-bullying”, which we hear about from time to time?
ASKfm: This is harmful self-messaging, and is given different descriptive terms
such as self-harassment, self-bullying and digital self-harm in the current online
safety world. Apparently self-messaging can take place on all social media networks
through the use of multiple profiles or accounts. On the ASKfm platform users havethe option of asking themselves questions anonymously. Our proprietary moderation
filters have a capacity to detect some hurtful and suicidal content directed by users
towards themselves, and we are currently working with mental health experts tobetter understand the phenomena.

Floran: This sounds strange and I have never really heard of it before, but I suppose
it is a cry for help. Do social media platforms work with psychologists who can communicate with the young person doing this type of thing?

Solutions
Q. What sort of tools and strategies do you implement to enhance user experience and avoid hate speech and bullying?
ASKfm: Like many social networking sites, we predominantly focus our efforts on
detection, takedown and prevention measures against bullying and hate speech.
Since acquiring ASKfm in 2014, the new leadership team has put in place a comprehensive safety strategy in line with industry good practice. The ASKfm platform
offers a number of safety tools for users to manage their experiences and safeguard

Page 32 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

against unwanted content and contacts, including bullying. All users can switch off
the ability to receive anonymous questions altogether. In addition, users can blockindividuals (including anonymous users) from sending them questions. Those two
measures can be effectively used to prevent bullying on the platform.
Facebook: Our strategy includes blocking tools and reporting processes, safety bydesign, awareness raising about things like manifestations of bullying and empowering bystanders, supporting NGOs, “in-country” peer-to-peer learning and informing
users about responsible online behaviour. Our model relies very much on people,
on trying to understand the sub-text, on shortening response time and keeping intouch with research to stay on top. We are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to build relationships for in-depth knowledge about new types of abuse. Our
updated content policy has become very nuanced, and we are always adding new
reviewers. For example, in our Dublin office we work in more than 35 languages,
and 75 nationalities are represented.

Floran: Hate speech and bullying are not the same, and bullying still happens
among adults. Hate speech is trying to convince other people to hate a person or agroup, whereas bullying is picking on someone and making their life miserable foryour own pleasure. The focus is different. Social media platforms could use a filter
to filter out certain words; governments use filters like this against terrorism. But
filters alone wouldn’t be enough, you would need to follow up so that people knowthat the content they have posted isn’t acceptable, and why. Social media shouldhave a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech. People should be more aware that
this is punishable by law, and social media should work more closely with the legal
system to punish it. You can’t push your opinion so far as to desecrate other races
or religions – the intention behind the speech is what counts.
Q. And what about prevention?
ASKfm: We have developed information materials for users about safety measureson our platform. Those are available in ASKfm’s Safety Center. However, like most of
us in the industry, we are struggling to find the right communication channels andtools to deliver safety information to teens in an engaging but educational form.
We have started a partnership with the Diana Award in the UK to develop content
and raise the awareness of young people about online anonymity in general anduse of the ASKfm platform in particular. We believe that ENABLE allows us to reachour teen audience in the way that is appropriate for them.
Floran: Using social media and mobile phones as learning tools in school won’t
make much difference to the attitude of young people; you would need to do
specific activities with the tools related to making them understand the impact of
the things they do and write. Schools should be developing in all of us the strategy that whenever we receive a comment we don’t like, we should ask “What did
you mean by that?” We do this when we are speaking face to face, and it quickly
clears up any risk of misunderstanding or taking offence at a statement that wasn’t
meant to hurt.
There should also be more publicity about what mobile and social media platforms
do against bullying. I don’t see anything about this on their front page.

Perspectives Page 33

Q. Can you tell us more about how reporting works on your platform?
ASKfm: The ASKfm Web platform and applications (IOS and Android) offer our users
the ability to report content from different points of access. It is possible to report bothabusive content and users. Since a lot of our users are teens (40% of ASKfm users areunder 18) our intention is to ensure that reporting on ASKfm is simple and intuitive.
To achieve this goal, we monitor report volumes in different countries, analyse theirvalidity and listen to our users through focus group interviews.

Facebook: We receive millions of reports each week, but actually spam and nudity
top the report list at present. It is hard to measure the real prevalence of bullying
when the vast majority of reports concern issues other than bullying. There are many
ways of contacting Facebook and it is difficult to track what people are thinking
through what they report. The gravity of issues therefore has to be assessed using
other means. Sometimes people use the reporting tools we provide to abuse or
bully others, for example by claiming that content is fake. People can be clever indistorting reality to suit their purpose.

Floran: That’s precisely the problem of reporting! But social media should make theirreport-handling strategy much clearer to the public. If someone reports, they should
track all interactions between bully and bullied. Then they could just sever the link
between the people involved, without fully blocking the person who seems to be
doing the bullying. This would make people aware that they are doing something
wrong, and might lead them to reflect on their actions.
Q. Parents and teachers often enquire about the moderation systems on social
media and mobile platforms. Can you give us more details about your moderation system?

ASKfm: ASKfm moderation filters are based on our Terms of Service, which outline
the type of content and actions that are forbidden on the platform. This includes
bullying and specifically refers to cruel or hurtful posts; threatening or aggressive
posts; and offensive images. We review all reports from the users about possible
violations in text, images, videos or URLs. For this we use a combination of in-housemoderators together with a global, distributed team working around the year 24/7.
Furthermore, all images and videos are reviewed manually, usually within 15 minutes. Images containing prohibited content are removed after review by the site.
As a result of these efforts we doubled the amount of inappropriate questions andanswers removed from the site as compared to last year.
Facebook: Moderation can be seen in some respects as almost the invisible side of
the picture, but electronic moderation simply can’t compete with the human eye.
There are so many nuances in an image or a phrase that you cannot understand if
you lack context. And moderation can be insidious because images and texts can be
misconstrued. What seems inoffensive to the “naked eye” can be something perceived
entirely differently by those most closely involved. We believe in the importance of
having people look at content live and take into account signals, but even this cannever replace reporting.

Floran: With moderation you should look at the number of times the same peoplecommit the same “mistakes”, then block them if they do it many times purposely.

Page 34 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

This could work in a similar way to the points system on a driver’s licence. Then
there should be a lot of publicity about it.
Q. Do you have any sort of cyberbullying detection system, and if so, how does
it function?

ASKfm: We employ a proprietary database of inappropriate words and phrases in
multiple languages to help filter and alert to content, including bullying that violates
our Terms of Service. This database is updated regularly. In addition, we encourage
our users to report bullying content from a number of places on the site and applications. Reports are then reviewed by a team of moderators within 24 hours.
Q. What more could we do to encourage young people, parents and teachers
to benefit from the positive opportunities online and circumvent the risks?
Facebook: More interaction needs to be fostered between parents and children sothat both have a better understanding of tools and processes. Bullying is so upsettingthat we have to tackle it from many angles, including creating resources for parents
with expert organisations. We all have work to do in addressing parents and ensuring positive action rather than panic. Empowering parents to have conversations
with their children on these topics is essential, because parents have context andexperience even if they sometimes lack technical ability.
ASKfm: We are continuously developing relationships with NGOs in Europe to reachout to parents and teachers with our safety information and guidance. As a memberof the ICT Coalition, ASKfm is working with policy makers, educational institutions
and civil society to raise awareness about online safety.

Vodafone: Providing online safety messaging continues to be important but in
isolation it can create an unbalanced view that the potential risks outweigh thebenefits. Such education and awareness information on internet safety needs to
be integrated with the positive messages of digital literacy and the educationaland career opportunities that are available. While there continue to be high levelsof youth unemployment across Europe, the projections for future job vacancies in
information technology exceed the projected supply of candidates. Some of thesejobs have not yet been invented – for example, programing the personalities of ourhome robots!
Floran: We could make this a subject in school explaining the risks. If these things
are explained well enough, with real examples of what could go wrong, thenpeople could learn a lot more. Parents learn a lot from their children, but older
people without children get scammed much more easily. Everyone should haveaccess to education, which would help a lot in avoiding problems. If free courses
were offered in the local community, people would come together and learn,
including from each other.

Online technology is unique in its ability to cast a spotlight into the darkest cornersof humanity. It offers a megaphone to the minority, whose voice can often drownout the majority who are benefiting from the boundless opportunities that ICTs
provide. It is a fact of life that when it comes to technological progress we should
proceed with caution; this is where education has an essential role to play, whether

Perspectives Page 35

at home, at school, online and wherever people come together. However, according
to sociology professor David Finkelhor, who advises ENABLE on its work, “digital
natives” are handling the challenges of society better than any generation before
them since the 1950s.65 Our Facebook interviewee aptly said in closing:
We are only at the start of a long journey, and the power of the internet is that it is owned
by nobody but also by everybody. It needs to be youth-led, in the most democratic
way possible, by all, including people at risk. Young people should take away theunderstanding that this is a place where they should be creating.

Page 36 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Chapter 3

Understanding
cybersafety, cyberbullying
and cyberwellness –The youth perspective
Parry Aftab66

In the two decades and more that I have worked in the field of cyberlaw, policy
and cybersafety, there is one thing I have learned: young people see things
differently. Experts use terms like “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” to try
and explain the differences, but it is much more than that. In a world where online
and offline are always connected, young people do not see a difference between
the two. To them, it is just “life”.
However, while they claim there is no distinction between the “real” and the “virtual”,
ironically they believe that online/digital somehow matters less than “real life” anddifferent rules apply in each realm. Just as they have “inside” and “outdoor” voices
and behave differently at a party with friends than at grandma’s house, they also
behave differently during their online and offline activities.

“Tweens” or pre-adolescents use language online that they would never dream ofusing in real life and many become the cyberbullying equivalent of Dr Jekyll and
Ms Hyde. This alter ego engages in lewd and disrespectful language, confrontational tones, sexting (more focused on the sharing of visual content) and cybersex67(action-oriented).
This dichotomy needs to be understood by experts, industry leaders and medical
professionals addressing the digital lives of youth. We need to appreciate how
young people see their cyberworld and define their terms. Unless we understandtheir beliefs and attitudes, we can never change them, create better awareness or
keep them safe online.
That is why we at WiredSafety, Cyberwellness and StopCyberbullying speak directlywith up to 10 000 students a month, from locations around the globe, and have runteen and tween peer-leadership groups since 1998. We have learned that while somegroups of youth, depending on demographics, have different values and priorities,
most have similar beliefs and attitudes.

Page 37This chapter recounts only a very small amount of what they have shared with us
over the years. However, it forms the basis upon which we build our cybersafety,
cyberwellness and anti-cyberbullying programmes for youth and their families or
caregivers.

Cyberbullying – What they tell us
WiredSafety created the StopCyberbullying programme and website in 2005.
However, the organisation has worked on cyber-harassment and cyberbullying since
its formation as a cyber-help group in 1995. (WiredSafety defines “cyber-harassment”
as digital-sourced attacks by adults or minors against adults, and “cyberbullying” asdigital-sourced attacks by minors against minors.) Over the years WiredSafety has
conducted polls and surveys of more than 100 000 adults and minors on cyberbullying and digital abuse issues. It has unique insight into how young people definecyberbullying, the risks and harms of cyberbullying, what they think can and cannot
be done to prevent or address it, and its importance to them.

Defining the problem“Cyberbullying” is an accepted term, originally adopted in Canada. But few young
people or even experts can agree on a definition. Many experts use the offline definition of bullying, which requires an imbalance of power (real or perceived) andthat the action be repeated or continuous.

WiredSafety’s definition of cyberbullying is “the use of digital technology as a weapon
to hurt a minor by another minor.” Cyberbullying also has a longer and more academic definition, but this one is easier to understand and repeat. WiredSafety does
not agree that all cyberbullying must always be continuous or repeated to qualify as
cyberbullying. In the case of more serious incidents, repetition may not be necessary
for the activity to be considered cyberbullying.
Serious incidents might be considered to fall into two categories:
f sextortion, sext-bullying and significant reputational attacks (e.g. those related
to sexual preference, promiscuity, criminal behaviour, sexually transmitted
diseases, communicable diseases, and other types of reputational attacks
constituting defamation per se);f death threats or threats of serious bodily harm to the target or someone
close to the target, designed to distress the target.
WiredSafety also does not agree that an imbalance, real or perceived, is required(as it may be in “traditional” bullying). Digital technology itself provides the power
and its deployment is the imbalance, if any imbalance of power is required at all.
Interestingly, power can shift from one actor to the other with the victim lashingout at the original provocation and in turn becoming the bully.
Young people define cyberbullying in a very personal and subjective way. Some only
see death threats or provocations of suicide as cyberbullying. Others consider all

Page 38 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

name-calling to be cyberbullying. This is one of the reasons cyberbullying studies,surveys and polls have a wide range of disparate conclusions.
Ask a minor if they have been cyberbullied, and their response is highly dependent upon their own definition of the term; the person conducting the study often
has no idea what that is. That’s why we never ask young people if they have been
cyberbullied. Instead, we list the 87 different actions students have identified tous as constituting cyberbullying, and ask if any of those have happened to them.
In most cases, over 85% of young people (in group presentations to 12- to 16-yearolds across the world) tell us that they have experienced at least one of the actions
constituting cyberbullying in the last year. We have asked this question of more than
43 000 young people, in person, in various North American, Asian and European
locations, and more than 55 000 young people by digital survey in North America.
Another problem exists when young people cannot agree on a definition of cyberbullying. If they cannot agree on where the line is, they cannot stop their own
actions from crossing that “thin line”. Without being able to identify unacceptablebehaviour, they do not report it when it happens to them, thinking it falls within
acceptable, although “mean”, behaviour. They put up with behaviour that is clearly
unacceptable because they do not understand that it is unacceptable. And they areoften self-critical for not being able to brush it off.
StopCyberbullying’s “Are you a cyberbully?” quiz, developed by schoolgirls at the
Spence School, New York 12 years ago, has received more views and requests forreuse than most of our other resources: only our “Stop, block and tell” initiative has
been used and adopted more. It helps show how often young people seek definitionsof digital abuse and where the line is drawn.

“Cyberbullying is important because people are dying”
After I ask students the threshold questions designed to help me understand how
much they understand cybersafety and cyberbullying, I ask them to tell me what themost important issue is that they face online. “Cyberbullying!” is the overwhelming
answer, no matter where I am in the world. When I ask them why, the most frequent
response is because kids/teens are dying. When I ask how many they think havecommitted suicide because of cyberbullying worldwide since the arrival of theinternet, typical responses include: “Millions!” “Hundreds of thousands!” “10 a day!”“12 500 a week!” Their responses are rapid and, to them, credible, and when asked
to vote on the best answer, they usually conclude that it is somewhere between 5
and 18 million. If anyone guesses at a more realistic figure, like between 500 and
1 000, the other students laugh.

Many young people believe that cyberbullying-related suicides are far more common
than they are, and this is true for students around the world. Although I discuss their
misconceptions, the fact that students see digital abuse as a substantial contributing
factor to death among young people is a serious problem. In fact they are overestimating the numbers of suicides, hardly a sign that they are underappreciating thedamage?

Perspectives Page 39

Young people are genuinely fearful. They believe that suicide and self-harm are
expected behaviour. They do not know how to react when they are targeted, andfear for their friends when their friends are targeted. They panic and, unless they feelthey are being targeted worse than what others are, they think they have no rightto be hurt; they may not reach out for help.
They blame the cyberbully for provoking suicides and do not understand the reality.
In every case that I am aware of, globally, when suicide is connected to digital abuseof minors, the minor is at risk for some unrelated reason. In my experience, cyberbullying may contribute to a minor’s vulnerability, ostracise them from potential
support networks or act as the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back, but it
does not actually cause suicide or self-harm.

Many “cyberbullycide” victims have been under treatment for emotional stress anddisorders. Many have been on medication for many years to address depression andbehavioural issues. They may be ostracised by their peers, rejected by former friends
and significant others, and socially rejected for many reasons.
They may be different from others and in some cases different from the way they
were before a disabling accident, illness, treatment or life-changing incident. For
example, a recent “bullycide” in Virginia occurred after a popular young woman
received a concussion while playing soccer. The resulting brain trauma changed
her behaviour, and bullying and cyberbullying ensued. She went from popular to“different” and she eventually took her own life only hours after sharing her tormentwith her father.
Various circumstances may contribute to undermining a young person’s resilienceand self-esteem, such as a divorce, death in the family or among close friends,
sudden economic crisis, health-related crisis, lifestyle change, social rejection due
to changes in weight/attractiveness/sexual activity or sexual preference, a hostile
breakup with reputational attacks, legal/criminal-related repercussions or intellectual/physical/emotional special needs. Equally, new schools, moving to new locations,immigrant status or ethnic/religious/cultural differences may result in alienationfrom peers and isolation.
Our mental health experts and medical professionals tell us that cyberbullying alone
does not provoke serious self-harm or suicide. They admit it can be a contributing
factor and often, when the target feels they have no one to trust and no options, it
can lead to consideration of self-harm. Cyberbullying does not kill but it hurts andcan have lasting effects throughout a person’s lifetime. There are ways to address
cyberbullying and the better young people understand this, the better equipped
they will be to survive it and move on.

Amanda Todd
Amanda Todd’s name and story is recognised worldwide. At school presentations
in Budapest, Bangalore, Melbourne and Prince Edward Island, the students know
her name and her pain. There have been many digital abuse-related suicides before
and since Amanda’s, but her story is the one they remember best.

Page 40 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Why is Amanda remembered the most? Because she shared her story using flashcards
on a lengthy YouTube video viewed around the world by teens and pre-teens in the
millions. They watched her over and over, identified with her and were shocked byher. She became someone they knew and they felt her loss personally.

The misconception that Amanda is a typical teen creates serious problems andneeds to be corrected. High-profile media coverage of cyberbullying-related suicides
has so resonated with youth that they have problems believing the reality aboutcyberbullying/digital abuse-related suicides.
Since there are no accurate statistics on suicides connected with digital harassment
among young people, compiling known cases could be very useful in helping young
people understand the reality instead of the hype. We estimate that the number ofsuch suicides worldwide is less than 1 000. In fact, we believe that cyberbullying
has actually been connected with fewer than 500 suicides but have doubled that
number to be conservative.

Should provocation of suicide be a crime?
We hosted a StopCyberbullying summit in Ireland in 2015. Attended by 350 students
and 200 adult experts in Limerick and 350 students and experts in Dublin on thesecond day, the summit explored youth perceptions and approaches to address
cyberbullying.
Part of the summit had a trans-Atlantic focus because of the case of Phoebe Prince;a well-known bullycide victim from the Limerick area. She had moved from Ireland
to the US and eventually took her own life. As a US lawyer specialising in digital bestpractices, security and privacy, I facilitated a breakout discussion group on “Law andcyberbullying”, along with an Irish legal expert.
I began by asking whether a cyberbully who tells a target to kill themselves should
be charged with murder. About one third responded that they should, so I probed
further: “Does it depend on whether the cyberbully knows that the target is especiallyvulnerable? Perhaps a death in the family, a crisis they are facing or a special needs
situation? If they know that the target is especially depressed or vulnerable, is thatthe deciding factor?” The students nodded their heads in unison, with the exceptionof a handful of girls in the front.
One of those girls stood up. “I have never told my friends this before. I have never
told anyone this before,” she offered, refusing to look anyone in the eye. “Everyone
thinks I am strong and in control. They don’t see the pain inside. I have been cyberbullied and considered hurting myself. And I want to make sure that anyone who
tells someone to kill themselves is punished. Requiring that others know the target
is suicidal, depressed or especially vulnerable misses the point. YOU NEVER KNOW
WHAT IS GOING ON INSIDE ANOTHER PERSON!”I was in tears, as were her friends and others in the room. However, as I think about
devising a legal approach to cyberbullies who provoke suicide or whose actions (inpart) result in self-harm or suicide, I remember what she said.

Perspectives Page 41

Traditionally, laws may deal with vulnerable groups or individuals differently if theperson being charged knew or should have known of this vulnerability. This is a way
to address laws that hold self-harm as unreasonable and therefore, unforeseeable.
These laws tend not to hold the provoker responsible for the ultimate suicide or selfharm of someone affected by their actions or words. Even so, the question arises:
should those vulnerable and concealing their vulnerability be any less protected?

Only “traditional bullies” cyberbully
Young people tend to cast the instigators in a cyberbullying or perceived cyberbullying incident as bullies. Nevertheless, according to our estimates only 50% of
cyberbullying incidents involve traditional offline bullying motives or actors. It isinteresting to note that while young people think that “traditional bullies” are people
on the other side, they are also very understanding of the pressures and insecurities
that may result in the “bullies” lashing out.
StopCyberbullying categorises cyberbullying into five types – direct, indirect,
cyberbullying-by-proxy, privacy intrusions and inadvertent/accidental cyberbullying. Accidental cyberbullying is the only unintentional type of cyberbullying andresults from either the lack of digital literacy or miscommunications like typos andmisinterpreted humour. However, it accounts for roughly 30% of cyberbullying andperceived cyberbullying incidents, especially for those aged 16 and under.

Those who instigate an inadvertent cyberbullying incident sometimes have no idea
they have done so and the recipient has no idea their actions were not intended tohurt. As a result, when the recipient retaliates, they are actually the ones starting an
intentional cyberbullying incident.
A further misconception is that cyberbullying always involves “traditional bullies”. In
fact, many targets of traditional bullying themselves turn to cyberbullying to level
the playing field or seek retribution. They disguise their real identities behind thestolen identities of their targets or their friends or lash out anonymously to protect
themselves from their larger, more popular and socially influential targets. They
sometimes stop when the bullying does and sometimes they become cyberbullies
in their own right, targeting others unrelated to their own bullying incidents.
StopCyberbullying divides cyberbullies into four categories: “mean girls”, “power
hungry”, “revenge of the nerds” and “inadvertent or accidental cyberbullies”. Only
“mean girls” and “power hungry” cyberbullies operate online and offline. In fact,
only 50% of the cases of cyberbullying involve traditional offline bullies, which isone of the reasons that we need different programmes to address cyberbullying
and traditional bullying.

When probed in depth, young people understand how cyberbullies differ fromtheir offline equivalents because many of them have cyberbullied someone else.
For example, in one case, 70% of 1 000 boys polled in a New York private school
admitted to having cyberbullied someone at least once. Despite this, young people
still perceive cyberbullies as the tough guys or mean girls who constitute the ranks
of offline bullies.

Page 42 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Reporting cyberbullying doesn’t work
I am one of the members of Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board, and have beenadvising the industry on digital best practices for 22 years. I have helped designand deploy abuse-reporting systems and procedures for most of the major internet,
social media and game industry leaders. They are well designed and respond to theneeds of users to report abuse and, in some cases, get help.
Nevertheless, it is notable that few young people use these services, and these are
the reasons they give:f when they report something, nothing happens. It is a waste of their time;
f if they make a report, the person they report is told who reported it;
f if they report something as cyberbullying and it turns out it was not reallycyberbullying, they can “get into trouble”.
While the frustration of young people over the lack of response by the networks
is understandable, and in many ways valid, their other beliefs are unfounded. The
networks do not tell the abuser who reported them, unless compelled to do so by
applicable law. And “good faith” reports that turn out to be incorrect are never held
against them. Despite this, young people continue to seek alternatives to address
cyberbullying that are often less effective.
Young people have come up with ideas to improve abuse report systems, some ofwhich have been adopted by the tech giants. For example, an 8-year-old from Prince
Edward Island (Canada) suggested that if networks allowed children to share theoffending post, image or video with a trusted adult, the trusted adult would be able
to help them more effectively. I shared this idea with Facebook and they have now
made it possible for a young person to share offending material with a trusted adult.
Until young people understand and trust the reporting process, and unless social
media companies are more effective in taking action on cyberbullying reports,theywill continue to be denied a potentially effective way to stop cyberbullying. Althoughteen and tween volunteers with StopCyberbullying are working to design apps toimprove this situation, this has to be an industry-wide initiative.

Red buttons and help/support – What they tell us
Years ago Jim Gamble (representing CEOP, the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online
Protection Centre) and I debated his demand that Facebook build in a “red button”
for victims of digital abuse. His demand followed a tragic incident in the UK and heargued that if young people could press one button and get information on cybersafety, lives could be saved. This was not meant to be an emergency number to call,but merely a link to cybersafety materials provided by CEOP.
Eventually, I helped broker a resolution where Facebook would assist CEOP in creating an app that users could use on their Facebook profile. The app provided a red
button to CEOP’s cybersafety resources, but a 13-year-old from Canada took it one
step further.

Perspectives Page 43

In a discussion I was facilitating with a group of 80 13-year-olds, this student suggested
a “red button” with a difference. “The red button would get you help in real time,” heexplained. “When you need to talk with someone right then, or get help right then,
you could click the button and someone would be there to help you or talk with you.”

The cost of providing live help and assistance for networks the size of Facebook orYouTube is prohibitive. However, NGOs and existing help groups, as well as helplines,
can make this a reality as long as they are trained and certified in cyberbullying,safety, privacy, security and digital best practices. WiredSafety’s volunteers havebeen offering online chat/e-mail help and support for 20 years, but this is larger thanany one group’s ability to address it. This is a problem that requires a collaborative
partnership of non-profits, help groups, victim assistance agencies, industry leaders,programmers and young people.

Next steps – What we have learned
In conclusion, looking at what young people have told us can help experts, theindustry, policy makers, wellness professionals and risk managers address digital
abuse, risks and cyberbullying. We have to listen better. Young people need a placeat the table.

We need to help young people define the parameters of freedom of speech andwhere the line exists between being rude and being abusive. They need to understandhow the power of digital technology can improve lives and help victims of abuse
and crime, and how community interaction and social networking can be enjoyed insafer ways. We also need to ensure that they gain the necessary legal and cyberlaw
literacy skills. In turn, young people need to help us understand their needs, views
and the value of their contributions to fixing what’s broken and innovating solutions.
Young people should be seen, heard and respected. When it comes to digital bestpractices, safety, privacy and security – it is their world and they must have an
important voice in framing it and managing it.

Page 44 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Chapter 4

The future of parental
engagement
Ken Corish and Elizabeth Milovidov
Parenting is providing the conditions in which a child can realize his or her full humanpotential.
– Gordon Neufeld

P

arents are the keystones in successfully raising children today, but engaging
parents in conversations about bullying and other difficult issues is often achallenge. Yet issues of safety, resilience and managing bullying in both theoffline and online worlds are among the main themes that parents need to know
about.

A fundamental premise of the ENABLE programme is to promote resilience in bullying
situations through the progressive development of social and emotional knowledge
and skills – a behavioural intervention akin to parenting itself. It is vital that parents
themselves support the initiative in a consistent way at home for it to be effective.
It has never been more important for them to be involved, which is why the ENABLE
programme includes a resource specifically designed for them.
While the majority of bullying continues to happen face to face, cyberbullying is
the number one issue reported by the INSAFE network68 and also an issue regularly
covered by the media. However, parents often do not feel sufficiently empowered
to be able to manage their child’s online experience for a whole host of reasons,mostly technical. Many parents find it difficult to transfer their parenting skills into
what, for them, is often an unfamiliar and alien world. However, parental educationin digital citizenship allows schools to extend their duty of care for their students
and build in them a resilience that will ensure they can keep themselves safe evenwhen the necessary technology or adult intervention is not there to support them.

Bringing parents up to speed with the challenges of the online world is no easy task.
In this chapter, we will examine the best practices and tried and tested strategies toengage parents in both general internet safety practices as well as specific cyberbullying prevention techniques.

Page 45

Parent’s attitudes to their child’s online life – What researchtells usThe Ofcom Media and Attitudes Report69 is a bi-annual report that highlights how
UK families use media and how their concerns and aspirations shape that use. It
provides a useful reference to parental attitudes and can help schools shape anengagement strategy. The following summary provides a list of the salient issues
covered by the report and what parents say about them.

Around 1 in 4 parents say they are very/fairly concerned about their child: being bullied online/cyberbullying (24%); downloading viruses (23%); or giving out personal
details to inappropriate people (22%). Almost 1 in 5 are concerned about who theirchild is in contact with online (19%). However, there was less concern about online
content (16%); that their child might bully others online (14%); or online sharing/accessing of copyrighted material (12%).
About 1 in 4 parents of 8- to 15-year-olds have concerns about mobile phone use. They
are mostly concerned about their child being bullied through their mobile phone,or about them sharing their personal details with inappropriate people. About 1 in
5 parents are also very/fairly concerned about their child downloading bogus or malicious apps on their smartphone, or the use of location-based services on their phone.

Gaming has become an almost exclusively social activity and presents a number ofchallenges, including regular incidences of bullying. Around 1 in 8 parents of 5- to
15-year-olds who play games are concerned about gaming content (13%) and whotheir child might be gaming with through their device (12%). Both these indicators
remain unchanged since 2012.
Many children use the internet unsupervised and feel they are being intruded onwhen a parent monitors them or intervenes. This often means they are reluctant toseek support from an adult when issues arise. As young people become older, they
are less likely to go to a “trusted adult” for help and often feel they are resilient enoughto deal with bullying issues themselves. Most parents of 5- to 15-year-olds who go
online at home trust their child to use the internet safely (83%), and feel that thebenefits of the internet outweigh the risks (70%). Around half of the parents of 3- to
4-year-olds trust their child to use the internet safely (52%) with most (63%) sayingthat the benefits outweigh the risks. Around half of the parents of 5- to 15-year-olds
who go online at home (47%) say their child knows more about the internet thanthey do, and 14% of parents of 3- to 4-year-olds also agree with this statement!
While the Ofcom report only covers the opinions of parents across the UK, the EU
Kids Online research programme analyses trends across the entire European Union
and although there are cultural variations and peculiarities, it appears that many
parental concerns are similar. In general, both research and more anecdotal observations note that:f not all parents are clueless;f parents are concerned about some of the issues arising from their child’s useof the internet and welcome guidance and support;
f parents do not discuss these issues enough with their children in a constructive
way and often do not know or understand the issues their children face;

Page 46 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

f children welcome the right support and intervention from parents if things
go wrong;
f parents are often anxious when thinking about what their children do online;
f parents may be swept up in media storms about the latest trend, without
thinking of actually speaking with their child;f very few parents either understand or employ technical intervention tomonitor or manage their children’s online access;f parents find it difficult to initiate conversations that strike the right balance;f mobile phone use and gaming are high-profile concerns.
With respect to bullying, increased parental engagement and awareness:
f provides effective communication routes between school and home to
inform parents of incidents, approaches or events;
f facilitates reporting of bullying behaviour from school to home and vice versa;
f facilitates more effective responses when a bullying incident becomes more
serious (e.g. involving violent or illegal behaviour);f strengthens parental buy-in and support of strategy;
f ensures consistency of messages between school and home.

Effective strategies for parental engagement
Understand parental concerns
Research can only offer a general view of parental attitudes. It is more effective tounderstand the actual concerns of your specific parental community.

Generate a parental survey
A traditional paper-based survey can be used but surveys produced and completed
online can be more effective and meaningful. Survey Monkey70 is a free tool to produce simple or complex online surveys that include a range of response options
from tick boxes to free text.

Use impact tools
An in-built impact assessment tool is available in the free online safety mapping
tool Online Compass,71 from South West Grid for Learning. While Online Compass isintended for children in settings other than school, the impact survey is still a useful
tool to canvass parental opinion and timestamps and collates results automaticallyback into the tool.

Engage parents directly in the shaping of safety strategies
Survey results can be effective in informing strategy but engaging parents directly
places them at the heart of what can be a complex decision-making process. It is
important to recognise that such decisions have an impact not only on the school
environment but also on the home and many situations that occur between the two.

Perspectives Page 47

Include parents in school governing bodies
Many schools employ the services of a parent on their governing bodies to both ratify
and challenge school policy and strategy. Encouraging parent governors to contribute an external perspective on child safety matters can be very helpful, especially
if combined with the obligations and expertise of the safeguarding governor. It isalso a worthwhile investment to provide additional training for any parent governor
who is willing to take up this role.

Set up an anti-bullying group
Digital citizenship requires successful leadership and schools that promote thiseffectively often have an online safety lead group with appropriate powers andaccountability. Having a parent member in this group not only allows an external
perspective but also broadens the group’s focus beyond purely technical issues toinclude other behaviour or safeguarding strategies.

Offer opportunities to educate parents
Schools often act as learning hubs for the wider community; their facilities andexpertise are a valuable asset and are often employed to provide a rich resource forfamilies in the local area. This is particularly true when it comes to new technology,
and the ENABLE parent carer pack72 is a great resource for the education and supportof parent communities.

Take advantage of parent meetings
Parents’ evenings, assemblies and other school events are often occasions when
parents will freely congregate to see their children perform or to check on theirprogress. If you have them all together in the one room, take advantage of it. A
well-structured presentation of key information, even if only for five minutes, canhave a very effective impact.

Encourage child/parent dialogue
A few years ago, the US psychologist Marc Prensky73 coined the phrases “digital
natives” and “digital immigrants” in reference to the perceived gap between parents
and their children when it came to technology. Prensky argued that “digital natives”
have grown up with technology and have a whole language and culture basedaround it while “digital immigrants” struggle to learn the language, the rules, what
is cool, what is safe, what is right and what is wrong.
Getting both parties at the table to engage and exchange when they are notspeaking the same language can be a challenge. It takes dialogue, but where doyou start? How do you begin that conversation when the parents’ own experienceof online life may be limited? The following age-specific advice on online andoffline child protection is taken from the Digital Parenting magazine by Vodafone
and ParentZone.74

Page 48 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Under 5s
Start early and strive for a balance regarding TV and iPad use.
Privilege face-to-face and family time.
It is important young children play with technology, but keep devices out of theirreach so you can decide when they can use them.
Think carefully about the content they watch, particularly if they are around when
you or older siblings are watching TV or going online.
Make sure the rest of your family and friends know your rules too so there is consistency for your child.

6 to 9 years
Manage your children’s access to the family computer by creating their own personaluser account. This makes it easier to track their activity.
Have a conversation about the sorts of websites they should use and the ones thatyou would not be happy them accessing. Let them know that you will occasionallycheck what they are doing.
Discuss the sorts of information that are valuable to others but could make themvulnerable.
Set time limits for when and how long technology is used. Try to avoid any gamingor heavy media use one hour before bedtime.
Talk to other parents about these issues and observe what their children are doing
so you have some comparisons to inform your rule set.

10 to 12 years
Set some boundaries when they get their first game console, such as when it canbe used and where it is sited. Get used to using the parental controls and checkregularly that they have not been bypassed or compromised.
Remind your child about the risks of phone theft and tell them not to leave theirphones on display when out and about.
Discuss what they post online and what it says about them to others.
Discuss the kinds of things they see online. This is the age when they might be looking
for information about their changing bodies and exploring relationships, for example.

Hold the line on letting your son or daughter sign up for services like Facebook andYouTube that have a minimum age requirement of 13. Talk to other parents and theirschool to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Keep checking and revisiting your rule set. It might shift and change but that should
only happen through honest dialogue and compromise. Be prepared to impose
sanctions if the rules are broken: for example, removing the device or disconnecting
it for the evening. Your house; your rules!

Perspectives Page 49

13+ years
It is never too late to set some rules, particularly at important points in their schoolingsuch as exam time or when homework is due.

Talk to them about how they might be exploring issues related to their health,well-being and body image online because they might have come across inaccurate
or dangerous information on the Web at a vulnerable time.
Discuss how their behaviour and activity has an impact on others and do not shy
away from difficult conversations about things like pornography, bullying and otherrisky behaviours, such as sexting.
Give your son or daughter control over their own budget for things like apps andmusic, but make sure you have agreed boundaries so that they manage their money
responsibly.
Discuss the impact of plagiarism and illegal downloading, especially before leaving
school to go on to higher education or a job.

Help your child understand that they can create a positive digital reputation by
posting and behaving responsibly online.
Reach a negotiated compromise over parental controls, particularly in relation tocontent and time spent online. Do not forget to include in this all connected devices
including tablets, mobile phones and game consoles.
As noted by danah boyd (who spells her name in lower case), “While we cannot
protect youth from all forms of meanness and cruelty or stop teens from getting
hurt when they negotiate social relations, we can certainly make a concerted effort
to empower youth, to strengthen their resilience, and to help recognize when they
are hurting.”75

Parents can help increase the social and emotional learning (SEL) skills of their children and their resilience by:f ensuring that they feel accepted;
f helping them increase their self-awareness and self-esteem;f showing them that they are accepted and loved just the way they are;f teaching them to adapt to, handle and overcome tough situations;f inspiring positive emotions, and helping them find pleasure and humour in life;
f promoting problem-solving skills and learning to be flexible in their responses;
f showing them the importance of empathy;
f nurturing a positive self-view;f challenging any self-critical behaviour;
f leading by example.
Other conversation starter resources include internetmatters.org,76 Common Sense
Media77 and the ENABLE Parent Pack.78 Parents should be encouraged to dive in, finda style that they like, and then mix and match what works in their family.79

Page 50 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

The future of parental engagement
As technology changes and evolves, so too must the strategies to encourage andengage parents. There is unfortunately no one-size-fits-all strategy or best practice.
The observations outlined here will work well in some countries, but may have to
be modified or adapted in others. However, irrespective of culture or country, theengaged parent has a vital role in raising a resilient child in the digital age and there
is no doubt that parental engagement will continue to have a role in the future.80

Perspectives Page 51

Chapter 5

Special needs, special
cases – Tacklingbullying for all
Katja EngelhardtThere is no doubt that bullying of students with disabilities and special needs iswidespread and a serious concern, certainly in the United Kingdom. As Philippa
Stobbs, from the Council for Disabled Children, puts it, “We know that bullying
remains the single biggest concern raised by children with special educational needs
and disabilities.”81

People with special educational needs (SEN) are not a homogenous populationand their needs vary, as does how they are affected and how they react to bullying.
Definitions of SEN vary widely across countries and the term is not well definedinternationally. However, it usually covers those for whom a special learning need has
been formally identified because they are mentally, physically or emotionally disadvantaged.82 Children with SEN may have complex health needs, learning disabilities,
sensory impairments (visually or hearing impaired) or social and behavioural needs.
In the UK, one of the few countries for which detailed information is available, thelargest categories are moderate learning difficulty (24.2%), behavioural, emotionaland social difficulties (22.7%) and speech, language and communications needs(16.3%). A much smaller proportion of pupils have physical disabilities (3.8%), visualor hearing impairments (3.4%), and autism spectrum disorders (8.1%).83
Bullying of children and young people with SEN is more prevalent than that of children and young people in general. Primary school students in England with SEN are
twice as likely as other children to endure persistent bullying, according to researchcarried out in 2014 by the University of London’s Institute of Education. Yet the study
found that disabled youngsters had been “largely neglected” in research assessing
the impact of bullying,84 therefore the reasons for this are a matter of conjecture.

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Bullying of children and young people with SEN could be a reflection of the discrimination they face in society: “Bullying reinforces the inequalities experienced
by disabled people, putting them at double disadvantage”, according to the study
mentioned above.85 In a survey of parents of children with SEN, nearly all respondents(85%) believed their child was bullied because they had disabilities or SEN, and notfor other reasons.86 As disabled children are also more likely to have disadvantaged
backgrounds, it has in the past been difficult to determine whether it was theirdisability, their family’s disadvantaged socio-economic position, or another factor
that led to the bullying.
Cited in an article on why children with SEN are targets, Dr Raffailli says, “No matterhow you look at it, bullying is a form of abuse victimization, plain and simple … It’sa case of the strong – or at least the stronger – preying on the weak.”87 Rosemary
Musachio, born with cerebral palsy, testifies in an article by Debra Ruh: “Even though
I attended a special education school, many children were more physically able thanI was. I think their greater ability made them feel more important, more powerful,”88
she says.

Students with SEN are often easy targets for bullying because they are different
from their peers in the way they look, speak, act, socially interact or the work they
do at school. They may have additional support (including the use of assistive
technologies that, although designed to enable participation, can draw attention
to the child’s difference) or be treated differently by adults in their lives. They may
also have difficulties telling others what is happening to them and are likely to havefewer friends to protect them, since students with SEN often find it harder to makefriends as a result of their condition. On top of that, students with SEN are also lesslikely to defend themselves effectively because they want to fit in or may not evenrecognise that they are being bullied, making them easy prey. Rosemary Musachio,
however, is convinced that being bullied is not the victim’s fault: “Bullying has nothing
to do with the person being bullied. The perpetrator is flawed.” Even so, the school
environment and society at large do not always provide a protective environment,
as negative attitudes towards disability and a lack of understanding of different
disabilities and conditions still persist.
Among young people with SEN, some groups are at higher risk than others. Amongthese are children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)or learning disabilities. For instance, a study found that children with ASD were morethan three times as likely to be bullied as their peers.89 In a landmark survey conducted
in 1994, researchers found that children with visible physical conditions or disabilities,
such as cerebral palsy and Down syndrome, were more likely to be called names oraggressively excluded from social activities.90 In the following pages, the stories ofDebra and Sara, who were born with Down syndrome, and that of Rosemary, who
was born with cerebral palsy, clearly underline this point.
The internet can provide life-changing and positive opportunities for students with
SEN to learn, be creative, be empowered and have fun just like their peers, possibly
more so in some cases. In the UK, 90% of disabled 15- to 34-year-olds access theinternet, for things ranging from social interactions to managing finances andPage 54 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

finding out important information. The often anonymous nature of the internet canbe liberating so users often deliberately do not reveal this aspect of their identity.

Going online, however, also exposes some of these students to more risk than theirpeers. One reason is that some children with emotional, behavioural or learning
difficulties might find it more difficult to fully understand what is going on online.
This can include difficulties in identifying reliable content and understanding onlinesocial conventions, and the potential risks of sharing information. For instance, autistic children may make literal interpretations of content, or students with learning
difficulties might not understand the terminology used.
Some young people with complex needs may have difficulties understanding theconcept of friendship and therefore trust everyone implicitly. This makes themmore vulnerable to forms of bullying like manipulative bullying, where a person iscontrolling someone; or conditional friendships, where a child thinks someone isbeing their friend but times of friendliness are alternated with times of bullying; andexploitative bullying, where features of a child’s condition are used to bully them.
Children may not realise that they are being bullied – or indeed that their online
behaviour may be seen by somebody else as bullying.
The culture and ethos of a school and its commitment to tackling bullying has asignificant impact on children and young people’s understanding of why bullying
happens. Children’s understanding of differences between them and their peers
varies greatly, and is strongly linked to the way in which their individual schools
frame this issue, according to the Anti-Bullying Alliance.91 In schools where children
felt safe and listened to, and knew that bullying incidents would be responded toeffectively, their understanding of difference and why children are bullied extended
beyond disability.

Some learners with SEN cannot recognise bullying behaviour and may not beable to identify the child who is using bullying behaviour. Likewise, some young
people will struggle to remember details of an incident several days later, callingfor prompt intervention by carers. In such circumstances, it is important to workwith bystanders. The following case studies underline, among other things, just
how important it is to encourage peers to step in, in particular since bullying does
not happen only in the classroom but also in the schoolyard, school bus or online,
where adults are not always present to protect children. It is not only peers, but also
the victims of bullying who need to be encouraged to speak up. “All we have to dois speak up to teachers, employers, even police officers if we experience bullying”,
notes Rosemary Musachio.92 The fourth case study pushes the concept of special
needs a little further. It leads us to consider some of the challenges that children andyoung people face through special needs related to the socio-economic conditionsof their family, in this particular case when a parent is in prison.

Perspectives Page 55

Bullying and children with disabilities – A parental perspective93
Jackie Hunter
Having a child with Down syndrome has opened my eyes to a whole new world ofbullying. Children with all types of disabilities tend to be easy targets because most ofthem cannot stand up for themselves. Some don’t even realise they are being teased,
made fun of or bullied. Bullying children with special needs can come in many forms.
Some of the cruellest instances of bullying I have witnessed have been through theunauthorised use of pictures of children and/or adults with Down syndrome in memesthat are blasted on the internet. As a parent of a child with Down syndrome, I am
constantly trying to make sure any photos of my daughter are not being misusedby people who make these sick memes and videos for the sole purpose of cyberbullying. The special needs community is a tight-knit group and we all try our best
to protect each other as best as we can. We report any cyberbullying immediately.
I am a huge advocate for inclusion of all people, especially since my daughter withspecial needs was born. I have found that most people are afraid of the unknown
and the unfamiliar, and it sometimes causes them to act in ways they would not do
if they had more knowledge and were more familiar with a certain subject or person. Sometimes it can be as simple as saying hello and having a brief exchange to
put one’s mind at ease. I strongly believe that when we KNOW better, we DO better.
Part of “knowing” better is educating our community about Down syndrome andletting them interact with others to show them that kids with Down syndrome are“more alike than different” from their peers. I have accomplished this in my own
community by bringing my daughter with me to speak to high school kids about
what it is like to have Down syndrome during Disability Awareness Week.

I showed a YouTube video called “Just Like You-Down Syndrome” that the Down
Syndrome Guild of Greater Kansas City made. It shows several sets of friends andhow they have genuine friendships with peers who happen to have Down syndrome.
It briefly describes the genetics behind having Down syndrome and explains how
you can foster a great friendship with someone just like they do.
After showing the video, I did a few hands-on activities that gave kids a first-handexperience of some of the struggles that people with Down syndrome have, including with their speech, memory and gross motor skills. It is helpful for people to beable to put themselves in someone else’s shoes to help understand their struggles.
After the activities, I let the students ask my daughter any questions they wanted.
Of course, she ended up dancing and singing for them and making them laugh. The
most important thing came at the very end. I encouraged anyone who had never
had any previous contact with a person with Down syndrome before to please comegive a hug, handshake, or a high five to my daughter before they left. Needless tosay, there was a line of several hundred students waiting to hug her, take a selfie withher, and tell her how great she did during the awareness presentation.
Since that day, we have seen several of those students out and about town andthey now smile and come up to my daughter (unafraid) to say hello, have a brief
conversation, or get a hug. Hopefully each of those students told a few of theirPage 56 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

friends about that experience and the next time those friends see my daughter orsomeone like her in public, now they too will be encouraged to smile, say hello, or
start a conversation with them.

Again, when we know better, we do better! Education and awareness are key tomaking change. The more people see kids and adults with disabilities included inmainstream media, in our own community, and participating in events like everybody
else, the less chance there is of those people being bullied and treated as outcasts.
People with Down syndrome have so much to offer and can teach others about love,companionship, gratitude and appreciation in life.

The story of Sara: another parental perspective
Debra Ruh
My husband and I are blessed to have two children – Sara, born with Down syndrome,and Kevin. They are adults now and making a difference in the world with their work.
When they were heading to middle school they had a long bus ride. Almost an hour
each way and I was so worried that Sara would be bullied on the bus. She had notbeen bullied much in elementary school but we were nervous.

She did experience bullying but not as much as we feared. Her brother Kevin wasprotective of her and quick to defend her. Also, other students on the bus defended
her and it appeared that she was “off limits” when it came to bullying.
I remember my son telling me about an experience he witnessed on the bus. Twogirls about the same age as Sara got on the bus. Sara said, “Hello, can we be friends?”
The girls responded, “No, we don’t want to be friends with you.” Then they madesnide and nasty comments that upset Sara. It so angered my son and other students
that they made comments defending Sara.
The girls laughed and smirked but did notfurther antagonise Sara. The next day the girls
got on the bus and Sara said, “Can we befriends today?” The girls both said no again
with the same reaction from Kevin, and otherstudents. This same scenario went on for weeks– each day (morning and afternoon) the girls
got on the bus and Sara asked if they could
be friends. Each time they said no and madenasty comments, giggled and smirked. Finally,
between Sara’s persistence, peer pressure fromother students and Kevin, the girls gave in.
One morning Sara said, “Can we be friends today?” They both said, “Yes, we will be
your friend Sara.” It made Sara so happy and many of the students cheered. Theyrode the bus together for years and the girls were always nice to Sara after that day.
Another time during the beginning of summer school another community of children
joined our community for day camps. Several of the children from the other community started picking on Sara. The same thing happened – the children in our

Perspectives Page 57

community quickly defended Sara and got the adults involved. Those children were
counselled and the bullying stopped.

Rosemary’s perspective
I work with a talented woman named Rosemary.
She was born with cerebral palsy. I asked her
if she has experienced bullying. Here is her
response:

Even though I attended a special education
school, many children were more physicallyable than I was. I think the greater ability madethem feel more important, more powerful.
Consequently, some started bullying me by making faces at me, calling me “stupid”
and profane titles, and throwing sexual gestures at me. Their hurtful actions andwords made me unworthy and ugly, like a monster.

My impulsive reaction was to swing at the boys who were bothering me, which
elicited further bullying from them. My friend also confronted them, which was
detrimental because they made fun of him as well. I finally turned to my father, whowrote a letter to the teacher. Although the intimidation decreased, I still could feel
their eyes on me as if they were cursing me under their breaths.
At the time, I thought these boys bullied me because they were jealous of me due
to my good grades or because I actually felt I was less important than they were.
Consequently, my self-confidence became disabled. After 35 years, it still needs
rehabilitation at times.
Bullying has nothing to do with the person being bullied, however. The perpetrator
is flawed. Most likely, he is the victim of bullying himself or he has insecurities thathave not been addressed. Persons with disabilities are easy targets for verbal abusebecause we appear defenceless. Yet, if we summon our inner strength, we can avoid
becoming verbal punching bags. All we have to do is speak up to teachers, employers, even police officers if we experience bullying. Then the instigators would stophurting not only us but others as well.
– Rosemary Musachio, Ruh Global Communications, Chief Strategy Officer.
I like to believe that young people are starting to be more evolved. I know the children in our area did not allow others to bully Sara. Some of the other children withother disabilities did not fare as well. Plus, many of the students without disabilities
were picked on including my son. I am not sure if Sara got a pass from heavy bullying because she had Down syndrome, or maybe because her brother and the otherstudents watched over her or some combination. I do believe both Rosemary andSara’s tenacity allowed them to triumph over these bullies.
We still have so much work to do with bullying. All we have to do is watch the US
presidential candidates to see active bullying happening. It is sad to witness. I believe
we could learn a lot from young people today about being kind.

Page 58 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Looking at other “special needs” – Children separated from aparent in prison
Sonia Tito94
In Sweden, an 8-year-old girl told her peers at school that her father was in prison.
In only a few weeks’ time, the classmates began to use this information against her,threatening to tell others about her father. The girl is one of the estimated 800 000
children in the EU who, on any given day, have to cope with the fact that one orsometimes both of their parents are in prison. Like other marginalised children,
children separated from a parent in prison are often at greater risk of discriminationand social exclusion, which can result in lower self-esteem and may increase the riskof being bullied or lashing out and bullying others.
These children also face a higher exposure to increased poverty. Imprisonment of
a parent often affects a family’s financial situation due to loss of income as well as
additional costs stemming from the incarceration.

Families in Belgium, for example, spend an average €200 monthly for prisoners while
the income for 53% of these families is under €900/month,95 and 39% of partners
quit or change jobs to take care of the prisoner.96 After release, the fact of having
been incarcerated cuts ex-prisoners’ earnings by up to 40% in some countries.97
In the light of new child-led research, “At what cost”,98 this aspect becomes even more
relevant. This UK study found that millions of families across the UK are struggling
with the cost of school, and that more than 25% of the children surveyed said this ledthem to being bullied. Schools are the one institution that almost all children regularly
attend and are a significant influence on their socialisation. Schools therefore havea huge potential to contribute to the emotional well-being of children, particularly
by supporting the child and helping reduce bullying and stigma.

From 2010 to 2013, the Children of Prisoners Europe (COPE) Network participated in a
multinational and multiagency study, which found that teachers and other staff can playa key role in tackling stigma surrounding parental imprisonment.99 Schools, however, areoften unaware of the existence of children of prisoners, their experiences, life changes andneeds. School staff and other professionals need to be alert to these children’s need foremotional support and counselling and should in turn receive assistance and guidancethemselves on how to engage children in conversation around parental imprisonment.
Many children and families fear reactions, and unlike the little girl in Sweden, may
be unlikely to reveal the parent’s imprisonment for fear of social stigma. Schools
can help by:f raising awareness of this issue in schools among students;
f promoting a positive, non-discriminatory school environment;
f encouraging parents to trust and be open with their children about parental
imprisonment;
f reassuring and encouraging parents to be honest about the impact ofparental imprisonment on their child’s school attendance (e.g. absences
due to prison visits).

Perspectives Page 59

Teachers and other staff can tackle stigma surrounding parental imprisonment byraising awareness of this issue in schools and by promoting a positive, non-discriminatory school environment.
John F. Kennedy once said, “If we cannot now end our differences, at least we canhelp make the world safe for diversity”, and all four case studies clearly underline theneed for this in school as well as in all learning and leisure environments. And this is
one of the central aims of all social-emotional skill development programmes: notonly to promote a greater understanding of the value of diversity and of empowering
every individual to realise his or her full potential as a citizen, but also as a path todeveloping sufficient resilience to defend oneself and the others around us.

Page 60 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Section 2

Practice

Chapter 6

Greece: innovating to
respond to 21st-century
teaching challenges
Eleni PapamichalakiThis chapter aims to offer a broad outline of the present-day situation in Greece,
as seen through the eyes of a Greek high school teacher.

Innovative teaching practices will help tackle the challenges of the 21st century and contribute to the sustainability of Greek education. However, studies haveshown that the unprecedented financial and humanitarian crisis that has grippedthe country has had a profound impact on student life and school climate. The
crisis has also increased the incidence of deviant behaviour, such as violence andbullying, within the school setting and outside of it. At the same time, programmesthat promote emotional intelligence seem to have ameliorated the “turmoil” thathas ensued. In this context, the author attempts to convey certain ideas regarding
the role of the teacher of today in meeting students’ ever-changing needs. She notesthat the skills and aptitudes that specialists claim students ought to have attained
do not coincide with what students themselves claim their needs are.
The last part of the chapter refers to examples of good teaching practice andteacher-student testimonials. These emerged during the piloting phase of ENABLE,a social and emotional learning (SEL) programme that aims to empower children
and eliminate bullying. ENABLE is a “user-friendly” vehicle that encourages synergy
within and between disparate subject areas, practitioners, methods, ideas and concepts, and helps overcome the occasional resistance that is often intrinsic to change.

The Greek educational context, from a teacher’s perspective
The history of educational systems worldwide is characterised by constant reforms
and revisions undertaken in an effort to keep up with the times. Similarly, the Greek
education system has undergone numerous reviews intended to keep up with social,financial, cultural and technological developments.

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Rapid technological advancements have brought about an unprecedented needfor communication and for the exchange of information, goods and services.
Furthermore, over the last few decades, the displacement of large groups of people
for financial or political reasons has instigated substantial changes in the social
make-up of schools, leading to a significant increase in the number of students fromdiverse ethnic, national and cultural backgrounds. Recently, the massive influx ofrefugees from war zones and beyond has added to existing problems caused by the
protracted financial crisis: a system already plagued by underfunding, insufficient
staffing and poor infrastructure.

The financial crisis has not only led to numerous school closures over the past five
years, it has also created tensions within families and society at large, which havein turn affected school life. This has resulted in a palpable increase in incidents ofviolence and bullying.

The 2012 European Bullying Research survey,100 conducted in six European countries(Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Bulgaria), revealed a marked increase in
victimisation incidents among students whose parents are unemployed. The study
also revealed that problems within families had led to an increase in incidents ofschool bullying.
The 2015 ENABLE Research Review101 showed that 27% of 11-year-old students
are instigators of bullying episodes, and by the age of 15 this number doubles tothe equivalent of 1 in 2 teenagers. Issues pertaining to disciplinary and emotional
matters impede the smooth adjustment of students to school life, which pose additional challenges to the effective operation of schools and the cultivation of “a goodschool climate”. In general, bullying has been subject to extensive studies, researchand prevention programmes at primary and secondary education levels. However,the systematic study of the phenomenon in Greece and the implementation of
preventive programmes are still lagging behind.

In addition, the 2012 European Bullying Research102 survey shows that the second mostsignificant factor in victimisation incidents is the victim’s vulnerability and ethnicity(44.6% and 44.34%, respectively). It is therefore imperative that the philosophicalorientation of the school system be reformed and that structures are put in place thatwill assist the adjustment of students who come from different linguistic, religious andcultural backgrounds. Schools need to encourage interaction, communication withand knowledge of the various cultural identities in Greece. Adopting such a stancewill not only benefit students from the host country, but also those who come fromother countries. The former will come into contact with, and become aware of, othercultural traditions and languages. The latter will develop their skills and enhancetheir performance, as the school becomes more inclusive of varying experiences,values and world views, thus promoting equality and tolerance.
Even more than in the past, it is essential that schools adapt to an ever-changing
world and promote sustainable development. International institutions such as
the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) acknowledge the need for skills in sustainable development,
equality and active democratic citizenship as well as general well-being within a

Page 64 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

free, equitable and just society. Nevertheless, how schools prepare students to be
active citizens of tomorrow remains a major challenge, given constant changes andunforeseeable social developments.
Ideally, schools should relinquish their traditional teacher-centred role in favour ofa more student-oriented focus in line with the latest pedagogical trends. Schools
should offer every student an education that is creative, innovative and receptive
to the changes that are occurring worldwide. Education should counter economic,
educational, religious or cultural prejudices and inequalities, and ensure the active
participation of teachers to this end. It is imperative that schools be open to society,new ideas and to the future in order for them to promote the values of democracy,
equality, solidarity, tolerance, environmental awareness and sustainable development. In other words, schools should be free of intimidation, bullying and violence.

According to Freire (2007),103 the “banking” concept of education, whereby knowledge
is merely “deposited” in students in a mechanistic way, is no longer effective. The
school of today must link the acquisition of knowledge, abilities and skills with social
learning: the learning of various forms of interpersonal communication, co-operationin joint activities and research for alternative solutions. Moreover, students shouldbe able to resolve tensions and conflicts, and be able to deal with situations such as
bullying incidents with imagination and perspicuity. Finally, schools ought to equip
students with the skills that will allow them to expand their knowledge, develop
their skills, take responsibility for their actions, adjust their attitudes and adapt toconstantly changing and interdependent environments in a spirit of lifelong learning (OECD 1996; 1998).104 To this end, we need to learn from new psychological andpedagogical developments and contemporary theoretical methods (Fagan and Wise
2000;105 Oakland and Jimerson 2007),106 as well as from international research andglobal experience. Over the last decade, international experts have begun examining
what makes a school effective and are focusing on the need for emotional resilience
as an important aspect of a “positive school environment”. Emotional health andpsychological resilience demonstrably promote the educational process and facilitate the adaptation of students to school and social life, lessening or eliminating
the occurrences of violence and bullying.
Theories of multiple intelligences, including emotional intelligence, have introduced
new educational perspectives and highlighted the emotional aspect of personality.
Consequently, schools worldwide have adopted several approaches to enhanceacademic performance and prevent bullying (Gardner 1993;107 Goleman 1995;108
Gottman 1997).109 For example, according to Durlak.110
A meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal SEL programmes involving 270 034 students from kindergarten through high school, pointed out that SEL participants
demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behaviour
and academic performance.

Even though the value of systematic SEL implementation in bullying prevention has been
proven, the integration of emotional education in Greek school curricula is still erratic.
Clearly, changes in schools occur gradually and resistance is intrinsic to innovation andchange. A number of teachers and parents maintain that these duties are exclusively within
the realm of parental responsibility and beyond a school’s jurisdiction. Such attitudes

Practice Page 65

are a particular challenge given that the Western model of the family unit is faltering.
Further problems that exacerbate the situation include a lack of parental knowledge
about how to deal effectively with bullying, and teacher reluctance to cede time fromtheir subject-specific instruction to teach something they have not been trained in. Thesereservations are fully justified, as emotional learning requires specialist training andteachers themselves need to be very familiar with the nuances of emotional intelligence.

Redefining teacher roles – A look at the challenges 21st-century
teachers face
In an era of rapid change and great upheaval in all areas, teachers need to redefine
their role. Indeed, many teachers are already searching for new teaching approaches
that can meet the ever-changing needs of their pupils, secure a bully-free environment and encourage learning.
The teacher’s role today is more multidimensional than ever before and one of continuous adjustment due particularly to the evolution of technology. A plethora oftechnologically advanced educational tools and readily available information meansthat the teacher is no longer the omniscient actor in the learning process, and books
are no longer the sole source of knowledge. The teacher’s role is not merely to impartknowledge; it is to serve as facilitator, and to inform learners in a way that will guidethem through the maze of potential solutions so they can make informed judgments.
Furthermore, the teacher should be able to direct and co-ordinate the learning process,allowing for independence of action and initiative, so that students are encouraged to
explore the less familiar areas of knowledge. As the prominent Greek philosopher andeducator Papanoutsos111 wrote, “Successful are the teachers who … give their students’
lives such meaning that they no longer need their teacher’s guidance.”
To help a young person become self-sufficient and independent is no easy task. Teachers
need to be able to demonstrate affection, enthusiasm and zest for their job. Only thus
will they be able to reach out to their students, listen to and understand their various
problems, inspire and create incentives for lifelong learning and constant personal development. First and foremost, the teacher must make every effort to ensure a safe learning
environment in which students receive equal opportunities, regardless of age, sex, race,
origin, sexual identity, religion or economic status. Cultivating emotional intelligencethrough innovative SEL and peer support programmes is the key to preventing violence,bullying and other forms of delinquent behaviour that often render the school environment intimidating and not conducive to learning (Elias et al. 2009;112 Zins et al. 2004113).
As mentioned earlier, the application of innovative activities requires continuous andsystematic teacher training in order for educators to successfully fulfil their multifaceted and particularly demanding role (European Commission 2004).114 Discussions
with teachers have shown that there is still quite high resistance towards innovation,
which primarily stems from insecurity and fear of failing (Zimmerman 2006).115 On
the positive side, teachers who piloted the ENABLE programme in their classrooms
with the aim of reversing any negative climate in school and reducing bullying havenoted the great enthusiasm of their students. However, they also make mention ofreservations and scepticism expressed by some of their colleagues. This reflects the
Page 66 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

findings of the Children’s Ombudsman, which show that teachers are reluctant tohandle episodes of bullying, and a lack of confidence among parents in their ability
to handle such matters (Greek Ombudsman for Children 2016).116

Considering the students’ point of view
Today’s students and tomorrow’s citizens are unlike the students of previous generations. They are technologically savvy and recipients of rapidly changing stimuli, which
creates equally changing needs. With copious amounts of information at their fingertips,
students are constantly on the lookout for new challenges. Keeping learners interested
in education and providing them with the right tools to meet the challenges of the 21st
century is fundamental. Students are not just consumers of knowledge; they demandan active role in the educational process and have equally high expectations.
In fact, 21st-century education is the subject of extensive debate. Teachers have always
tried to prepare children for the “real world” through imparting skills like writing, reading
and arithmetic (the “three Rs”). Today, students are not only expected to survive but
also to flourish in a highly competitive environment that requires them to demonstrate
adaptability, creativity and inventiveness. As a result, along with the traditional threeRs, the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21)117 now proposes the 4Cs (collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking), and the list of skills does not
end there. It is necessary for students to acquire knowledge of issues that transcend
the boundaries of a school subject and include issues such as the environment, theeconomy, health and sustainability. Furthermore, the need to educate students in thesafe, responsible and productive use of technology is more pressing than ever before.

Exactly which skills a child needs in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century,
as a student or as a future citizen, is still under discussion because the world itself
is ever-changing and unpredictable. For the author of this chapter, what mattersmost is for the student to achieve self-awareness and self-respect, the essential
prerequisites for emotional health.

According to current research, a school that fosters a positive emotional climate
is better able to meet the basic need for safety, independence and inclusion. The
piloting of the ENABLE programme in Greek schools clearly revealed the enormous
need for emotional empowerment programmes to combat bullying and the numberof spontaneous positive responses received from students was notable.
Before we decide what skills the students of today require, we should pay attention
to what their real needs are.

ENABLE piloting in Greek schools as a springboard to creative
teaching practices
In his essay “Initiative and verve … Here’s the lesson” Papanoutsos affirms: “teaching is
an intellectual pursuit based on inspiration and creative fervour. In a word: creativity.”118
Some of the outcomes of such “creative fervour” in the piloting phase of the ENABLE
programme are described in the following sub-sections.
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When peer supporters enable the disabled on stage
The blind hunter
In her article on social exclusion, Kirsten Weir maintains, “A broken heart does notdiffer much from a broken arm”.119 Social exclusion “hurts”; it often hurts even morethan physical pain, especially if the pain is suffered by someone with a handicap.
An estimated one billion people (around 15% of the world’s population), have somekind of disability, making them the world’s largest minority (United Nations 2006).120
Such individuals feel the need for social interaction and safety as strongly as anyone
else, but recent research shows that individuals with special needs are more likely
to fall victim to bullying than their peers.121
With this in mind, a theatrical play on the topic of “difference” was performed by
the peer supporters of the 5th Gymnasium of Petroupolis and students of thespecial needs team of the Municipality of Petroupolis. The aim of this collaborative
action, which used ENABLE material, was to raise awareness, enhance compassion
and increase respect among teenagers through their interaction with people withspecial needs.
The outcome of this collaboration was the play, The blind hunter, a story set in Africa
that extols difference, understanding, acceptance, co-operation, kind-heartedness
and love. The cast was made up of high school students and the members of thespecial needs team of the Municipality of Petroupolis. The play was performed
before an audience of students, teachers, parents and other stakeholders and was
greeted with great enthusiasm by participants and audience alike. It was recorded
as a short film so it could be used as a tool for preventing the bullying of disabled
people, both in school and the wider community. The project confirmed the valueof anti-bullying programmes like ENABLE, as well as their contribution to changing
attitudes, cultivating compassion and promoting respect for diversity. Peer supporter
testimonials, some of them cited below, were indicative of the project’s success.

A special day
Through my collaboration with the special needs students in the theatrical play
The blind hunter, I realised that these children have some qualities that many of
us don’t have:“What I realised on that day, is that we whine and grumble and get angry all thetime about unimportant things, while we should be happy and we should see alldifficulties as something positive like these young people do … I am happy that I
have had the chance to meet these new friends and I would like to hang out withthem, because I can learn a lot of things from them.” – Odysseas, age 14.

Friendly advice“What I will always remember is a piece of advice that Christos, the blind student,
gave me. At some point, during the recording, I couldn’t say my words because I
was tired and I spoke very fast. Christos touched my hand gently, and with his soft
voice, he showed me kindly how to speak slowly and clearly because just from thePage 68 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

words he hears, he makes pictures! This was a unique experience and I will neverforget the kindness and openheartedness of these young people.” – Charilaos, age 13.

A unique experience“My participation in the play The blind hunter was one of the most creative and pleasant experiences of my life … What moved me the most was the participation of thespecial needs students. Their happiness and enthusiasm impressed me a lot because,
despite the difficulties they face, they were very willing to co-operate and complete
all the tasks way better than we did! My participation made me realise that it is worth
seeing with your heart’s eyes. This experience made me feel content and gave mea mental and moral satisfaction because I saw the smile on their faces … I hope tohave the chance to participate in similar activities in the future.” – Maria, age 14.

Implementing ENABLE in different subject areas
Although the ENABLE material is structured in lessons, it is not just another typicalschool subject. As an alternative way of learning, it aims to create a positive andco-operative climate and to enhance social skills that complement and reinforce
the objectives of all the other curriculum courses. For example, Elena Fengiti, a philologist at one of the Greek pilot high schools, integrated the ENABLE material into
her course on Greek literature. The material provided the inspiration for a play she
wrote on the topic of emotions entitled Cinderella after the wedding. The aim wasto use the play as a tool for improving the school climate and preventing bullying,as Elena Fengiti explains:First comes the literary text, the author’s viewpoint, his or her era, personality, culture… and then come the children. They put on the author’s hat and set off … they givelife to all the voices in the text and to the author himself, they keep asking questions,interact, distance themselves and they end up profiting from this contact with theother world. They identify themselves with the heroes and shape their own points ofview on specific topics. In this way, the culture of the whole classroom changes since
all voices are heard and a common opinion is shaped.
Thus, we started reading a fairy tale from the school book. We asked ourselves, ourfamilies and the whole school community a series of questions: how many people listen
to fairy tales nowadays? What is the meaning of fairy tales today? Do they still have
any importance or validity? Which stories move us? What would happen if we reversed
the roles of the heroes in the classic fairy tales? How would these heroes survive in ourtimes and what messages would they deliver to children and adults?
Under the guidance of the characters and, of course, through my perspective as amother and professional and through their parents’ point of view, the 35 children,
aged 12-13, became very competent “agents” in their family and social environment.
In Part 1, we showed in a humoristic way what happens to Cinderella, Snow White,
Sleeping Beauty, their princes, the fairy godmother and the witch when nobody pays
attention to them and they try to survive in the year 2016, amidst the humanitariancrisis in Greece and Europe. In Part 2, with their parents and with the help of three
narrators, the children conveyed meaningful messages about human relationships
and values needed to survive in today’s violent world.

Practice Page 69

Concluding remarks
In a volatile social environment, the number of “emotionally upset” children who
are unable to cope with the challenges of everyday life is constantly increasing.
Successful learning should engage the heart as well as the mind of the student
and requires the enthusiastic involvement of all stakeholders: students, teachers,
parents and the community as a whole. Teachers today are called upon to deal withthe ever-increasing need of children and their families for emotional empowerment.
International studies show that the systematic implementation of SEL programmes
is a major contributor towards the prevention of bullying.
Teachers from different disciplines have been trained to implement the ENABLE
programme in diverse teaching contexts within the Greek educational system. The
pilot implementation of ENABLE has proved that it is a particularly user-friendly andflexible tool for any teacher, and it was received with great enthusiasm by students,
parents and teachers alike. Despite the inherent challenges in the public school systemand the short period over which the programme was implemented, the systematicinteraction among educators from a wide range of educational backgrounds has
led to an interesting osmosis of novel ideas and practices, which transcend arid
teaching methods and stagnant preconceptions. The teaching resources madeavailable through the programme fostered innovative teaching practices and helped
the creation of a positively enriched school climate and the curbing of bullying.122

Page 70 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Chapter 7

Italy: innovative
experiences in tacklingbullying and cyberbullying
Barbara Forresi et al.

Children and young people around the world suffer from bullying, both in thereal world as well as the virtual world. Victims of bullying can feel isolated,depressed and anxious, and may suffer from personality disorders as well as
suicidal and self-harm tendencies. In Italy, there has been a growing interest in the
problems schools face regarding peer aggression and victimisation. According to a
recent survey, 21% of Italian adolescents (12 to 18 years of age) suffered from someform of bullying; 80% of these episodes happened at school, while 12% happenedon the internet.123

This chapter presents the development and implementation of an innovative service
for children and teens run by Telefono Azzurro and the Italian Ministry of Education,
Universities and Research (MIUR) since 1 February 2015. The project includes ahelpline (Telefono Azzurro’s 19696 and one-to-one chat service) as well as training
courses for school staff and students to help them manage difficult cases of bullying.
The authors explain how this project works and why it is innovative, and summarise
the results of the first year of activity. The strengths and challenges of the intervention
model developed by Telefono Azzurro and the MIUR are also highlighted along withcase studies, indicating which anti-bullying actions schools may benefit from most.
This is the first service of its type in Italy in which the public and private sectors havecollaborated using a standard pathway to identify and intervene in cases of school
bullying. More in-depth and long-term research will help identify what “good schools”
can do about bullying and cyberbullying, in terms of principles, policies and responses.

Background
Since 1987, Telefono Azzurro Onlus has been one of the leading children’s charities
fighting to end child abuse in Italy. Telefono Azzurro promotes total respect of children
and adolescents during their development, supports their well-being and protects
them from any physical and psychological abuse, such as bullying. Its priorities are
helping children who have been abused to rebuild their lives and finding the best
ways of preventing abuse from happening.
Page 71

With regard to bullying, Telefono Azzurro promotes a preventive as well as a multiagency approach, according to international best practices. The activities developedby the association are focused on stimulating the active participation of children andadolescents, on empowering teachers and other school personnel, and strengthening the role of parents.
In recent years Telefono Azzurro has tackled bullying with several initiatives andprojects, in Italy as well as at a European level. Helpline counsellors are available
24 hours a day to help children, adolescents, parents, professionals and anyone worried
about a child, both through the toll-free line 19696 and a chat service.124 They listen
to concerns, offer advice and support, and take action if a child or teen is in danger.
Training courses are tailored to students, to those working in primary and secondary
school, and to parents, with a focus on prevention and response to bullying. Students
of primary and secondary schools – bullies, victims and bystanders – are targeted witha wide array of training in social skills and are helped to increase self-disclosure andempathy skills. The main objective of training school personnel is to create a schoolwide environment that recognises, discourages and effectively responds to bullying.

Learning about “what works” is essential to Telefono Azzurro’s growth, with effective
impact assessments helping to improve the service and support offered to children
and young people.125 Therefore, the association is engaged not only in assessing its
impact and effectiveness in protecting children and teens through its helpline,126
but also in developing epidemiological surveys on bullying and cyberbullying, andinterviewing nationally representative samples of school students.

According to the most recent survey published by Telefono Azzurro and DoxaKids,127
21% of Italian adolescents (12 to 18 years of age) are victims of bullying, with 80%of these cases happening at school and 12% online. One in every five adolescentsin Italy is scared by the possibility of being assaulted by peers at school. While 65%of the victims of bullying talked to their parents, a high percentage compared toother European countries, 22% decided to ignore it, and 15% did not tell anyone
about what had happened.
Bullying results in fear, shame and embarrassment, and victims often do not tellanyone about what happens. As a result, Telefono Azzurro has promoted many
awareness campaigns, developed and disseminated information packs and leaflets forparents, schools and children, and organised seminars and congresses on the topic.

Following an agreement signed in December 2014, Telefono Azzurro’s helpline
became the toll-free number of the MIUR for victims of school bullying. In April 2015,
the Ministry released “Guidelines to fight against bullying and cyberbullying”, whichsummarises the new governance strategy, including the creation of Local Support
Centres with a co-ordinating role. The guidelines require every Italian school to
implement incident-handling measures, and to update curricula with modules andlessons on bullying and cyberbullying.
This chapter summarises the results of the first year of activity of the helpline forvictims of school bullying. It also presents the intervention model developed by
Telefono Azzurro and the MIUR to tackle bullying in Italy, showing how it works andwhy this collaboration is challenging, innovative and effective.
Page 72 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

National bullying helpline – Data, procedures and intervention
goals
The data presented below compiles statistics and information on contacts aboutbullying that Telefono Azzurro’s helpline received and managed in collaboration
with the MIUR between 1 February 2015 and 31 January 2016.
During this period, helpline counsellors together managed 3 621 cases. About one
case per day concerned bullying and cyberbullying, for a total of 277 cases. A significant percentage of contacts made with Telefono Azzurro (7.7%) were on this topic,
higher than those concerning sexual and physical abuse of children.
While 82% of bullying cases were received on the phone line, about a fifth of them
(17.5%) were received via e-mail or the real-time chat service, which was mostly
used by children and adolescents. The majority of cases concerned traditional school
bullying (86.6%), while only 13.4% concerned cyberbullying. However, the spreadof technology-mediated communication in recent years suggests there is increased
potential for this form of bullying in the future.
Bullying is often associated with other forms of abuse and emotional difficulties.
While in 170 cases, bullying was the primary reason to call the helpline, in morethan one in three cases (38.6%) it was secondary to other problems such as childabuse and family violence, severe relational problems with parents, or mental illness.

The number of boy victims of bullying was slightly higher than the number of girls.
Nevertheless, more girls than boys called Telefono Azzurro on the issue of cyberbullying, with girls apparently more involved than boys in online bullying, both asbullies and victims (Table 1). On two occasions, several children called the helpline
together and their gender was not recorded, accounting for a 0.5% disparity in thebullying figures and 2.9% for those on cyberbullying.
Table 1: Gender of the victim
Category
Bullying
Cyberbullying
Total

Male
133 (58.3%)
11 (31.4%)
144

Females94 (41.2%)
23 (65.7%)
117

Total
228
35
261

Source: calls received by Telefono Azzurro from 1 February 2015 to 31 January 2016

Both traditional school bullying and cyberbullying appear to occur more often in
the transition age from primary to secondary school. In fact, more than 1 in every
2 victims of bullying were aged between 11 and 14 years (51.1%), 27.1% were under
the age of 10, while 21.7% attended high schools. Data concerning children under
the age of 10 also show that bullying can begin at a very early age.

Practice Page 73

Table 2: Age of the victim/reason for call
Reason for call
Bullying
Cyberbullying
Total

0-10
60 (27.1%)
2 (6.3%)62

11-14
113 (51.2%)
22 (68.7%)
135

15-18
48 (21.7%)
8 (25%)
56

Total
221
32
253

Source: calls received by Telefono Azzurro from 1 February 2015 to 31 January 2016

Who are the bullies?
Regarding nationality, for calls in which nationality was registered during the periodof reference, in only 5.7% of cases were the victims of bullying immigrant children
or adolescents, with more than 8 out of 10 cases being Italian (84.5%).

In terms of gender, 72.5% of the cases reported the bully as a male, but in 1 case outof 4 (25.6%) the bully was a female. Not unsurprisingly, bullying is often carried out
by friends or classmates (86.9%) and only in 3.6% of cases is the bully unknown. The
remaining 9.5% are cases of cyberbullying. In fact, these results strongly replicate
those from other national and international studies, revealing the bully as a person
who is well-known to the victim.

Where does bullying happen?
According to Telefono Azzurro, most of the bullying (72.9%) happens in schools:
during lunch breaks, in the playground or in the bathrooms. Approximately 7.2%of bullying cases take place online, 6.5% when the child is at home and 3.6% in thestreet. It is not always possible to record data on where bullying takes place. These
results are also consistent with international studies showing that school is the mostfrequent place for bullying.128
In the management of bullying cases, Telefono Azzurro follows specific procedures,
according to scientifically informed models and protocols for interventions. The evaluation of cases is based on a bullying assessment matrix developed in Australia,129
which takes into account variables concerning the caller (victim, bully or witness) andthe incident (severity, impact and frequency). Telefono Azzurro takes into accountthese factors to classify the seriousness of bullying incidents (mild, moderate, majoror severe) and develop an appropriate response.

Factors that may decrease the impact of bullying are the resilience of the victim andability to manage the situation with minimal support; the unlikeliness of the incident
reoccurring or being replicated via digital technology; and the willingness of thebully to cease the offensive behaviour. Factors that may increase the impact are, forexample, the vulnerability of the victim and likely need for considerable support;significant physical and/or psychological impact on the victim; the occurrence ofsimilar incidents previously; or the involvement of sexual or physical violence in
the incident.

Page 74 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

The counsellors have three main goals:
f to promote self-esteem as a protective factor.130 The goal is to help children
consider themselves in a positive way and not just as “victims”, thereby
overcoming their feelings of helplessness;
f to involve parents, as trusted adults, and to enable them to help the childresolve the bullying situation as well as to support and understand theiremotions;
f to promote better communication between school and family, and thedevelopment of a shared intervention strategy.
More serious instances of bullying behaviour require a more complete network
approach: in one in six cases (16.6%) it was necessary to contact the school throughthe MIUR, as well as other external agencies such as the courts, the Postal andCommunication Police, mental health services or social services.
Figure 1: External agencies involved – Calls received by Telefono Azzurro from
1 February 2015 to 31 January 2016

Services Involved

Source: Telephono Azzurro – Italy 2016

While law-enforcement agencies and courts were always informed when bullying
met criteria for illegal behaviour such as assault, social and mental health services
were involved when victims had to deal with severe personal and/or family problems
and difficulties.131 The involvement of mental health services is required if a child or
young person meets certain criteria:
f they are unsafe or in danger of harm;f they are suffering from abuse or neglect;f they exhibit poor social skills or a significant drop in school attendance;f the parents seem stressed or are not coping;f there are signs of parental substance abuse problems or other mental healthissues;f the family is isolated and does not have support networks.
In a case that came to the attention of Telefono Azzurro, C. has been a victim of insults
and humiliation by peers older than him, both offline and online (through WhatsApp),since elementary school. He has experienced feelings of exclusion and isolation.
C. learned to reply very aggressively and last year he was referred to the police for

Practice Page 75

having assaulted another boy. His family is very isolated from the community andhis mother suffers from severe depression due to unemployment.

Collaboration between Telefono Azzurro and the MIUR
According to a recently published special issue of American Psychologist, “Bullying:
what we know based on 40 years of research”,132 school policies should reflect bestpractices informed by scientific research. In light of available evidence, “given the
reluctance of many children and youth to report bullying that they experience or
witness”,133 and the high number of bullying incidents that go unreported, it is recommended “that school policies on bullying include provisions to increase the easeof reporting, especially anonymously.”134
The MIUR recognised that a 24/7 anonymous and confidential bullying reporting
service, like the one offered by Telefono Azzurro, could help identify a higher numberof school bullying cases, provide a clearer picture of school bullying in Italy and allow
for the implementation of prompt and effective interventions.
Only a minority of victims who called Telefono Azzurro had already told other adults
or peers about their experience because, although they needed help, they often felt
too ashamed and scared to ask for it.

A typical call to Telefono Azzurro goes something like this: “Will my classmates or
the Principal get to know about it? Could I please remain anonymous? I don’t wantanyone to know that I called you …”
Reluctance to talk to adults135 may be due to barriers such as the fear that things
could worsen, the perceived ineffectiveness of speaking out, and sometimes threats
made by the bully, as in the call transcribed below:
He always insults me, says bad things about my mother. He knows I will never reply to
his violence and he is used to saying things that hurt me. Ever since I put my backpack
at the back wall of the classroom, he always crushes things inside it … two years ago,
he punched me in the face outside of the classroom and I ended up in the hospital,
but I was too scared to talk … he told me not to tell anyone what was happening …
so I kept it to myself.

Please, I beg you to do something very quickly because he’s mean and sooner orlater something bad is gonna happen to me … if Alessandro found out that I looked
for help, he would beat me to death … I don’t want to disturb you, but I can’t standthis anymore … I really need to talk to someone … sometimes I’d rather be dead …
can you help me?

In these cases, it is of primary importance to calm the victims who contact Telefono
Azzurro, to explain clearly the benefits of seeking help, and to reassure them thatlooking for help does not mean being a spy or being “weak”. Instead, they are toldthat calling is the first and most effective step to protecting themselves and resolving the situation.
Students are more willing to self-disclose to a confidential service and always
appreciate it when Telefono Azzurro reports the incident to schools. This practice

Page 76 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

also greatly benefits the school system. Principals and teachers need to know what
is going on outside of their immediate purview, and with these referrals can gain abetter understanding of the extent of bullying in their school. It also allows them tolaunch a thorough investigation of suspected or reported bullying cases.
The collaboration between Telefono Azzurro and the MIUR is of particular importance. On the one hand, the involvement of the MIUR, and the contact between it
and school principals allow acts of bullying to be stopped immediately and specificactions to be taken. On the other hand, Telefono Azzurro helps schools to differentiate
between types of bullying and other forms of peer victimisation or peer relationships.

What kinds of actions were implemented by schools?
The role of the MIUR is to help schools identify and plan the right action to put inplace. This can involve interventions with the victim, the bully or with the wholeclass. It can also take the form of meetings with parents, school meetings, training
courses for teachers or workshops with students (implemented in collaboration with
Telefono Azzurro). The following case study is typical:
Mrs G. is the mother of a 13-year-old girl who is in the last year of secondary school.
She says her daughter has been suffering for several months due to verbal and physicalaggression from a group of female peers. The girl has been targeted not only because ofher excellent academic performance, but in particular because in the past months she
had to use a wheelchair due to feet surgery, and she experienced consequent walking
difficulties. The school’s Principal, informed about the facts by the Ministry of Education,
immediately contacted the teachers, the bullies and their parents, helping them recognise
the severity of the behaviour and the impact on their classmate. In a follow-up call to
Telefono Azzurro, Mrs G. says that the situation is going better because the girls decided
to apologise for their behaviour. At the same time the school Principal decided to plan
regular teacher-student meetings to promote dialogue, respect and self-disclosure.

The MIUR performs a fundamental role, both in supervising the implementation of
the school action plans and in promoting the engagement of schools in the development of anti-bullying policies. During the first part of 2016 and starting from single
cases, Telefono Azzurro and the MIUR were able to exchange thoughts on bullying
dynamics, factors involved and possible intervention strategies. They also addressed
many crucial questions: what is bullying? What is school bullying? Who is the bully?
How to intervene? What is a “good school” with regard to bullying?
Telefono Azzurro and the MIUR agreed that “every episode of bullying must be
given the right importance and attention”136 since even milder episodes of bullying(teasing, exclusion and isolation) may have an impact on the victim’s self-esteem
and well-being. It is always important to focus on how victims feel and to understand their emotions. However, these emotions do not completely depend on theexperience of being bullied and many factors can lead to different psychologicalreactions, including the victim’s support systems and self-perception.137 The following
testimony is an illustrative example:
I don’t play football and I don’t like PlayStation as others do … I am not the classic typeof a guy … I am actually creative, I like singing, dancing and acting, I like to dye myPractice Page 77

hair … they used to tell me I was more like a female and so they insinuated that I wasgay. Now I am attending the first year of secondary school and they started to teaseme for these reasons … I feel like I’m ugly and worthless.
They make fun of me on WhatsApp, especially in the chat group of my class, theyrecorded audio messages (Voice Notes) in which they were singing that I was black
like s*** … last year they Photoshopped a picture of mine and they shared it in thechat group … they always make fun of me saying I am a nigger and a lesbian, and I
cry because I really don’t know what to do … I feel confused, alone, stupid … like I’ddone something wrong … Sometimes I am scared to go back to school.

Children and adolescents dealing with mild episodes of bullying can manage thesituation with minimum support from Telefono Azzurro’s counsellors, who help themin dealing with emotions of sadness, shame and anger, and improving their trust inthemselves, in parents, teachers and friends:
It’s so good to hear that you [Telefono Azzurro’s operator] think I am brave … you are
the first who finally listens to me and doesn’t tell me that it’s just a joke … or a silly
argument between peers

Telefono Azzurro and the MIUR also agreed that no bully should be considered acriminal: bullying is instead a complex form of interpersonal aggression that negatively
affects not only the victim, but also the bully and those who assist the bully.138 Thisis consistent with international studies139 and with what children and adolescentstell us during calls: the bully is often described as an insecure child/adolescent, withmany academic difficulties, and often a disadvantaged family background:L. [the bully] is taller than me, and he’s also older because he failed a year at school.
He still does not do well at school, he’s always nervous and he has many problems in
his family … I do not know for sure but somebody told me his father has problems
with alcohol abuse … No matter what I do, when he gets angry with me, there is no
way to stop him.

As bullying negatively affects the whole group involved, tackling bullying means not
only stopping the behaviour and supporting the victim, but also helping the bully,
the perpetrator, and the whole classroom (or group of teens involved) to stand up
against bullying and behave with tolerance, respect and collaboration. These are
two testimonies from witnesses of bullying:
Insults are not only aimed at M. [the victim], but also directed at other classmates
who do not react … But you can see they feel bad … They may do nothing because
they believe it’s not worth it or because they consider the situation is not as bad as it
actually is … anyway we all suffer because of F. [the bully].
I think everyone should be involved, just to help them understand the effects of theiractions … just the fact that they laugh, supports the bully … also, my classmates who
prefer to be silent, should understand that they could be bullied any minute.

This approach is consistent with international studies showing that strategies toreduce bullying are more effective when they are part of a wider focus on creating a positive climate that is inclusive and helps students to learn. Whole-school

Page 78 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

interventions establish positive social values and a positive school climate, which isimportant in the prevention of risky behaviour.140

The collaboration between Telefono Azzurro and the MIUR has also been an important
opportunity to reflect on the differences between “good” schools and “not-so-good”
schools in terms of their responses to bullying.
A good school is not defined by whether bullying occurs – a belief that is very
common among schools – but rather by the way that teachers, principals, students
and parents deal with bullying issues. Effective schools have inclusive practices andpositive staff, parent and student relationships in place.141

What is the extent of schools’ responsibility for bullying that
occurs off school premises?
Schools are increasingly recognising that asking where and when the behaviour
occurred is less relevant than asking what effect the bullying behaviour is havingon the student/s and how they should respond. In fact, according to our experiencebullying often occurs off school premises, after school hours, online, and out of thedirect view of parents and teachers. However, many students report these bullying
incidents to teachers and bullying may affect a student’s well-being, showing up
in absenteeism, lower academic results, or violent behaviour in school. Moreover,bullying that occurs outside school may continue in school and vice versa. In any
case, the idea of behaviour occurring “outside school” is becoming irrelevant due
to the ubiquity of technology. When bullying outside school is reported to schoolstaff, should it be investigated and acted on? There are no hard and fast rules: these
new challenges need to be specifically recognised and dealt with.

Conclusions
School bullying is a very important issue because it has a serious impact on thedevelopment of every personality. Reducing violence in schools is a major concernof educators, parents and legislators. Violence manifests itself in numerous ways,
and there is growing evidence that low-level or underlying forms of violence havea profound effect on the learning environment of the school. For example, it may
affect school climate, academic results, teaching effectiveness, and school–family
relationships. Bullying is the most prevalent form of low-level violence in schools
today and, if left unchecked, can lead to more serious forms of violence. Consequently,
an essential aspect of promoting school well-being is the identification and implementation of interventions and strategies designed to manage, reduce and prevent
bullying in schools.

While there are a number of initiatives and projects in Italy that focus on tacklingschool bullying, the project described in this chapter is the first service in which
public and private sectors have closely collaborated to identify and intervene incases of school bullying.

Practice Page 79

The MIUR is highly committed to providing a safe learning and teaching environment, and to developing specific policies to prevent bullying in schools. It draws
up nationwide safe schools strategies, policies and plans; drafts relevant regulations
and supervises their implementation; and provides guidance and guarantees highlevel co-ordination.

As an NGO, Telefono Azzurro has a child-focused approach. Its main roles are to listen
to children and adolescents; pay attention to their feelings and well-being; and to
take into account the impact that even mild episodes of bullying may have on longterm development, especially if a child is vulnerable or lives in a vulnerable context.
The collaboration between the Ministry and the NGO has produced very positive
results with regard to promoting victims’ self-disclosure, detecting early signs ofbullying, stopping bullying episodes, developing models for a detailed assessment,
supporting schools in developing anti-bullying policies and implementing properinterventions. The management of new cases and long-term research will further
help identify what “good schools” and “good communities” can do about bullying
and cyberbullying in terms of policies and responses.

Note on contributing authors
Barbara Forresi – Psychologist, PhD, Co-ordinator of the Child Study Center, SOS
Il Telefono Azzurro Onlus
Giuseppe Pierro – Director of the General Affairs Office at the General Directorateof Students, Integration, Participation and Communication, Ministry of Education,
University and ResearchFrancesca Romana Difebo – Directorate of Students, Integration, Participation andCommunication, Ministry of Education, University and Research
Annarita Lissoni – Pedagogist, Co-ordinator of the Helpline – SOS Il Telefono
Azzurro Onlus
Paolo Guiddi – Psychologist, PhD, Data Analyst, Child Study Center – SOS Il Telefono
Azzurro Onlus

Ernesto Caffo – Professor of Child Neuropsychiatry, University of Modena and Reggio
Emilia, President of SOS Il Telefono Azzurro Onlus

Page 80 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Chapter 8

Croatia: developing
a future-friendly
school curriculum
Lidija Kralj

G

enerations that are currently receiving their education and those yet to comeshould be prepared for everyday interaction with ICTs. This was recognisedby the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, which
included digital competence in the key competencies that each person needs topossess in order to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Along with knowledge andskills, their definition of digital competence includes development of a critical attitude towards the responsible use of ICTs.
Currently, students in compulsory schools in Croatia have a chance to obtain ICTrelated skills and knowledge only if they choose an elective subject – Informatics in
Grades 5 to 8 – or if similar extra-curricular activity is provided for Grades 1 to 4.142
At the moment, there is no obligation for children to obtain even a minimum ofknowledge about appropriate and safe use of the internet. Nevertheless, the Education
Sector Development Plan 2005-2010 considers equipping people with the skills
to use ICTs in everyday life as one of the prerequisites for active involvement in an
information-based society.143 In the National Curriculum Framework from 2011, theuse of ICTs is a transversal theme, with developing information literacy skills as partof competencies for lifelong learning.144
All children should gain a minimum of practical experience regarding risky and safeuse of the internet and new online technologies, and a big part of this is interacting
responsibly online – although bullying takes place in many different ways and places,
it nevertheless relates closely to responsible online interactions. Children should betrained in the use of computers and the internet and given advice appropriate totheir age. This should include information about the visibility and public availabilityof their personal information on the internet as well as advice about the various
malicious and harmful things that they may encounter online. At the same time,they should be encouraged to use the internet for creative and lifelong learning.

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According to a survey by UNICEF, in Croatia 85% of children have internet access at
home. Their favourite online activities are seeking entertainment, communicatingwith friends and using social networking sites, while using the internet for researchand learning are less frequent.145 The same survey showed that 34% of children
experienced some form of online violence and that the usual reaction of teachers
was to ask for advice from an expert. It is therefore clear that teachers need further
professional training to prevent online violence and successfully deal with children’ssafety on the internet.
The EU Kids Online study “Risks and safety on the internet”, encompassing 25 countries in 2011, showed that the average age of first internet use is 7; 93% of children
aged 9 to 16 say they use the internet daily or several times a week; 55% of them
have public profiles with personal information published on social networks;146 and12% say that they have been bothered or upset by something on the internet. The
research findings suggest that digital skills need continued emphasis and updatingin terms of training and safety features to ensure that all children reach a minimum
basic standard and avoid becoming digitally isolated and unskilled. All policy actors
have the responsibility to ensure greater availability of age-appropriate positive
content for children, especially in small language communities such as Croatia.

The EU’s Safer Internet Programme recommends using programmes that include children, parents and teachers to develop effective models of support for children using
the internet for learning and research. Such targeted initiatives are especially importantfor countries in eastern Europe, where there is a major difference between child andparental knowledge of the internet. The incorporation of courses about children’ssafety on the internet into Croatia’s school curriculum is also particularly important.

Project aims
The Children’s Safety on the Internet project was an EU-funded initiative that ran
from October 2013 to December 2014. It was developed by the OŠ Veliki Bukovec
primary school, together with Croatian partner schools OŠ Popovača, OŠ Mladost,
OŠ “Gripe” and OŠ Mato Lovrak, and was financed under the European Social Fund,component IPA IV grant scheme.147 NGO Suradnici u učenju was a project associate
and the project used resources developed by national Better Internet for Kids campaigns as well as the Safer Internet Committee for Croatia. The project objectives were:f to develop a learning outcome-based school curriculum for children’s safety
on the internet that would enable a holistic approach involving students,
parents and teachers working towards the same goal;
f to develop and implement appropriate pedagogical and didactic models forstudent-centred learning that would make the most of teachers’ potential
and new technology strengths;
f to improve primary school teachers’ educational skills and expertise so they
could apply the new methodologies for student-centred learning;f to improve students’ digital competencies and encourage children to assume
responsibility for their own safety as much as possible with a focus onempowerment and emphasising responsible behaviour and digital citizenship;

Page 82 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

f to raise awareness and understanding of issues relating to children’s safety
online among students, teachers, parents and the general public.
The project facilitated co-operation and the exchange of experience and best practices between Croatian and EU schools on issues relating to children’s safety online.
It also promoted gender equality and equal opportunities through carefully chosen
characters and role development in all forms of learning materials. This included themodification of digital materials for use by disabled people. The project provided anequal opportunity for all students to reach standard learning outcomes in the areaof safe, legal and ethical behaviour on the internet.
Figure 2: Examples from multimedia resources developed in the Petzanet project

Source: http://petzanet.hr

Curriculum development
The pedagogical team working on the project developed and published material on
the school curriculum areas, with courses for each of the four age groups in primaryschools (students aged 7 to 8, 9 to 10, 11 to 12 and 13 to 14). Each set of teaching/learning materials included textbooks for students, multimedia resources, teachers’
guides and guides for parents. The content included text, hypertext, pictures, animatedstories, videos, audio files, computer games, social games, colouring pages, photos
and interactive quizzes. Colourful characters were created and used in all learning
resources so the curriculum had a unique and recognisably multimedia feel about it.
The school curriculum was divided into five units: information, communication,
content creation, safety and problem solving, according to the recommendationsof the EU Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence inEurope.148 Topics covered in the curriculum included personal data protection;e-mail phishing and scams; netiquette; online communication and collaboration;risks on social networks; responsible use of mobile devices; sharing and authors’
rights; identity theft; digital footprints; e-portfolios and online presence; evaluationof information on the internet; and prevention of violence, including but not limited
to bullying, and hate speech.

Practice Page 83

Figure 3: Example from textbook from the Petzanet project

Source: http://petzanet.hr

Along with printed textbooks, students, teachers and their parents could use versions
in PDF format, as well as digital e-books. Teachers’ guides provided lesson plans withsummaries and learning outcomes as well as suggestions for technology, equipment and other resources that teachers could use. The guides for parents included
short explanations and additional family activities that parents and children could
do together at home, corresponding to each lesson from the student’s textbook.
As a result, parents were able get a clear picture of what their children were beingtaught in each lesson and why. Multimedia and digital resources were created for all
lessons in the form of websites, computer games, board games, interactive quizzes,
cartoons and animated stories. Audio and video clips gave students the opportunity
to learn individually through games and problem-solving activities. The purpose ofthis was for children to identify with real life characters and their peers in different
situations as well as to explore, check and practise what they had learned. More than
800 learning resources were organised in a database and made freely available on
the project website.149

Page 84 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Figure 4: Virtual classroom from the Petzanet project

Source: http://petzanet.hr

Curriculum piloting and testing
The school curriculum was tested and evaluated by the participating schools andexternal advisers. Pilot testing was performed with 220 students (aged 7 to 14) and
220 parents, representing two classes from each participating school. In every class,
10 lessons were delivered in the weekly schedule. Two lessons took place each week.
Testing of the curriculum was monitored by using pre-test and post-test questionnaires created especially for the project with age-appropriate language and design.
Teachers’ diaries and focus groups with students and parents were also used after the
curriculum was delivered. The questionnaire consisted of three groups of questions:general, e-safety and digital skills, and satisfaction with learning resources. Figure 5
provides a picture of how early children begin to use the internet.
Figure 5: Question – How old were you when you started using the internet?

Practice Page 85

Table 3 presents some comparisons of students’ answers prior to and after implementation of the pilot project.
Table 3: Students’ answers before and after the pilot project
BeforeAfter
93% of students said they did not believe everything they read 100% said theon the internetsame
63% of students knew that they were leaving a digital footprint 83% knew thisevery time they used the internet
71% of students agreed that the content that you post on the 90% agreed
internet can be stolen by someone else and portrayed as theirown work
65% of students disagreed that the information you find on the 83% disagreed
internet can be used without mentioning the source
79% of students thought that the victims of online violence should 81% thought
not hide the fact and wait for the abusers to stop
this
50% of students agreed or strongly agreed that creation of a hate 71% agreed
group on social networks and posting in it was as bad as hitting
someone in real life
56% of students disagreed that one should not interfere on behalf 73% disagreed
of a victim of cyberbullying and be a silent bystander
66% of students thought that different rules of behaviour apply 40% thoughton the internet than in real life
this
13% of students agreed that it was OK to disclose their personal 3% agreed
data on the internet
Figure 6 provides data on the need for more information for children on the advantages and disadvantages of the internet.

Page 86 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Figure 6: Question – Do you think that your friends need additional knowledge
about the use of the internet and its good and bad sides?

The last part of the questionnaire contained questions regarding students’ satisfaction with the learning resources. In general, students were very satisfied with thelessons delivered during the project (92% to 97%) and they would like to have them
the following year too (67% to 80%). Such high results showed that the learning
resources had fully satisfied students’ expectations and that the team of authors had
successfully implemented modern strategies in curriculum and resources creation.
When it came to satisfaction with different kinds of learning resources, students
gave animated stories and videos an average mark of 4.9; games and worksheets,
4.8; e-books, 4.7; and textbooks, 4.3.

Impact
The Children’s Safety on the Internet project directly targeted teachers, students
and parents. During the project, 15 teachers attended two study visits, 25 teachers
participated in five-day workshops twice, and 218 teachers were trained in thearea of e-safety. The project was disseminated to approximately 2 500 teachers,

Practice Page 87

participating in 50 County Teacher Councils across Croatia. Two hundred and twenty
students, aged 7 to 14, were directly involved in a curriculum testing while approximately 2 700 students were involved in the awareness-raising campaign and school
curriculum implementation over the successive school years that the project took
place. The parents of the students involved in the pilot project also took part andgave feedback. Approximately 2 700 parents were reached when the project results
were implemented in all classes of the partner schools.

To accompany the school curriculum and establish a stronger connection between
educational institutions and the local community, awareness-raising campaigns
were run. These included workshops, exhibitions, lectures, interactive round tables,
articles, radio and TV shows, all targeted at a local, regional and national level. Project
publicity and dissemination activities were synchronised with the campaign so every
event served to both raise awareness and disseminate information about the project.

Conclusion
During the 2014/15 school year, alongside the original five pilot schools, around 20
other schools started to use the learning resources and in the 2015/16 school yearthat number rose to over 50. The Children’s Safety on the Internet learning resources
and school curriculum – known under the short name “Pet za net” – have now foundtheir place in the new national curriculum for the cross-curricular subject called “Useof ICT” as well as in the curriculum for Informatics (Computer Science) for all primaryand secondary schools in Croatia.
The school curriculum, the four courses and all associated teaching/learning materials are also now freely available on the project web page (www.petzanet.hr) for all
interested schools, teachers, parents and students. In many ways, this project has
paved the way for the implementation of the ENABLE project that is now under way
in Croatian schools, and a continuation of the work begun in many areas related toresponsible internet use.

Page 88 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Chapter 9

Denmark: groupchat techniques withvulnerable teens
Signe Sandfeld Hansen

In January 2016, the Centre for Digital Youth Care in Denmark held a digital campaign that focused on bullying among children and young people. The digital
campaign emphasised that bullying can be experienced in a variety of ways andentail different consequences. In this context, young people were invited to share
their experiences, thoughts and emotions on bullying. This chapter argues that thegroup chat conducted by Cyberhus, the online socio-educational club house that isrun by the Centre for Digital Youth Care, may be considered a community of practicein which SEL takes place. We also examine how the campaign may be beneficial toyouth in other aspects of their lives.

Summary of the campaign
The campaign took place on Cyberhus’s website,150 which is an anonymous counselling and information platform for vulnerable young people between the agesof 9 to 23. Cyberhus offers a range of features that give youth the opportunity toanonymously seek information or share their experiences, thoughts and emotions
across geographical areas and age groups. Users also have the opportunity to receive
personal counselling from adult volunteers at Cyberhus.
Bullying formed the overall theme of the campaign and each week we focused on aparticular topic associated with bullying. The topics were based on the anti-bullying
concept contained in ENABLE’s 10 modules of well-being, which we will examine in
the section, “Group chat”. The campaign used Facebook advertising in order to welcome young people to Cyberhus, with the advertisements targeting young people
between the ages of 13 to 18.
The primary tools that Cyberhus used for the campaign were blogs, group chat,“The word is yours” texts, and articles. Out of these four primary features, Cyberhus’sgroup chat played the biggest part in the communication with young people. The
following sections summarise the way these four features were used.

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BlogsBlogging gives people the opportunity to verbalise their experiences, thoughts
and emotions. Young people, as well as adults, are able to write blog posts andin many ways writing posts is similar to writing a journal. During the campaign,
the counsellors responsible had their personal blog at Cyberhus, which was used
to introduce the topic of the week and afterwards to summarise what the chatsession addressed. The campaign resulted in 159 unique page views of the blog
posts, and the post receiving most page views (30) was the one entitled “How can
we stop bullying?”

The word is yours
This feature invites young people to share text labelled “realities” or “life hacks”, up toa maximum of 150 characters. It is not possible for counsellors or young people tointeract with other people’s texts. So this feature provides a space to share somethingeven if the person is not used to verbalising their thoughts and feelings. The featureis also quite manageable for young people visiting Cyberhus and is therefore considered a good starting point for those entering Cyberhus for the first time. During
the campaign, “The word is yours” was featured as the landing page, and users
were redirected to the page if they clicked on a specific Facebook advertisement.
Overall, 260 “realities” or “life hacks” were created. The landing page also provided
the option of navigating to other campaign-related content on Cyberhus such as
articles, blogs and group chat.

ArticlesNine articles on bullying were written, (e.g. “What is bullying?” and “What is digitalbullying?”) as well as a personal account from a previous victim of bullying. The
right sidebar of “The word is yours” landing page on Cyberhus also linked to thosearticles, which represented the most information-heavy part of the campaign’s communication: the articles were read 188 times during the campaign. The article thatreceived most visitors (100) was the one entitled “Sex bullying”: the set is now partof Cyberhus’s collection of articles under the category “When it hurts deep inside”.

Group chat
Cyberhus’s group chat is open on Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The group chatnormally does not deal with a specific, overall theme but instead allows young people
to decide what they would like to talk about. Young people’s choice of topics often
relate to challenges or problems in their lives such as mental illness, difficulties atschool, bullying, sexuality or loneliness. A counsellor continually moderates the chataccording to the chat room’s social and ethical guidelines. This allows the counsellor
to make sure that young people feel safe and welcomed in the chat room, which
has the capacity to host 15 participants simultaneously.

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The group chat was chosen as a pedagogical tool during the campaign because it
provides young people with the opportunity to anonymously share experiences
and information. They are able to share sensitive or unpleasant experiences without
having to expose themselves, and at the same time they can receive support fromtheir peers. Our aim was to create an anonymous and open room, encouraging
young people to reflect on their emotions, thoughts and behaviour related to bullying both in and out of school. The group chat was highlighted in the right sidebar of Cyberhus’s landing page and through posts on Cyberhus’s Facebook page.
The primary counsellor in the group chat, during the campaign, had a Master’s in
Psychology and was experienced in digital group moderation. A total of 71 young
people participated in Cyberhus’s group chat.
During the campaign, Cyberhus’s group chat focused on four topics related to bullying based on the anti-bullying concept in ENABLE’s 10 SEL modules.

Thursday 7 January 2016 – What is bullying?
The first group chat dealt with the issue of how to define bullying and what happens
when you are bullied or if you bully someone else. Our aim was to encourage young
people to verbalise their personal experience of bullying, identify the different roles
in a bullying situation, and express related emotions.

Young people in the group chat positively embraced this topic. They reflected
on and discussed how a certain topic could be sensitive to some people and notsensitive to others; how you can talk about sensitive issues in a constructive way;
why it is difficult to fight bullying even if someone gets upset; and what motivates
someone to bully others.
An anonymous young person in the group chat on bullying stated: “As a victim ofbullying, you get a sense that it’s your own fault, or that others won’t believe orunderstand you if you tell someone, for instance, your parents, or teachers.”

Thursday 14 January 2016 – What is digital bullying?
The group chat on digital bullying drew on the fact that many people’s lives are
digitised, and numerous social interactions, including bullying, happen online. Our
aim was to encourage young people to reflect on how digital communication may
result in both positive and negative consequences, and what you can do if you
become a victim of digital bullying. Jonas Ravn, from the Centre for Digital YouthCare, participated as a guest expert. Jonas speaks on digital well-being at elementary
schools and he is also part of the ENABLE project.
Most participants in the group chat had, at some point or another, experienced
digital bullying. Discussion focused on the concept of “faceless communication” andits consequences, particularly in terms of the ability to read people’s emotions. The
group addressed issues such as why it is difficult to escape digital bullying; what you
can do if you, or someone you know, experiences digital bullying; and why it is hardto intervene. Participants also took the opportunity to ask Jonas specific questions.

Practice Page 91

Thursday 21 January 2016 – Violent bullying
This group chat topic was chosen because one of the young people in the group had
previously stated that violence is generally a taboo subject, and that it entails very
serious consequences that should be spoken about. Our aim was to encourage young
people to reflect on the matter of when to classify bullying as violence; the difference
between mental and physical violence; bullying as an imbalance in power relations; andwhat consequences violent bullying may lead to for the victim as well as the attacker.
Several young people shared their dramatic personal stories and spoke about how
bullying can express itself mentally as well as physically, and may have serious consequences. Participants also expanded their focus to address the issue of how tofight bullying. In this way, they took ownership of the topic, and initiated a discussion
on the role of group dynamics, and practical advice on how to prevent bullying.
They emphasised that change requires credibility, sensibility and emotion, and thatanti-bullying programmes should focus more on increasing people’s understandingof their own feelings and the consequences of bullying. Participants agreed that initiatives to prevent bullying should be a group activity, not just a dialogue between
the directly involved parties. “We have to unite and change the group culture inorder to do something about bullying. It can’t be cool to bully,” declared a young
person in the group chat on bullying.

Thursday 28 January 2016 – How can we stop bullying?
Although touched on in the previous session, this group chat focused specifically on
solutions, and participants were invited to examine their own and other people’s efforts
to stop bullying. Our aim was to encourage young people to reflect on peer-to-peer
support; how to assume accountability as a young person; the challenges to overcome
in order to change behaviour; whether one can control one’s emotions or how tohandle them; and what specific things can be done in a situation related to bullying.
Participants had various opinions on the topic. Some people believed that a degree ofpunishment might be necessary to make people stop and to prevent certain types of
behaviour. Others felt that schools and parents should acquire tools to help deal withbullying, and particularly that students should be equipped with some sort of tool box
that could help them manage difficult situations, including bullying. It was felt thatthese tools should aim to foster alternative practices among young people, teachingthem constructive ways to react, rather than just focusing on how to not react. People
agreed that it might be unrealistic to expect everyone to collaborate in the fight against
bullying. Participants felt this would require a change in group mentalities, as a whole,in order to create a united approach to deal with bullying. As a youth said during thegroup chat on bullying, “One lion is more dangerous than a thousand sheep.”Group chat as a community of practiceGenerally, the purpose of the campaign was to communicate information on bullying, create a reflective dialogue with young people, and articulate the humanPage 92 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

consequences that bullying may lead to. The campaign was based on the belief thatyoung people should learn something about the topic as well as about themselves
and others, both in relation to strengthening their empathy and their ability to beattentive to their own thoughts and emotions.

According to social learning theory, learning among people happens when they
participate in so-called communities of practice. Thus, learning is a social act, ora social process, that occurs in a dynamic interaction among people. According
to Etíenne Wenger, there are three dimensions to the formation of a communityof practice that must be fulfilled so that learning occurs in a social process: united
activity, mutual dedication and united repertoire.151

United activity occurs when young people log onto a group chat to talk aboutbullying. This activity depends on young people sharing something of interest, inorder that they participate in the first place. The identity of a particular communityof practice is therefore defined by a shared domain that people know something
about, or with which they have some personal experience.
Mutual dedication expresses itself when young people actively participate in dialogue, share experiences, support one another, and are open to new perspectives.
Even though people do not know each other prior to a specific group chat, themutual dedication means that social relations are built up, which allows people tolearn from each other.
United repertoire means that participants not only share an interest in the topic, theyalso share a united repertoire of resources that they bring to the social practice, suchas experiences, stories, advice or ways to handle issues. This is particularly manifested
when young people share personal experiences and practices in relation to bullying,
and when they interact within the same frame of reference in order to keep theirsocial practice organised. This happened particularly during conflicts in the groupchat. For example, if one youth was rude to another youth, instead of logging off
they tried to resolve their conflict and, as a result, helped clarify the united social
boundaries and rules in the chat room.

The campaign from a learning perspective
Based on the results from the group chat and feedback from Cyberhus’s counsellors,
it can be argued that the group chat manifested itself as a community of practice, andthat learning occurred in the social interaction among participants (young people).
Our aim with the campaign was to create various types of digital and formal elementsof learning (e.g. articles, blogs), and provide young people with opportunities toparticipate in an open and honest dialogue (the group chat). It was apparent thatboth formal and informal learning occurred during the campaign.
Formal learning is characterised by set content, where learning occurs in a structured
and focused manner. The content of the campaign was the theme of bullying. The
articles and blogs represented structured communication media, the purpose ofwhich was to promote information on bullying. For example, this applied to thearticles on the definitions of various types of bullying, what to do when faced with

Practice Page 93

situations of bullying, and feelings associated with bullying. Equally, blog posts
and reflective questions stimulated young people’s thought processes on bullying.
In the group chat, formal learning occurred when the counsellor answered questions and when guest experts were invited to talk about subjects such as “Digitalbullying”. However, although our guest was an expert, it should be noted that heassumed a more neutral position and helped facilitate mostly peer-to-peer rather
than youth-to-counsellor communication.

Informal learning is more unstructured and random. During the campaign, “The word
is yours” and the group chat were particularly notable for inviting a relaxed exchange
of information among young people. The informal learning that occurred resulted
in two main benefits. First of all, it appears that social skills training occurred, withparticipants being able to moderate each other and speak out if their boundaries
were breached. In this way, they expressed their preferences in a social context.
Although these may appear to be basic social qualities to most “well-adjusted”
people, a lot of young people who experience bullying have a hard time sensing theirown, and other people’s, boundaries. As a community of practice, the group chat
opened up a social context of learning that facilitated a safe environment whereinyoung people could explore their own thoughts and emotions, as well as achieve a
degree of social mirroring of other young people.

Second, it appears that emotional learning occurred as a result of people being
taken seriously. Many young people who visit Cyberhus have little or no experienceof being taken seriously – be it by other young people or adults. As a result, theyoften experience a growing insecurity regarding their faith in their own emotions
and thoughts. At Cyberhus, they are taken seriously, and in the group chat, theyreceive sympathy and respect from their peers. This may also promote emotional
mirroring, strengthening the feeling that their experience of reality is allowed. Indeed,
the group chat may have helped young people to trust their own ability to express
themselves because their personal experiences were treated as a sort of “expertise”
by other young people. The community of practice in Cyberhus’ group chat perhaps
also helped develop the empathy of young people and their ability to recognise
their own thoughts and emotions.

Perspectivation
The campaign on bullying aimed to inform about bullying, and also create a dialogue
with young people. Bullying is a difficult topic to communicate about, because
defining incidents of bullying is very subjective. To address this, young people wereviewed as experts in the group chat and no thought, emotion or experience wasconsidered wrong. Young people were viewed as resourceful in their participationin the community of practice on bullying. Feeling appreciated and like an important
contributor is something a lot of vulnerable young people may never have had theopportunity to experience. Especially vulnerable young people are often viewed
as socio-economically disadvantaged by their social environment. This could meanthat they internalise their environment’s perception and, without adequate support,
start viewing themselves as weak. Offering someone the opportunity to participate
in a community of practice in which they actually feel they have something to offer
Page 94 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insightsmay help them feel a greater sense of worth. It may also help someone to learn
how to verbalise their inner reality and communicate that reality to others in an
appropriate way. It may even help someone to view their own opinions or feelings
as important the next time bullying is discussed, whether at home or at school. In
this way, the group chat may be one of several options that help break down thetaboo of bullying and help train young people to articulate such issues to themselves,
their peers and adults.

Conclusion
Bullying is a real problem that young people face in their everyday lives, and thepersonal stories that emerged from Cyberhus’s group chat show that bullying isvery damaging and has far-reaching consequences. At the Centre for Digital Youth
Care and Cyberhus, we will continue our effort to create dialogue on bullying, andgive youth opportunities to reflect on their behaviour, offline as well as online. In
practical terms, we will facilitate future campaigns on bullying and continue to use
the group chat to address the topic. The issue of how to stop bullying proved to beof particular interest, as well as how groups should collaborate on solutions. In the
future, it would be interesting to invite young people to submit practical ideas on
how a group culture can be changed, and share their views on the practical initiatives
contained in the ENABLE modules.
The design and organisation of the campaign provided young people with opportunities to talk to each other across age and geographical boundaries. In this regard,
it would be interesting to examine the effect of the group chat as a community ofpractice, the degree of formal and informal learning involved, and how a future
campaign on bullying might be designed to optimise both forms of learning.
The group chat also encourages a two-way dialogue where young people can learn
about bullying and adults can learn from young people’s real experience of the issue.
Not until we involve young people can we begin our journey towards a better schooland leisure environment, now as well as later in life.

Overall, the campaign has been an exciting and informative process that has had apositive impact on young people. At the same time, the campaign has managed tocreate the intended dialogue on bullying. It has also proved to us that if we want toinitiate targeted and successful action against bullying, we must work with young
people in order to understand their reality, and facilitate a framework that allows
learning. Despite the campaign’s success, we still face a long road ahead before wewill be able to fully come to grips with bullying.

Practice Page 95

Chapter 10

Australia: tacklingbullying throughwhole-school actions
Donna Cross, Amy Barnes and Natasha PearceA

ustralian young people face one of the highest rates of bullying in countries
in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A
quarter of those aged 8 to 14 years report they are bullied frequently (every
few weeks or more), and 9% frequently bully others.152 The emergence of bullying
behaviours perpetrated online and through mobile phones – environments in whichyoung people, increasingly, spend considerable time – have heightened the easeand impact of antisocial peer interactions in Australia, with 15% of young people
reporting they have been cyberbullied.153 Bullying contributes directly to mental
health problems including anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, eating disorders,self-harm, impaired social and emotional adjustment, poor relationships and increased
loneliness, with severe and long-lasting consequences.154
Significant research has determined some effective ways to reduce child and adolescent bullying. This research has typically focused on enhancing policy and practicein schools and building the capacity of parents and teachers to prevent and manage
student bullying experiences. In Australia, a 16-year translational pipeline of bullying
prevention research (1999 to 2016), under the Friendly Schools (FS) initiative, involved
more than 27 000 Australian primary and secondary school students (see Table 4).
It has contributed to a robust scientific understanding among researchers, policy
makers, practitioners and educators of strategies to enhance social and emotional
development and reduce bullying among school-age students. Each longitudinal
project, building on the preceding research, addressed particular areas of need (e.g.
cyberbullying prevention) or vulnerable groups of young people, including students
transitioning to secondary schools and Aboriginal children. In briefly describing threeof these studies, this chapter will examine how whole-school, parent, classroom,
student leader and student-level interventions were developed and evaluated, as
well as how stakeholders, policy makers and target groups were involved in the
research process.

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The chapter concludes with a synopsis of how the findings from our eight intervention
studies are being used and translated into policy and practice. It also describes theschool-based actions and capacity building that has enhanced this process, from our
five-year translational research project, Strong Schools Safe Kids. This study focusedon building the capacity of school staff, students and their parents to enhance thequality and fidelity of the FS intervention implementation.

Table 4: Pipeline of bullying prevention research (2000-2017)

Project
1 Friendly Schools
2 Friendly Schools
Friendly Families
3 Supportive
Schools
4 Solid Kids
Solid Schools
5 Childhood
Aggression
Prevention
6 Cyber Friendly
Schools Project
7 Beyond Bullying
8 Preventing
Anxiety andVictimisation
Education
9 Strong Schools
Safe Kids

Year(s)20002002
20022004
20052007
20062009

DesignRCT (randomised
control trial)

Age of students
targeted(in addition to theirteachers and parents)
Students aged 9-11

20062008

RCT – 29 metropolitan
primary schools
RCT – 20 metropolitan
primary schools
RCT – 21 metropolitan
secondary schools
Quasi-experimental
control trial – 12regional schools
RCT – 24 metropolitan
primary schools

20102012
20142017
20142017

RCT – 35 metropolitan Students aged 12-14
secondary schools
RCT – 16 metropolitan Students aged 13-15
secondary schools
RCT – 105 metropolitan Students aged 9-11
primary schools

20112014

Multi-site case studies – Students aged 12-15
metropolitan
and regional
secondary schools

Students aged 6-12
Students aged 12-14
Aboriginal students
aged 12-16
Students aged 4-5

Three case studies from the Friendly Schools research pipeline
Case study 1: whole-school actions to prevent bullying among
middle school students (9 to 11 years)
The FS project (2000 to 2002) was one of the first randomised control trials to develop,
implement and evaluate a whole-school intervention to prevent and reduce bullying
Page 98 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

in Australian primary schools.155 Drawing on a synthesis of published and formative
research, a multilevel intervention targeting individual, school and family factors
was developed to build schools’ capacity to respond to bullying, and to empower
teachers, parents and students to cope more effectively with bullying situations.
The intervention provides advice and resources across three broad areas: schoolorganisation, policy and ethos; formal curriculum, teaching and learning; school,home and community links (see Table 5). A curriculum was designed to provide 18
hours of classroom teaching and learning activities, aiming to encourage: students’
understanding of bullying; their ability to talk about bullying; adaptive responses
to being bullied; pro-social behaviours and conflict resolution skills; peer support;
and peer discouragement of bullying.156

Table 5: Friendly Schools project whole-school actions to prevent bullying157
Organisation,
Formal curriculum,
School-homepolicy and ethos
teaching and learning
community links
Create staff team to co-or- Provide professional devel- Include parents and the
dinate and support actions opment for staff and parents community in wholeto prevent bullying
school bullying policy
Provide appropriate resources
development
Assess prevalence and and learning activities toawareness of bullying in develop students’ social and Communicate wholethe school
emotional skills
school bullying policy
to school community
Promote common under- Provide learning activities
involving co-operative learn- Provide information
standings of bullying
ing, active engagement and about bullying, school
Develop/revise methods
positive experiences
responses to bullying,of managing bullying inciand parent strategies
dents to ensure they are Foster appropriate behaviour
via school assemblies
proactive and positiveand provide post-behaviourand newsletters
Develop/revise a whole- management
Provide information
school bullying policy
about bullying andDevelop/maintain a school
strategies for parents
ethos conducive to anti-bulin take-home activities
lying messages (e.g. caring
Foster links to comenvironment, facilitating
munity agencies andreporting)supports
Utilise health and behaviour
Pursue co-operative
management services (e.g.
actions between staff
school psychologist)
and parents
Assess and monitor the
Ensure ongoing positive
physical environment (e.g.
contact with parents
supervision, safe areas)

FS’s efficacy was evaluated using a three-year group randomised control trial involving 1 968 school students aged 9 to 11 years and their parents, from 29 government
primary schools in metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. Students in Grade 4 (agedPractice Page 99

9 years) were selected and followed for three years in this study to track the development of bullying behaviour through middle childhood, a time in Australian schools
when more children are bullied and bully others than any other age.158 Intervention
schools selected staff to co-ordinate their whole-school responses to bullying. These
staff received training, support and manuals to guide the review, implementation andmonitoring of the actions described above. Data was collected on four occasions overthree years using self-report questionnaires (that is baseline and three post-tests).159
After one year, students in the comparison group were found to be one and a halftimes more likely to be bullied than those in the intervention group. Furthermore,at every post-test during the three-year study, the intervention students wereapproximately one and a half times less likely than the comparison students to reportseeing another student their age or younger being bullied. Finally, at every time
point, comparison students were more likely to have told no one if they were beingbullied.160 However, there was a need to enhance the schools’ capacity to implement
and sustain whole-school approaches to bullying prevention, and especially theirability to partner with parents and families in doing so.161 This finding led us to conduct the Friendly Schools Friendly Families (FSFF) follow-up study, described below.

Case study 2: whole-school programme plus parent
intervention for middle school students
The FSFF study (2002 to 2004) extended the FS study by also including and evaluatinga family capacity-building component, which comprised training and resources tohelp school teams engage families in awareness-raising and skill-building activities.162 These strategies encouraged and empowered parents to actively engage inconversations with their children about bullying, including helping them to respondas a witness or a target if bullying occurred.

This study also engaged more students actively in the intervention as the FS study
found that empowering only Grade 4 students, while necessary, was not sufficient tosustain change across the whole school. Hence, three cohorts of students in Grades
2, 4 and 6 were recruited from 20 randomly selected Australian primary schools toparticipate in the FSFF study. Each year group was tracked for three years, alongwith their parents and teachers, until the three cohorts of students were in Grades
4, 6 and 8 (aged 9, 11 and 13).
Schools were randomly allocated to one of three conditions, and subsequently
exposed to three capacity building-related levels of whole-school intervention:high, moderate or low levels of intervention (See Table 6). Data was collected via
self-report questionnaires in March 2002 (baseline), November 2002 (post-test 1),
October 2003 (post-test 2) and October 2004 (follow-up).163

Page 100 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Table 6: High, moderate and low-dose intervention components by school level
Level
Wholeschool

Low dose
Whole-school
manualdescribing
generalactions
to reduce
bullying

Moderate dose
- school team capacity
building:
6 hours/year whole-school
implementation training
ongoing staff support- audit school implementation
capacity and feedback- whole-school implementation manual and tools- audit, development, implementation and monitoringof:fpolicyfethos (social
environment)
fphysical environment
fmanagement ofbullying incidents
Classroom Standard- teacher training (2 hours/
curriculumyear)(<2 hours/- curriculum: at least 2 60-minyear)
ute activities taught eachyear
FamilyStandard- awareness raising (25 newsparent-school letter items)
contact

Individual Standard- restorative techniques forstatebullying management
behaviour- 3-hour training for school
management behaviour management
practicestaff- links encouraged with relevant professionals (e.g.
school psychologists)

High dose- school team capacity
building:
6 hours/year whole-school
implementation training
ongoing staff support- audit school implementation capacity and feedback- whole-school implementation manual and tools- audit, development, implementation and monitoringof:fpolicyfethos (social
environment)
fphysical environment
fmanagement ofbullying incidents- teacher training (2 hours/
year)- curriculum: at least 2
60-minute activities taught
each year- awareness raising (25 newsletter items, 25-page parent
booklet, 5 scripted assembly items, and referral
information)- 3 hours/year project teamparent engagement training- 2-hour parent workshop- 4 6-page parent-child communication sheets (2002)- 6 classroom-home activities(2003)- restorative techniques forbullying management- 3-hour training for school
behaviour management
staff- links encouraged with relevant professionals (e.g.
school psychologists)

Practice Page 101

Results indicated that the high-dose intervention was more effective than themoderate- and low-dose intervention for both Grade 4 and 6 cohorts. In particular,
high-dose students in the Grade 4 cohort were significantly less likely to reportbeing bullied compared to the low-dose group, and significantly less likely to bully
others frequently than the moderate-dose group (at post-test 2) and low-dose group(follow-up). High-dose students in the Grade 6 cohort were significantly more likely
than low-dose students to tell someone if they were bullied at post-test 1 and 2.164
This study was followed by a randomised control trial called Supportive Schools thattracked students from primary school into secondary school to discourage bullying
post-transition. In Australia, the second highest prevalence of bullying behaviour
occurs post-transition to secondary school, so this study was designed like the FS
study to ameliorate this increase in bullying behaviour.

Case study 3: preventing cyberbullying among adolescents(13 to 15 years)
In response to the lack of research on how to prevent and manage cyberbullying
in Australian schools, the Cyber Friendly Schools Project (CFSP, 2010 to 2012) grouptested with a randomised control trial the effectiveness of an innovative schoolcyberbullying prevention programme that actively engaged young people in its development and implementation.165 The project was conducted in 35 non-government
Perth metropolitan schools, with 19 schools randomised to an intervention and 16
to a comparison group. The Year 8 cohort in 2010 were recruited to the project andtracked for two years into Year 10. A whole-school and curriculum intervention, which
included involving Year 10 students as “cyber leaders” in each year, was delivered in2010 and 2011 in the intervention schools. The intervention materials were adaptedand disseminated, with training, to the control schools in 2012.
The CFSP intervention comprised three components targeting the whole-schoolcommunity, students and parents (see Table 7). It included the development ofteaching and learning resources as well as a website resource for students, families
and teachers. Extensive training was also provided to staff and students in the participating schools.

Table 7: Aims for each component of the CFSP
Whole-school Ensuring consistent understanding of cyberbullying
component Implementing strategies to support students’ social and emotional
development
Developing and implementing policy relating to cyberbullying
and technology use
Developing a positive school ethos and culture
Ensuring positive behaviour management
Implementing pastoral care initiatives
Enhancing school-home-community links

Page 102 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Student
component

Parentcomponent

Teaching adaptive coping with cyberbullying
Enhancing positive communication, self-management and social
responsibility
Building capacity to help other students
Developing pro-victim attitudes
Training student “cyber leaders” to raise awareness, partner withschool staff in school actions, and support peers
Building capacity to help children use technology more safely

Data was collected from the student cohort (over 3 000 Grade 8 students) at baseline, at
post-test and at follow-up. The intervention was associated with steeper declines in newcases of cyber-victimisation and cyber-perpetration from the baseline in Year 8 to thefirst post-intervention data collection in Year 9, though not for the subsequent period
between Year 9 and Year 10. The effectiveness of the intervention was likely attenuatedby poor implementation of the classroom activities by teachers, who reported finding
it difficult to fit the intervention into their usual teaching programme.166 Evaluation of
the cyber leader programme indicated positive effects for leaders’ feelings of agency,
belonging and competence, while allowing them to make important and relevant
contributions to their schools’ actions to prevent cyberbullying.167

Elements required for effective and sustainable intervention
These three case studies and others from our pipeline of research found thatmultidimensional school-based programmes, incorporating both prevention andintervention elements, are the most effective way to address the occurrence of all
forms of bullying, including cyberbullying, especially through ages when prevalence
is higher.168 These whole-school approaches were designed to be collaborative andsystematic, with strategies targeting all levels of a school’s ecology, including students, parents, teachers and other school staff, as well as the wider community.169
Because bullying is a systemic problem including multiple associated factors, single
level programmes only addressing the classroom curriculum or interventions only
engaging higher risk young people, while necessary, are not sufficient to provide aneffective and sustainable response. The findings from our studies and others170 suggestthat to effectively reduce bullying and cyberbullying a whole-school approach needs to:f enhance the school social climate by building positive relationships andbehavioural expectations that will reduce harm associated with bullying andother antisocial behaviour among the whole school community (students,
staff and families);
f establish clear and consistent proactive school policies and practices to reduceand respond to bullying, and ensure all members of the school community
understand and are aware of these;
f implement teaching and learning curricula to enhance students’ SEL tohelp them respond to and prevent bullying and other forms of conflict andaggression;

Practice Page 103

f encourage and partner with parents to prevent and manage student bullying
behaviour;f build the self-efficacy of staff, students and their families to engage in positive
relationships and to reduce bullying behaviour.

Strong Schools Safe Kids project: translational research to build
school capacity to reduce bullying
While our ongoing research demonstrates that effective school bullying interventions require a whole-school approach, we found few schools had the “capacity”
to effectively embrace these strategies. School principals and teachers, faced withlimited resources and the lack of a comprehensive school framework, tended toonly partially implement interventions, focusing primarily on “overt” physical and/or verbal aggression. While well intentioned, these strategies may have encouraged
students to use more covert forms of aggression and bullying to avoid detection.171
In light of this finding, we developed and led a four-year study under the Strong
Schools Safe Kids project, conducted from 2011 to 2014. This aimed to translate into
more sustainable real world school practice our empirical evidence of whole-school
actions to reduce student bullying behaviours.
The study built on the World Health Organization’s model of capacity building by
acknowledging that school capacity goes beyond the development of knowledge,
skills and self-efficacy among individuals. It should also incorporate assessmentsof structures, processes, resources and leadership within the school system, andenable teachers, parents and students to develop actions that are sustainable in
the longer term.
This multi-site case study project engaged six schools in metropolitan and regional
areas of Western Australia, and supported their implementation of the Friendly
Schools Plus programme (the whole-school programme developed from our pipelineof research, hence the addition of “Plus” to the title). The study aimed to understand:f how schools in different contexts translate evidence-based practices fromthe Friendly Schools Plus (FS+) programme to reduce bullying and social
aggression, into real world practice;f how schools’ capacity to implement the FS+ evidence-based practices canbe strengthened to promote sustainability and positive student outcomesfor wider translation.
Schools’ perceptions of the facilitators and barriers to successful implementationof the programme were investigated, and each school’s process and experienceof capacity building explored as they planned, prepared for and implemented theStrong Schools Safe Kids intervention. Students’ social and emotional outcomes,
including experiences of bullying, were measured throughout the study, to examine
how these outcomes relate to other implementation and capacity-building processes
in each school.

Mixed methods were utilised to measure the study outcomes. These methods included
interviews with the school leadership team, staff and parents, student focus groups,
school observations and online surveys collecting data from students and staff. A key

Page 104 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

output of this research was the development and testing of mechanisms that assist
schools to take evidence-based action to prevent social aggression and bullying,and effectively implement these into real world practice.
The project therefore comprised two levels of intervention: FS+ intervention components (delivered by the schools to their school communities) and FS+ implementationintervention components (delivered with an implementation support system), which
aimed to build the capacity of schools to implement the whole-school intervention
in an effective and sustainable way.
The Strong Schools Safe Kids project focused on supporting the case study schools to
implement evidence-based practices using a systematic planning, implementationand evaluation process. Leadership teams in each case study school were engaged
in a planning and action cycle based on their school needs and context. Case study
schools were visited to coach staff and support their planning as well as to provide
feedback and collect data. Case study schools also received copies of the FS+ curriculum and whole-school resources.

Analysis of project student and staff outcomes indicated significant reductions inbullying and changes in school and staff capacity in all six case study schools overfour years.172 The following factors were associated with the success of schools’
implementation efforts:
f providing a clear link between the school vision and a supportive culture
and positive climate;f embedding the FS+ approach into the pastoral care structure;
f providing time for staff to support students and attend regular team meetings;
f flexibility to select appropriate staff and allocate roles and time to various
responsibilities;
f having an experienced and committed leader/co-ordinator who has dedicatedtime available for planning and supporting other staff;
f having a principal who is actively engaged and supportive, and who models
distributed leadership;
f providing regular information and professional learning to foster common
understanding among staff;
f using a systematic implementation process to assess, plan, implement andreview actions using local school data;f sharing school data with all staff to encourage their ownership of actions
to reduce bullying;f embedding a school culture that shows that staff and students care about
each other;f encouraging a preventative rather than reactive approach to student bullying
behaviour.
Overall, our translational research found that to effectively implement a whole-school
approach to bullying prevention it was necessary to build positive relationships
between staff and students and between students and students, including across age
groups. Furthermore, these actions need to be embedded within actions taken by
the whole-school community to enhance the school ethos/climate. Our translational
research also found bullying can be reduced by building the capacity of schools

Practice Page 105

to integrate their policy and practice into their strategic planning and frameworkof action for student well-being/pastoral care. This embedding of the policy andpractice process led to a more collaborative, co-ordinated, whole-school approach
using developmentally appropriate and evidence-based strategies.
Finally, the Strong Schools Safe Kids study demonstrated how both “pull” and “push”
research translation strategies are necessary. These were vital to ensure all components of a whole-school approach to build social and emotional skills and reducebullying (as for the FS+ intervention) were relevant (by using local school data) andeasy to implement by school staff, classroom teachers, parents and students.

Page 106 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Chapter 11

Europe: implementing
ENABLE
Andrew Williams

E

NABLE aims to tackle bullying in a holistic way, helping young people athome, at school, in class and in their community. It provides a set of lessonplans, peer-supported materials, parent resources and self-directed training
resources. Developed from a research phase, which highlighted the importance ofSEL, the resource aims to improve the resilience of young people and enable them
to be more responsible in their online and offline interactions. The resources weredeveloped and piloted before being shared with a group of selected “ambassadors”.

In October 2015, 20 ambassadors from five EU countries took part in a two-day initialtraining that introduced them to the approach, concepts and materials developed
within ENABLE. From there, the ambassadors were able to use ENABLE in theirschools and could also share the resources with other schools in their region. As
the resources were initially written in English, albeit with considerable input fromfocus groups in all participating countries, the very earliest adopters were English
language schools, with non-English schools becoming involved later.
The four schools that feature in the following case studies were identified by thein-country ambassadors in Greece, Croatia, England and Northern Ireland. Interviews
were conducted over Skype for Greek and Croatian teachers, and face to face for
the UK schools.
What follows is a summary of the conversations with these schools and the journeyeach school took in their approach to ENABLE.

4th Gymnasium Alimos, Greece
The 4th Gymnasium Alimos decided to adopt ENABLE after hearing about it at apresentation. The school felt it was ready as it had been implementing a peer mediation programme since 2013 and had established a peer mediator team in 2014.
The two teachers leading the ENABLE project in the school, one teaching English
and the other Greek as their main teaching subject, both share responsibility for
the ENABLE programme in Greece. Together, they planned to share the delivery of
the 10 lessons between them in a creative use of the curriculum. With the supportof the senior leadership team, the lessons have been delivered as part of “projectwork”, in English lessons and through drama. By leading through example, the pair
have now begun to bring in other subject areas and spread the teaching of ENABLE
across a wider range of staff.

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At this relatively early stage of adoption, the school has already been able to identify
some positive impacts, while recognising that challenges remain. Although one of
the teachers admits that bullying remains an issue, staff report that overall children
feel happier and more secure. They believe that this is due to the core ENABLE message that children can report any issues, safe in the knowledge that someone will
do something about it.
Schools in Greece follow a curriculum and set of expectations established by the
Ministry of Education, Research and Religion. Some feel these expectations are constraining or restrictive. However this school, working within the ENABLE regime, is seen
as unique and forward thinking. It is here that the support of the senior leadershipteam has been central to the success of ENABLE. By providing a supportive culture
for the staff, the senior leaders have empowered them to use the ENABLE approachwithin lessons. Furthermore, in acting as a buffer between the school and state, theleadership team has ensured that the needs of the children remain the focus.
One lesson (Lesson 4 in the series of 10 SEL lessons)173 presented the staff with thebiggest opportunity and quite a surprise. The current climate in the school does notprovide many opportunities for group work and, as a result, the students are notused to working this way. The students and staff members had to physically movethe classroom into a layout more suited to group work at the beginning and end of
every session. However, over the course of the lessons – run in slots of 30 minutes– the staff began to notice a shift in group dynamics. The students became more“sensitised” to emotions and became more willing to share and discuss them. As
more sessions were run, staff also became aware of a sense of anticipation among
the students as well as a desire to talk about the lessons and the learning undertaken.
The staff members leading ENABLE have maintained a sensitive and supportive
partnership throughout the project, modelling the behaviour they also want others
to display. The school hopes that the ENABLE approach will help develop a stronger
relationship between staff and students in place of the previously low levels of trust.

A final area of real strength was the “Cinderella, after the marriage” performance put
together by the students. It aimed to challenge the attitudes of parents and someteachers who may have felt that sensitivity is a negative state of mind. Annually, theschool creates a performance around feelings. This year, inspired by the ENABLE
programme, it took the decision to base the play around the families of the students
involved. The students were asked to report on how feelings and emotions wereexpressed at home, and from these reports an original piece of dramatic work was
produced. This performance, put on by the students and using their reports, reallyprovided a focus for emotions and the ENABLE project. This has now created a stable
platform from which to speak with parents about the value of parenting and thevalue of the ENABLE programme.

Kajzerica Primary School in Zagreb, Croatia
The Kajzerica school for 7- to 14-year-olds was built just one and a half years ago. The
students came from a range of different schools and some of them have remainedin the same class groups that they were in previously. This has made it a little more
Page 108 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

difficult to integrate these groups of students, but it has not had a significant impact
on the occurrence of bullying. The school employs a counsellor who regularly sees
the students, delivers workshops and tackles issues arising within the student population. The school also has a peer support group of eight students.
At the time the interviews were taking place, in April 2016, the school had delivered
just three ENABLE sessions, having only recently been introduced to the programme.

The school has been careful to present the sessions to the students as a positive,
challenging and fun experience, introducing the students to the notion that they are
not alone in suffering from negative behaviour because students in other countries
experience the same thing.

Five teachers have been chosen to deliver the sessions in the subject areas of English,
German, Croatian and design technology, and in the primary school section as well.
All teachers have previous experience teaching personal, social, health and economic(PSHE) issues and use 45-minute time slots for form tutors to deliver the sessions.
Although ENABLE targets 11- to 14-year-olds, it is exciting to hear of a school thatis experimenting with the adaptation of these sessions in the primary school section too. The school reports that all teachers are finding the sessions and materials
straightforward to access, adapt and deliver. The school is already in discussions
with local and state level education teams to more fully incorporate the programme
into the curriculum.

A particular feature of the school’s implementation is the involvement of the guidancecounsellors in the programme. At this early stage, the teachers have already identified
the willingness of children to open up and share confidential information and in somecases make disclosures to the staff. As most teachers are not trained counsellors, theteacher leading ENABLE is involving the school counsellor in ENABLE sessions andlooking for ways in which to train staff members to better support children who
disclose sensitive or confidential information. As with the Greek programme, thisschool is also benefiting from a supportive senior leadership team that is actively
encouraging involvement in ENABLE.
The school now plans to work in more detail with the peer supporters. The existing
peer support group was not initially selected with ENABLE in mind, which may meanthat certain expectations related to being an ENABLE peer supporter are somewhat
challenging for them. To tackle the challenge at this level of the school ecosystem,
additional time will be spent working through the peer support sessions to train
the peer supporters further.

Wellington School in Trafford, England
Wellington School is a humanities specialist school for 11- to 18-year-olds. The
school has had, for some time, a group of anti-bullying ambassadors led by
the Deputy Head, who also leads on pastoral care. The school was first introduced to
ENABLE through the regional ENABLE ambassador and could immediately see thepotential for its use in the school. It openly accepts that bullying happens among

Practice Page 109

students, and incidents that take place both in and out of school time are tackled
by the school in the same way.
Deputy Head Elizabeth Copeland notes, “If they (the students) don’t feel safe andsecure … then they won’t be able to access the curriculum.” The school is passionate
about ensuring that all children receive a positive educational experience.
The existing anti-bullying ambassadors are already well skilled, but are receiving
additional messages from the ENABLE sessions. The school has decided to focus
the lesson plans on Year 7 students who, at 11 and 12 years of age, are the youngest
in the school. In the school’s own words, “the resources don’t take time to prepare
because this has already been done for you”. However, the PSHE staff have createda new scheme of work based on the ENABLE resources, which stretches across Year
7 and will become an embedded part of the Year 7 curriculum.

One of the first activities the school undertook was the optional questionnaire(L9R1),174 which all students and staff were encouraged to complete. No time limit
was placed on the activity, which ensured that all could participate. This was seen as
an extremely positive starting point, with students and staff members learning more
about themselves as a consequence of undertaking the activity. Staff and students
were encouraged to share what they found out about themselves. The students werethen encouraged to use the Moodlytics app, which provided further opportunities
for them to discuss their moods and the reasons behind their feelings.

Although the existing anti-bullying ambassadors are well established, the school iskeen to ensure that this is a sustainable position. To that end, they are already exploring the option of including more young pupils and staff members in this work. In
fact, the school is committed to developing the ENABLE approach within catchment
primary schools to further improve the emotional intelligence of their students.
The next phase planned is the evaluation, which the school will undertake in partnership with students. One challenge already identified is the gender difference andthe level of preparedness of boys in particular to speak out about their emotions.
ENABLE is already helping to break down this gender difference, but more work
remains to be done.
Ultimately, the school believes that ENABLE will empower students to notice others
who are showing signs of distress and bring about change. The hope is that thesestudents will feel able to reach out to help those individuals, making all students
more proactive in resolving negative situations.

Ballyclare High School, Northern Ireland
Ballyclare High School’s mission statement is focused on “Developing lifelong learners
in a caring, creative community” and this statement perfectly encapsulates why thisschool chose to implement ENABLE. The school recognises that in order for children
to achieve, they must attend, and attendance can only be raised by nurturing acaring, learning environment.

Page 110 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

The school has already been working on anti-bullying messages for some time. For
example, an annual anti-bullying week is held in November and a number of staff
have completed Master’s modules based on anti-bullying research. The school has
been working hard to establish and maintain a positive climate, and it recognisesthat bullying behaviour is detrimental to this and also has links to low self-esteem.
The school already has a number of well-established pupil leader groups: students
who act in a responsible way and support their peers and the school. For this reason,
it was felt that the peer supporter aspect of ENABLE would perfectly complement
this existing approach, and immediate steps have been taken to introduce peer
supporters into the school culture. Clearly, this is a new group of students and theschool is realistic about the effect they may have in the short term. In the medium
term, as students become more used to peer supporters, the school expects thatthey will gain in recognition and credibility.
Currently, the two teachers leading the pilot are non-specialists, as in the other casestudy schools. However, as the Principal of Ballyclare is keen on developing resiliencein students, both teachers have the full backing of the senior leadership team. For its
piloting of the resources, the school decided to target Year 10 students (aged 13 to
14 years) as research suggests that transition years are a vulnerable point in bullying
situations. Two Year 10 classes were selected, with 32 pupils in each. Overall, the staff
felt that the ENABLE resources were written appropriately, were easy to understandand placed very little planning burden upon them.
Initial feedback from staff and students would suggest that the most successful
aspect of the pilot so far has been the impact the programme has had on initiating conversations between students and with staff around bullying and negative
behaviour. The sessions have provided strong opportunities for the staff to challenge
preconceptions that the students had and for them to understand more about
their own strengths. The work on “triggers” was felt to be particularly successful
as this provoked a range of responses from the students that led to an interesting
discussion. As with Wellington School, girls appeared to find it easier to talk about
emotions than the boys, although there are early signs that this is already changing.

Conclusions
It is clear from these four case studies that the ENABLE resources have had an immediate impact on how young people perceive themselves and their relationships withothers. The resources are providing structured discussions that help staff to break
down the status quo and look for alternative solutions that can empower students.
A strong feature in all of the schools is the preparedness of the senior leadershipteam to support the ENABLE programme in their school. This is clearly a critical factor
in achieving successes with the programme. All the teachers spoken to expressed
their gratitude for this senior-level support and research reviewed early in the project
substantiates its importance. Recognising the link between achievement, positive
self-image and well-being is also key in order for young people to succeed.

Practice Page 111

Finally, all staff members spoke well of the structure, approach and ease of use of
all the ENABLE resources. The programme is detailed enough that non-specialists
feel confident in using it, but open enough that specialists can mould the resources
to fit their own skillsets.
We would like to thank the schools involved for their openness, honesty and enthusiasm during the piloting of the ENABLE programme.

Page 112 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Section 3

Insights

Chapter 12

Social and emotional
skill learning – An
antidote to bullying?
Eleni C. Tzavela and Artemis K. Tsitsika

T

his chapter aims to shed light on the bullying phenomenon by juxtaposing
children’s perceptions with scientific evidence and posing a series of questions:what is bullying? What is the impact of bullying? Why does it happen andcontinue? What do children need to cope with bullying?
As with the rest of this book, the chapter embraces a child-centred approach bygiving children and teens the right to voice their opinions, experiences and needs,
which is fundamental to ENABLE’s skills development approach.

Children define and differentiate bullying
Despite 40 years of bullying research, there is still no adequate definition of thebroadly accepted term “bullying”. Disagreement about how to define bullying not
only hinders a full understanding of the phenomenon and the advancement of prevention efforts, but also makes involving children in the evolving definition of bullying
a priority. For this reason, and to facilitate a needs assessment before launching its
programme, the ENABLE team began by researching children’s understanding of
the constructs of bullying.

Children’s definitions were elicited both in school classes, in the context of SEL lessons,and from student focus groups conducted at the beginning and end of the ENABLE
programme. In class, most children used formal definitions: using key words frommedia, previous awareness-raising campaigns or class lessons. In the focus groups,
children were instructed to steer away from learned definitions and to openly
describe personal images or feelings that came to mind when they heard the word“bullying”. The defining constructs of abuse, defencelessness or helplessness, andimbalance (younger v. older, one v. many) emerged as the most salient characteristics
of bullying. The children told us, for example, that “the word bullying brings to minda child being abused by other children … mostly in adolescence. This child cannot
defend himself because a whole crowd surrounds him, hitting him, beating him.”

Page 115

Bullying is a way to exert power:“Bullying … when I hear this word I understand that someone is afraid of someone elseor of a gang. He may not be able to express his opinion, he does not want to speak up
because he is afraid that they may hurt him.”“The word bullying brings to mind the image of a young child, who is beaten by a gangof older children and this isolates him from his friends.”

The defining constructs that emerged from the analysis are in line with prevailingdefinitions such as the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s use of intentional hurting and power
imbalance.175 They also highlight that many children define bullying based on its
emotional impact:“For me bullying is anything that hurts the other person, anything you say or do,
anything that hurts and makes that person feel bad and inferior.”“[The victim experiences] pain because she has no friends, while she sees other kids
hanging out with others, playing and being happy. And she is sad because she does
not have the life like others do.”Explaining social pain
As voiced by the 7th graders above, many adolescents define bullying solely in termsof its emotional impact. In one middle school in which bullying was prevalent, theword “pain” as well as its synonyms “hurtful” and “painful” were repeatedly used by
students in the focus group. One 12-year-old boy from this school described his
victimisation experience: “It hurts very much, it is like being stabbed in the heart, I
know because I have been bullied.”

These strong adverse emotional responses are not difficult to understand. Social bonds
have adaptive value for humans, stemming from primary attachment systems thatkeep the young close to their caregivers. In a nutshell, social ties promote survival.
Attachment is the development of a mutual bond in which the primary caregiverserves as a secure base that is used for exploration and learning. At the same time,the infant forms the necessary skills of self-control, intimacy and trust, which serve
as a basis for all future relationships.
Starting in childhood, humans have a core need for social inclusion, as captured in
Baumeister and Leary’s “The need to belong”176 and Rudolph, Caldwell and Conley’s“Need for approval and children’s well-being”.177 In adolescence, relationships andacceptance by the peer group become increasingly important and in this period
peer acceptance constitutes a pivotal developmental task that is closely linked withwell-being and self-esteem. As adolescents seek autonomy from their parents, theyturn to peers for social support. Peer rejection or lack of peer support constitute risk
factors for adolescent psychosocial adjustment, while friendships (dyadic process)and peer acceptance (group process) are crucial for an adolescent’s positive development and school adjustment.178

Page 116 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Moreover, adolescents are especially sensitive to social cues and prone to fear of
humiliation, making them vulnerable to social anxiety and an array of negative
emotions. When adolescents are socially excluded, social pain is experienced: aresponse neurologically akin to the affective component of physical pain.179 Human
neuroimaging literature suggests that physical and social pain overlap in theirunderlying neural circuitry. Eisenberger et al. (2011)180 have shown the neurologicalconnection between social pain and social goals. They argue that a certain neuralnetwork (social pain network) serves as a neural alarm system, alerting individuals
to discrepancies between their desired social goal of social acceptance and theircurrent social status of social rejection.
What children tell us and converging neuroimaging evidence enrich our understanding of the impact of bullying and make a persuasive argument for promoting
emotional awareness and emotional management skills to contain the negative
emotional impact.

The cycle of violence
How is bullying maintained? What reinforces it? In focus groups, children describedsuch aggression as a “vicious cycle” because some victimised children react byturning into bullies themselves, which then spurs more bullying and perpetuates
maladaptive behaviours and norms.
“A few years ago, in primary school, one of our classmates was teased for his height.
Now he has started doing the same to others.”“Yes, about this kid, I agree with Harry. It is now in his character and he now uses this[bullying] as self-defence. Actually, it is not self-defence. Because he has experienced
it, he now reactively does the same to other kids who do nothing to provoke him. I
think that all kids that bully have been bullied themselves. Now they bully so as toshow that other kids should be afraid of them and not attack them.”“In some cases, he who bullies does so to get back at someone on some issue.”“Bullying is a cycle that goes on and on.”“For some kids it has turned into a routine. They take it for granted; they say ‘let’s gotease’. Some kids bully out of boredom. They have nothing better to do.”

These comments are in line with social learning theory,181 which posits that theexternal environment contributes largely to acquiring and maintaining aggression.
Some children learn from role models, both peers and important adults, to use
aggressive means to achieve their social goals. Middle school students primarily
described peer influences, while primary school students discussed parental influences. It is well recognised that parents model behavioural patterns and condition
their children in forming and maintaining relationships. Parents also introduce andreinforce behavioural attitudes and norms. Lereya, Samara and Wolke (2013)182 haveshown that victims, as well as those who both bully and are victims (bully/victims),
were more likely to have been exposed to negative parenting behaviour, including

Insights Page 117

abuse, neglect and maladaptive parenting. For example, parental and family conflictat home and maltreatment have been consistently linked with bullying behaviour.
Baldry’s (2003) study of a sample of Italian youth found that both boys and girls who
witnessed violence between their parents were significantly more likely to bully theirpeers.183 On the other hand, overprotection may hinder the development of a senseof autonomy, necessary for obtaining and maintaining status in their peer group.
Positive parenting – including good parent-child communication, warm and affectionate relationships, parental involvement and support, and parental supervision– was found to be protective against peer victimisation. ENABLE reaches out toparents, involving them in the needs assessment phase and in promoting theirskills development. In addition to social learning, cognitive processes contribute to
the vicious cycle of violence. Some children tend to misinterpret ambiguous social
situations and attribute hostile intent to others,184 spurring a chain of aggressive
behaviour. This cognitive process was described by children in focus groups as theway in which one “takes in” an incident, either interpreting it as having threatening
or vicious intent or more benignly, taking it as a “joke”. This is in line with social
information processing theory185 and contributes to the vicious cycle of violence,as captured in Figure 7. Moreover, reactive aggression surfaced as a key process inthe maintenance of the aggression cycle.
A need to “break the cycle” was voiced by children and teachers alike, emphasising
the importance of intervening at every level of the cycle (emotional, behavioural,
cognitive and interpersonal) by teaching alternative adaptive strategies and skills.
Figure 7: The cycle of violence

Victimisation/ social
isolation

Negativepeer
relationsAggressive
behaviours
bullying others

Page 118 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Negative
emotions
about others/
feeeling rejected
and unsupported

Negativethoughts(perceptions ofhostility inenvironment)

Observers’ emotions and hesitancy
Observers often play a crucial role in the vicious cycle of violence: they know what
is going on yet do not react. Fear of being attacked appears to be a primary reason
behind observers’ non-involvement, as narrated in focus groups.
“We know, he has the power and we say [to ourselves] ‘don’t want to go against him‘cause I will be hit’.”“Observers know. It has happened to me. You see a kid being hurt and you try tointervene but you can’t. You don’t have the courage to do so. What can I do? Tell mymom ‘hey mom they are teasing someone and we need to do something’?”“The whole school knows. All kids know what is happening but they are afraid to speak
up, afraid to approach teachers. They are afraid because if they tell, then they will betargeted. This is bad. And nobody tells.”“When we witness we hesitate … maybe you would be attacked by the bullies.”

Similarly, in ENABLE’s survey of children with an average age of 12, common response
patterns in witnessing bullying were observed among Greek, UK and Croatian students, as illustrated in Figure 8. The most common response was to talk to an adultand the second most common was to talk to the person being harmed. In Croatia
and Greece, talking to the perpetrator was also commonly reported, by about 40% of
students. Intervening was less common, in line with the students’ comments about
their fear of the perpetrators.
Figure 8: Projected reactions to witnessing bullying

J

D

T

T

T

T

I

T

Source: ENABLE

Social and emotional difficulties
In the pre-assessment survey conducted by ENABLE, about one in three young
people in early adolescence admitted to experiencing difficulties in self-control when

Insights Page 119

upset (37% in the UK and 31% in Greece). Emotional awareness difficulties were also
reported: about half of children (41% in the UK and 58% in Greece) reported being
unable to differentiate between being sad, scared and angry when they were upset.
In terms of social awareness only 27% of UK students and 15% of Greek students
reported being able to understand how others were feeling before being told. Social
skills deficits were also alluded to in the focus groups, particularly the difficulty thatvictims had in asserting themselves.
“I could have spoken to him so as to express in a nice way that ‘what you are doing
bothers me and please stop it’. He would have had the option to accept it or not accept
it. If he had not accepted it, then I would have gone to someone older.”“I have experienced this … and I kept it all inside … while I should have spoken up to
the kid who was bullying me, and then should have spoken to an older person so as
to minimise the chances of being bullied and to make this stop sooner.”

Significant differences were apparent between countries when it came to the selfreported prevalence of bullying others: the highest rates were reported in Greece(14%), while in the UK and Croatia the figure was less than half of this (7% and 5%
respectively: see Figure 9). Figures from Greece were similar to the European average as surveyed by EU Kids Online (in 2011) for 13- to 14-year-olds (13%), while UK
and Croatian children reported lower rates than the EU Kids Online average (12%).
Figure 9: Self-reported prevalence of bullying others
In the past three months, have you everbehaved in the nasty or hurtful way
to someone?
100%
90%
80%

88%
80%

70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

Yes

78%

No

7%

13% 14%UK

8%Greece5%

7%

Don’t know
/prefer not
to sayCroatia

Many students stressed the importance of developing their communication skills,
promoting positive peer relations and social problem solving.
Obviously, what helps is discussing it, what we are doing here now. This could be aclass in school: talking openly helps us develop. We open up, we feel more at easewith our classmates, and we can work out our differences. We can understand thatwhat we do is not right.
In the ENABLE student survey, about one in three children reported self-control difficulties. Alarmingly, emotional self-awareness difficulties (difficulty differentiating
negative emotions) were reported by about half the children (40% to 57%) involved

Page 120 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

in the study, with the highest rates found in Greece (57%). Such difficulties have beenshown to cause interpersonal problems and need to be addressed with emotional
self-awareness training.

Our needs assessment suggested significant lack of social and emotional skills
and significant involvement in bullying, along with a voiced need for change. Preadolescence and adolescence constitute a period of intense socio-cognitive change
and represent an opportune time to build skills and resilience. Schools are an ideal
setting to implement skills promotion. Best practice in anti-bullying prevention
requires the promotion of social and emotional skills to safeguard against the harmful
impact of bullying and to promote positive youth development. School-based SEL
programmes serve this objective by promoting skills such as effective communication,
emotional awareness and empathy, and by explicitly teaching social skills, emotion
management and goal achievement.
The ENABLE programme has embraced the SEL movement and has developed a setof 10 lessons for teachers to use in the classroom. The lessons explore a range of SEL
skills derived from the core social and emotional competencies that SEL programmes
address: self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management. SEL programmes have a person-centred focus on skills development andan environmental focus. They can foster educational and social conditions that makebullying far less likely because bullying cannot flourish in a safe and caring learning
environment.186 Each lesson has clear learning objectives and a key question, bothof which are intended to be shared with learners at the beginning of each lesson.
By the end of the programme students should be able to:f understand emotions and how they fit into social and emotional life;f understand the impact that emotions can have on the self and on others;
f have a greater understanding of how relationships can be managed.

Promoting a culture of support“I have been bullied, in previous years of primary school, first of all it’s very difficult fora kid to speak up. The kid needs someone to encourage him, someone who sees thebullying. ‘Cause you know that eats you up, going home and suddenly thinking of all that
happened that day, and you’re not in the mood for anything, it’s a really awful feeling.”

As this 12-year-old Greek girl describes, victimisation can be stressful and can contribute to internalising symptoms (“awful feeling”), endangering healthy development.
For some children, victimisation can even be traumatic and can lead to symptoms of
PTSD. Nonetheless, not all victimised children experience adverse effects or mental
health problems, and some children appear to be more “resilient” despite exposure
to violence: a pattern also known as “adaptive success”.

Perceptions of social support, a process that interacts with risk factors in reducing
the probability of negative outcomes, are known to be important protective factors.
Promoting favourable coping and peer support is a widely used anti-bullying strategy
in both primary and secondary schools. Naylor and Cowie (1999)187 surveyed 2 313
secondary school pupils and 234 teachers in 51 schools that had peer support systems.
They found that while peer support systems do not always reduce the incidence of
Insights Page 121

bullying, they can be an effective preventive measure. Importantly, peer support
systems reduce the negative impact of bullying on victims and make reportingeasier. Moreover, the researchers found that the existence of a peer support system
is perceived as beneficial to the school as a whole.
Many studies have shown that focusing on the development of a culture of supportand reporting are the most effective interventions. Cowie and Wallace (2000)188
found that young people need to be given opportunities to work together outside
friendship groups, which helps reduce prejudice and foster trust across gender andethnic groups. Where schools have an active prevention programme – including
clear policy and a culture of supporting the victim, developing empathy withinclassrooms, supporting students to be peer mentors, and engaging with parents– the outcomes are very positive. Building on these findings, ENABLE focuses onpeer mentoring and support for young people, parents and teachers to improve
relations among the groups that constitute the school ecosystem. In particular, theprogramme works to improve social and emotional skills as a means of developing
greater empathy. As a result, ENABLE has developed a set of 10 peer support sessions
to train and empower young people to become peer supporters, who then actively
work to prevent bullying in school and the wider community.

Conclusion
Our needs assessment shows the importance of teaching children the core principles
of emotional intelligence through structured SEL instruction at school. Developingchildren’s empathy, emotion regulation and problem-solving skills are key learning
objectives of the ENABLE lesson plans. The programme pairs a skills enhancement approach with a peer support scheme, aiming to build a culture of support.
Importantly, ENABLE reaches out not only to teachers and students but also promotes
good working relationships between schools and families so as to foster two-way
communication with a common objective: student growth and development.

Page 122 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Chapter 13

When bullying
crosses the screen
Sónia Seixas, Tito de Morais and Luis Fernandes189

Young people perceive the internet as a natural way to gain experience andmeet their need for social contact and communication through digital means.
However, it has also provided a new context for children and young people tointimidate and harass their peers, with serious consequences for their daily lives aswell as their physical and mental health. In this sense, cyberbullying has emergedin many countries as a growing concern in terms of health and well-being.
Bullying behaviour is generally defined by three criteria: intentionality, repetition
and uneven power. By extension, cyberbullying should also be defined by the same
criteria, the main difference being that the phenomena occurs through the use of
online technologies. However, due to the specificities of the use of technology,
some bullying characteristics may become ambiguous in cyberspace, making it
harder to agree on a consensual definition. Notwithstanding these difficulties, any
definition of cyberbullying should be an extension of the definition of bullying. In
this sense, it can be defined as the misuse of digital technologies to deliberately andrepeatedly act in a hostile manner, with the intention of causing damage to another.
Taking into account the variety of actions that cyberbullying can encompass and thediversity of possible content as well as the multiple forms of dissemination involved,
cyberbullying behaviour is much more complex and varied than standard bullying.
In this chapter, we intend to reflect on the difference between bullying and cyberbullying, as well as the main factors that facilitate the occurrence of the latter or thetransition from one to the other. But first, we need to look at the characteristics ofcommunication mediated by screens and how this can facilitate aggressive behaviour. These characteristics include not only disinhibition, anonymity, the illusion ofinvisibility and a lack of tangible feedback, but also other features and technicalproperties of screen-mediated communication. It is important to take these into
account, since they characterise the environment where young people predominantly
socialise and communicate. The majority of these characteristics are interconnected
and co-dependent, in particular in terms of the replicability, searchability and scalability of content.

Page 123

The chapter will also discuss different anti-cyberbullying actions and the various
forms of dissemination. Finally, we identify preventive and interventional approaches
to cyberbullying, including regulatory, educational, parenting and technologicalapproaches.

Characteristics of communication mediated by screens
Disinhibition
Having a screen that separates us from the other person facilitates a certain disinhibition between the interlocutors. We often observe cases of individuals who behave
in a more open, relaxed and less constrained way in the digital world than they do in
the real world. The presence of a screen may facilitate the emergence of behaviour
that would never arise in face-to-face interactions, such as more hostile, aggressive or
provocative communication that easily degenerates into episodes of cyberbullying.

Anonymity and the illusion of invisibility
The internet allows users to remain anonymous and escape their responsibilities,
since it may be difficult to identify them. They experience the illusion of invisibility,
since in this type of communication the user does not see the other party (unlessthey use a webcam). Thus, people often behave as if talking to a screen and not areal person. This illusion also facilitates greater disclosure of personal information
than in face-to-face situations.

Persistence of contents
One of the technical properties of screen-mediated communication is the persistenceof digital content, whether text, image, sound or video: “once on the internet,
forever on the internet”. Everything we publish online is automatically recorded
and archived, irrespective of whether we want it to be or not. Consequently, it canbe repeatedly retrieved, allowing anyone to find almost all content that has been
published in a digital environment. This characteristic is particularly important incases of cyberbullying, when subjects intentionally seek and disseminate content
pertaining to others.

Replicability
Another property is the replicability of digital content. What we say online is no longer
under our control once we have said it. This can be true for a conversation between
friends, the comments that are made on a blog or the photos that are uploaded onto
a social network. This information can be copied by anyone else and spread overthe internet in several ways, including through e-mails, instant messages, profiles,
blogs, social networks or file-sharing. Even if a user deletes a particular piece ofcontent after it has been published, there is nothing to say that it has not alreadybeen copied or captured with a screen grab and shared. There are countless casesof cyberbullying in which this happens.

Page 124 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Searchability
As a result of the above characteristics, from the moment that digital content isavailable online, anyone can find it and reuse it in any way, including reposting it
elsewhere. Young people are not always aware that what they publish today may
be embarrassing in 10 or 20 years’ time or even later, or that these items can beviewed elsewhere.

Scalability
The scalability of digital content relates to its potential visibility. After the publication of content on a public digital network, the number of people who can view
it is potentially huge and this can reach exponential proportions, as in the case ofcontent that “goes viral”.

Lack of tangible feedback
The reduction or absence of physical, social and visual communication signals inmost online interaction results in a lack of tangible feedback. When interacting via
a screen or keyboard, people do not communicate with their body and all of theirsenses as they do in face-to-face communication. It is more difficult to know themood of our interlocutor, especially how they feel after receiving a message that
could amuse but also hurt or upset. Our attention is focused exclusively on themessage without being contextualised by other non-verbal stimuli, including voice
tone and facial expression. As a result, signals are lost, resulting in confusion that inturn may cause cyberbullying behaviour.

Given the indirect nature of online communication, in most cases cyberbullies cannot
observe the victim’s reactions in real time. Since the offender does not see the effects
and consequences of his or her actions immediately, this can minimise any feelingsof regret, remorse or empathy for the victim. In fact, for some offenders, their victims
are no longer seen as people with feelings but become a simple computer screenthat does not feel or suffer. Furthermore, when aggression is intentional, the lack offeedback provides no immediate reward, which can cause greater frustration and adesire to persist in the cyberbullying behaviour.

Bullying and cyberbullying
The comparison of face-to-face communication and communication that is mediated by technology highlights some important differences between bullying andcyberbullying. For example, the three main criteria used to define bullying may not
be so evident in cyberbullying behaviours.
With regards to intentionality, in bullying, the aggressor has the intent to harm thevictim, while in cyberbullying a lot also depends on the victim’s perception of theaction, and whether it was intended in jest and without malicious intent. An initialaction may occur without malicious intent but the absence of non-verbal indicators,
like the tone of voice, obfuscate the true intent behind the action. Beyond this, theInsights Page 125

intentionality can also be misinterpreted by onlookers who take advantage of theinitial action.
As regards the characteristic of uneven power, in bullying, this disparity is usuallyrelated to the distinguishing characteristics of the actors in the real world, namely
differences in physical, psychological or social power. In cyberbullying, uneven power
also becomes virtual as it may be based on a higher level of skills with technology,
the characteristics of the content published on the internet, or the anonymity thatthe devices used may allow. The lack of support for victims may also stem from thefact that they cannot act upon the aggression because they are often unable todelete the content from the internet or identify the aggressor.
Finally, while bullying implies the repetition of behaviour over time, the repetitionof cyberbullying can depend on the characteristics of the technology itself, regardless of the aggressor’s initial intention. One single act of aggression like publishinga hurtful photo can be seen and shared several times by third parties, resulting in acontinuous and repeated humiliation that may or may not have been the original
intention.
Using Nancy Willard’s190 description as a starting point, types of cyberbullying
behaviour can be categorised as follows:
f flaming: a discussion that may have started in person or online can evolve into
aggressiveness on the internet, including sending and receiving inflammatory,
rude, irate or obscene messages, in private or in public. This may degenerate
into veritable “message wars” or commentary that can be dubbed “flamewars”. This type of behaviour is often initiated after an exchange that becomes
progressively more aggravated, where insults beget insults;
f harassment: repeated sending of messages of an abusive nature, aiming toannoy, threaten or alarm the recipient;f cyberstalking: the persistent sending of threats or highly intimidating andintrusive messages that cause fear and threaten the victim’s privacy;
f denigration: publishing false statements or broadcasting rumours and hearsay
about the other person through the internet, with the goal of causing damage
to their reputation or relationships;
f impersonation: pretending to be another person in cyberspace, or using
their cell phone and then sending or publishing messages to potentiallyendanger or embarrass that person, causing damage to their reputation or
relationships;
f outing: publishing or issuing public or private messages to expose anotherperson’s sensitive, private, intimate or embarrassing information;
f trickery: employing deception or scamming someone, with the purpose ofobtaining secrets or embarrassing information, which can then be sharedor broadcast online;
f exclusion: intentionally and cruelly excluding a person from an online group.
In terms of dissemination methods, cyberbullying can occur through a variety ofplatforms and devices, including:f e-mails (asynchronous communication sent to an individual or a group);
f blogs;

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f
f
f
f

discussion groups (asynchronous communication of a group around a topic);chat rooms (group asynchronous communication) on the Web;instant messaging software (synchronous private communication);messaging apps for smartphones, such as Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp,
Snapchat and others;
f text/multimedia messages;
f groups and social network communities (very common among teenagers);
f online multiplayer games, be these MMOGs (massive multiplayer online
games) or not, Web-based and/or played through computers, video game
consoles, smartphones or tablets.
One of the most important aspects of cyberbullying concerns the continued risk of
exposure. In “traditional” bullying, students are usually targeted by attacks during theirtime at school or travelling to and from school, which would mean from approximatelyfrom 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., 5 days a week. In such circumstances, victimised students may
be able develop avoidance or protection mechanisms, such as skipping class, arriving
late, asking to leave early with the excuse of some commitment they cannot postpone, asking the teacher for clarification or remaining close to other adults during
breaks. However, cyberbullying is extremely difficult to avoid. Victims can receive
messages on their phone, computer, tablet or other technological device wherever
they are, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Consequently, students that are victims ofcyberbullying find themselves in a position of greater and constant exposure, which
may amplify feelings of increasing vulnerability, anguish and suffering.

Furthermore, in cyberbullying the variety of roles that observers play is much more
complex. Given that attacks can take place asynchronously, the observer may be withthe aggressor or the victim when the action is initiated, but they may also be alone
when receiving something that was shared, or when visiting a specific website oraccessing a social network. In “traditional” bullying, observers are usually physicallypresent as instigators, supporters of the aggressor, defenders of the victim or simply
onlookers. However, there is greater ambiguity in the roles that observers of cyberbullying can play. If they choose to join in, they can make comments to encourage
or discourage an attack, for example by placing a “like” on a post. Alternatively, if
they choose not to show themselves they can nevertheless decide whether or not
to spread or forward the messages or eliminate the disagreeable content, which
may be part of the solution as it can help prevent the contents from spreading toa wider audience.
Another peculiarity of cyberbullying is the size of the audience. Digital technologies
reach a particularly broad and unlimited audience (especially if the aggressions
occur in the public domain), in contrast to the small group of peers that are often
present in “traditional” bullying. Very rapidly, the dissemination of a video or an image
crosses geographical and linguistic borders. With a simple click, the same content
can be viewed in Greece, the United States or Australia, and content sometimes
goes viral within seconds of its release. The humiliation felt by knowing that we arebeing watched and scrutinised by hundreds, if not thousands of people, assumes
proportions that are vastly different, compared to the limited audience that wewould be subjected to in a face-to-face context.

Insights Page 127

This rapid dissemination of aggression, and the multiplicity of places where it canbe viewed, commented upon and recorded, gives these attacks a permanence, as
opposed to bullying that takes place in a real location and cannot be reproduced or“revisited”. Indeed, this aspect of cyberbullying relates directly to the searchability
and permanence of digital content.
To summarise, while cyberbullying is a behaviour that is mediated by digital technologies, its manifestation and the way it is experienced by all those involved isconsiderably different from “traditional” bullying. It is crucial that young people beaware of the particularities of screen-mediated communication so they are able toanticipate the eventual repercussions and potential abuse that may arise from what
they publish on the internet. It is essential to empower children, teens, parents andschool professionals with the necessary skills, and also consider regulatory, educational, parental or technological approaches to combating cyberbullying.

Regulatory approaches
Regulatory approaches can take the form of legislation, self-regulation or parental
rules. Legislation can be used to define and criminalise certain behaviour and conduct related to cyberbullying, either at the national, regional or international level.
Examples of self-regulation can include terms and conditions of usage, privacy
policies or reporting channels such as internet hotlines or helplines. Parental rules
can also be established at the family level.

Educational approaches
There are many things schools can do to prevent, intervene against and combat
cyberbullying. Teachers and the school community as a whole can be helped if theschool as a whole adopts and implements anti-cyberbullying strategies, including
integrating the topic in the school curriculum and raising awareness among all
educational agents.
A current trend in many countries is to produce legislation that encourages schools
to adopt policies, systems and procedures to deal with cyberbullying. Often the
problem in schools is that cyberbullying is considered the responsibility of no one
in particular. Setting up a team is the first essential step. This may include teacher
representatives, other school staff, students, student associations, parents and legal
guardians.
One of the first tasks of the team is to evaluate how big the problem is at the school
and assess the needs of the whole school community. Based on the results gathered,
the workgroup can then develop an appropriate action plan. This plan may include
training and awareness, policy and procedures, and guidelines for responding toincidents.

Training in and awareness raising of prevention and intervention strategies should bedirected at the whole school community including teachers and staff, students fromall grades, and parents and legal guardians. Schools need to define clear, unequivocal policies and procedures that show that this sort of antisocial behaviour will not
be tolerated. This can be achieved through clearly defined internal regulations orPage 128 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

specific policies relating to the use of ICTs within school grounds. These rules and theconsequences of disobeying them – including disciplinary action and procedures– must then be communicated not only to students, but also to their parents andlegal guardians. These policies should include a reporting system for victims and/or onlookers, as a means of preventing incidents of cyberbullying.

Although not many countries include cyberbullying in the school curriculum, there
are already some useful resources available.191 These are generally organised perteaching grade, and in accordance with the educational standards of each country.
Examples of cyberbullying prevention programmes for schools are available in the
final pages of this publication.
Beyond teaching, it is important to have students reflect on and demonstrate what
they have learned. There is no better way to do this than by using appropriate ICTs;
the article “60 things students can create to demonstrate what they know”192 provides a variety of creative suggestions. Another way to get students involved andlead them to reflect on the topic of cyberbullying is to challenge them to take part ininitiatives focused on the theme, such as contests, thematic weeks or school projects.

Parenting approaches
Parents and legal guardians can adopt a wide variety of approaches to tackle
cyberbullying. First, it is extremely important to establish rules about the use of
ICTs. It is recommended that parents and legal guardians put together with thechild(ren) or teen(s) in their care a written document that clearly establishes what
can and can’t be done, and why. Once signed, this “contract” should define therights and responsibilities of both parties. Broadly speaking, be it in relation toonline or offline life, these will spell out the “3 Rs”: be responsible, be respectful
and be respectable.

Another fundamental parenting approach is promoting dialogue and debate inorder to establish solid lines of communication and strengthen trust so that children
feel comfortable asking parents for help if they encounter a problem. Hinduja andPatchin of the Cyberbullying Research Center have published a document that will
help parents know how to ask the “right questions” about technology in general,and cyberbullying, sexting and social networks in particular.193 Parents also needto know about and use the devices, sites, platforms and applications used by theirchildren, so as to be able to approach this issue with prior knowledge.
A further preventive action for parents is to discuss with their children what they aresaying on the internet and what is being said about them. To that effect, parents canrun a search on Google using the names of their children, or even set up a Google
Alert on the name of their child.

Helping children to handle adversity and promoting resilience will also help prevent cyberbullying because it gives victims the tools to deal with the situationand encourages passive onlookers to intervene to put a stop to cyberbullying.
There are many online resources to guide parents and professionals in helping
children and teens to acquire resilience skills (some of which are included at theend of this publication).

Insights Page 129

“Think before you post” is a popular piece of advice, and when it comes to deciding
what to think about when publishing or sharing online the “THINK” acronym is particularly useful: is it True? Is it Helpful? Is it Inspiring? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind?194
There are several steps that parents can take if they fear that their child is being
cyberbullied.
f Keep calm. Control your emotions and avoid reacting in emotionallyexacerbated ways, assuring the child that the priority is to support andhelp them get through the situation, rather than blaming or punishing them.
f Assess the situation. Seek information that helps you understand the typeor form of cyberbullying in question; who the aggressor is; the source of theconflict; where it occurred (e.g. in which social network site, app or forum);
what was said or done to the victim; how long it has been going on and who
else knows about the situation.
f Secure the evidence. Performing screen captures, printing or taking picturesof the message(s) that demonstrate the act of cyberbullying which may
eventually allow you to identify the aggressors and provide evidence of thecyberbullying.
f Block/report the aggressors. If it is possible to identify the aggressors, you
can block and/or report their profiles or messages.
f Report the case and request collaboration. Depending on the kind of situation
and who may be potentially involved, you may consider reporting the incident
to an appropriate organisation such as your child’s school, school community,club or association. Administrators of these organisations have the duty toprovide a safe environment, ascertain the facts with an investigation, anddecide on an adequate means of response.
f Contact the authorities. In very serious situations that involve, for example,
threats of violence, blackmail/extortion attempts or encouragement toself-harm or suicide, do not hesitate to contact the local police authorities.
f Get specialised help. Sometimes children may need to go beyond the help
their parents can give them and talk to a relevant expert. For example, insome cases the help of a mental health professional can be very useful. It is
important to present the child with all the options.195

Technological approaches
There are several levels of technology that can help to prevent situations of cyberbullying or intervene in them. These include operating systems, programs, websites,
platforms and apps, as well as specialised online help and technological solutions. Thereare countless functions on operating systems, for example, designed to protect andsafeguard the security and privacy of users. Not using such functions such as setting
up user and guest accounts to protect access can often make cyberbullying worse.
Programs, websites, platforms and apps provide many features, too, that help, even
if they have not been designed specifically to prevent cyberbullying. These include
computer reset systems, which are particularly useful for shared computers; features toautomatically close all sessions, platforms and apps on all devices once a user session
is over; programs that help create and manage strong passwords; authentication

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mechanisms based on double authentication; functions enabling users to set theirpreferred level of security and privacy; and mechanisms to report and block users.
Finally, there are online help and technological solutions especially designed toprevent and intervene in cyberbullying incidents. There are a range of anonymous
reporting and incident management systems, mainly geared towards schools, which
readers can find online. These include sites and platforms such as CyberBully Hotline,
Safe2Tell, StopBullies, STOPit, TextSomeone and the BullyBøx. There are a numberof programs and apps too that have been designed for a similar purpose, including
CyberBullyRadar, Delete Cyberbullying, KnowBullying (an app from the samhsa.gov
store) and ReThink (see URLs in the final pages of this publication).196

Conclusions
When we take a closer look at the differences between bullying and cyberbullying
behaviour and the characteristics of screen-mediated communication, it seems
safe to say that cyberbullying may have more serious and insidious repercussions
for young people than other forms of bullying. Indeed, cyberbullying may trigger
more intense and troubling health-related symptoms as well as greater physical,
psychological and social risks.
Whether in the private or the social domain, images and the written word can havean enormous impact on young people because victims can re-watch and re-readthe offensive content, thus reliving the experience over and over again. We therefore
recommend that every effort be made to deploy an encompassing strategy thatcombines all four approaches – regulatory, educational, parental and technological– to tackle cyberbullying and enable our children to reap the full benefits that online
communication can offer them.

Insights Page 131

Chapter 14

Social literacy forpreventing, healing
and empowering –Research insights
Anne CollierIn late November 2011, social media researcher danah boyd (who spells her namein lower case) emailed four people with different perspectives on bullying andpeer victimisation. They were school psychology professor Susan Swearer, youth
victimisation researcher Lisa Jones, social literacy specialist Mia Doces and myself,
an internet safety specialist who had long written about these and other scholars’
work on bullying prevention. Dr boyd wanted to know if we would help her andJohn Palfrey, Director of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet& Society, develop the conceptual grounding for the Born This Way Foundation, which
Lady Gaga and Cynthia Germanotta, her mother, would be launching at Harvard thefollowing February. We quickly dug in, and – after a number of long conference calls,
drafts and rewrites over the ensuing two months – published a set of papers that
distilled the latest thinking and scholarly research on social aggression, “Meanness
and cruelty”.197
Those words were carefully chosen. This work was not just about bullying – oreven the full spectrum of antisocial behaviour (that is, from meanness to cruelty).
As Lady Gaga stated at her foundation’s launch event in Harvard’s Sanders Theatre
on 29 February 2012, this was not meant to be “a bullying prevention foundation.
This is a youth empowerment foundation.”198 Our work with the Berkman Center
correlated with that much broader spectrum. Phase 2 of the Kinder & Braver World
Project research series (“Meanness and cruelty” comprising Phase 1) took a fresh
look at youth activism for social change.199
The research, it seemed, was meaningful to everyone involved, and not just becauseof all the visibility a person with global celebrity would bring to the work. Palfrey andboyd had brilliantly engineered a project that represented a departure in a numberof ways because it would:
f take bullying in context, including the spectrum of antisocial behaviours; 200
f distil insights gleaned from both research and diverse perspectives on youth
well-being into papers accessible to educators and parents;
f model the multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to addressing bullyingthat research has consistently documented;

Page 133f send the message that youth participation is vital to multidisciplinary
teamwork;
f with its second phase, suggest that the goal goes beyond preventing social
cruelty and even beyond social and emotional well-being to efficacy andempowerment of young activists in co-creating “a kinder, braver world”.

Empowering – or enabling – youth participation and even activism online andoffline requires social-emotional safety and literacy as a baseline. Social cruelty
silences targets and disables learning, while social-emotional learning enables it.201
Three years before the Born This Way Foundation launch, the 2009 report of whatcame to be called the Berkman Task Force202 – a national Internet Safety Technical
Task Force that met at Harvard over the course of 2008 – included a review of the
youth online risk literature through that year. This was the most comprehensive
review in the US since the emergence of social media. Among the report’s top-line
findings are: harassment and bullying are the most salient online risks for youth,
and a youth’s psychosocial make-up and home and school environments are better
predictors of online risk than any technology the individual uses. These findings
strongly suggest that safety from cyberbullying – described by researchers at
the University of New Hampshire (whose work was cited throughout the report)
as a subset of bullying – is largely emotional, or psychosocial, safety. We knowthat bullying, which affects more youth than cyberbullying, affects emotional aswell as physical well-being.203 Furthermore, we know that people, including theyoung, cannot learn, thrive and lead without some degree of emotional safety.
So if we are to empower, or enable, youth to participate effectively and successfully in a digitally networked world, social-emotional learning, or social literacy,
is foundational.
Over the past decade, many other research projects and findings in the US havesupported or complemented this hypothesis. In the following sections, some of theimportant milestones in the corroboration of this hypothesis are laid out.

Welcome definition
Public discussion in the US about “cyberbullying” has evolved since the adventof social media in the middle of the last decade. The early perception was thatcyberbullying or “electronic bullying” was a whole new social problem that parents, educators and policy makers had no preparation for addressing. Even aslate as 2011, nearly half of school social workers felt ill-equipped to deal with thisform of peer aggression,204 though they had been well trained to address offline
forms of the behaviour. The work of researchers in the youth victimisation fieldis helping to change that perception by placing cyberbullying in the context ofpeer victimisation as a whole.

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children ResearchCenter (CCRC) gave several reasons for the need to place bullying and cyberbullying
in the context of peer victimisation. Perhaps the most important was that focusing
strictly on the established definition of bullying and cyberbullying – as involving
Page 134 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

repeated aggression and a psychological or physical power imbalance – limits
schools’ responses. “While it excludes trivial conflicts among peers, [the establisheddefinition] also excludes very serious acts of aggression”, such as single, rather than
repeated, acts of violence and sexual assault.205

Social cruelty, social rivalry
A series of studies carried out in schools in North Carolina, in the US, shed more lighton social rivalry as part of the peer victimisation spectrum. The research echoed otherstudies, finding that “about a third of students experience social aggression”, butwhere it shed new light was on the finding that “most teenage aggression is directedat social rivals” – peers a little more or a little less “popular” than the target, “rather
than the kid who is completely unprotected and isolated”.206 This is not to say thatminority youth (that is those with disabilities, different sexual orientations, religious
beliefs or gender identity) do not suffer more than less socially marginalised youth:
they do, in many cases. However, it does train the spotlight on the predominance ofsocial rivalry in the context of teen social aggression and the importance of helping
our children develop the literacy that enables them to marginalise bullying and theresilience that helps them cope with it.207

Levels of attention, prevention
One of my key takeaways from our Born This Way work was a finding shared with
us by psychologist Susan Swearer during our group’s early discussions: that SEL –teaching children the five competencies of social-emotional literacy208 – is the majorpart of bullying prevention.

According to Dr Swearer, the only part that SEL does not address is the very
important component of mental health care. Indeed, a little over a year later, theDirector of the US Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention concluded his remarks at a national summit about bullying prevention
with the statement that youth exhibiting bullying behaviours should be screened
for trauma.209 This was important guidance from the federal government’s authority on juvenile justice. Bullying behaviour is a symptom of problems in troubled
youth that needs care, not just discipline. If we were to apply the public healthfield’s three levels of prevention, as proposed by risk prevention specialist Patricia
Agatston to another national task force,210 instruction in the three indispensable
literacies of today’s very social digital media – digital literacy, media literacy andsocial literacy – would represent baseline, universal prevention education. Similarly,
mental health care for traumatised youth would involve tertiary-level prevention
and intervention for youth with established patterns of risk in their online andoffline lives (secondary-level prevention would be tailored to a specific incident
or “teachable moments” at school), most probably in the form of specific bullying
prevention work.
Insights Page 135

Online, offline and mixed
According to the authors of 2015’s groundbreaking research from the CCRC, a widely
shared hypothesis that technology “amplifies” harm from social aggression has neverbeen empirically tested, largely because bullying and cyberbullying have typically
been studied separately.211 The CCRC study tested that hypothesis, examining thelevel of impact that aggression had on targets in three forms: in person, online ormixed (social aggression experienced both online and in person at school).
As in other studies, they found that about a third (34%) of youth had experienced
harassment of some kind over the previous year, and 54% of incidents involved notechnology, 15% involved only technology and 31% involved both technology andin-person elements. As for the negative emotional impact of digital harassment,
they found it to be “significantly lower” than that of in-person harassment. Tech-only
harassment was “less likely to involve multiple episodes and power imbalances” than
the in-person kind and was “seen by victims as easier to stop and had significantly
less emotional impact.” Importantly, they also found that the emotional impact ofin-person harassment was significantly lower than that of mixed incidents (thosethat involve both digital and in-person harassment). But even in incidents of both
digital and in-person harassment, they wrote, “it appears likely that it is less something inherent about the technology itself, and more something about the relational
nature of mixed harassment incidents that make them so upsetting.”
The data suggests that the root of the problem is social rather than technological,so the solution is social as well, as the authors observe:
Our research suggests that those seeking to prevent the most detrimental forms ofpeer harassment might focus less on cyberbullying per se and instead [consider]prevention programmes that teach youth to handle negative feelings and to de-escalate
tensions … These skills are the focus of a growing number of social-emotional learning
programmes and comprehensive school-based bullying prevention programmes thatare increasing in sophistication.

The power of social norms
The discourse around bullying prevention and intervention rarely discusses what
has been learned from social norms research, which shows that perception about
behavioural norms within a community changes behaviour within that community.
So when behaviour in a school community is shown to its members to be largely
positive, behaviour conforms to that reality. For example, research conducted atfive diverse public middle schools (Grades 6 to 8) in New Jersey found that when
students were made aware that “most people in our school” do not bully, behaviourchanged in direct proportion to the changed perception, conforming to the newunderstanding: “The most common (and erroneous) perception among students inthe schools studied is that most kids engage in or support bullying.”212 This points tothe importance of telling youth the truth about their peers and communities, rather
than exaggerating the problem, as the news media have done.
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Insights from digital ethics
The result of six years of surveys and interviews with tweens, teens and young adults
by the 14 researchers of Harvard University’s Good Play Project, the 2014 book
Disconnected: youth, new media, and the ethics gap213 focuses on youth and “the moral
and ethical sensibilities [they] bring, or fail to bring, to their participation on theinternet”. The researchers developed a “framework of ways of thinking that we used
to analyse young people’s narratives about online life”. This framework consisted ofthree levels: consequence thinking, in which “the sense of responsibility is narrowly
focused on the self”; moral thinking, which considers the impact on “known others”,
such as friends and family; and ethical thinking, which considers the impact on “distant, unknown individuals”, including one’s community as a whole. The researchers
found that “more often than not, the young people we interviewed were principally,
if not exclusively, concerned with their own interests when making decisions online”.

That comes as no surprise after more than a decade and a half of internet safety
education focused largely on consequence thinking. However, what is remarkableabout this research group’s findings is the link between ethics – employing the fullcomplement of ethical thinking – and well-being for all participants in social environments, online and offline. In other words, focusing safety solely on consequences
to oneself fails to ensure safety in social environments.

Most bystanders try to help
Interestingly, research from the CCRC last year indicates that youth understandthis. The authors zoomed in on witnesses to harassing behaviour, finding that mostwere not focused solely on themselves: “In most incidents, kids really try to support
victims.”214 Key findings included the fact that bystanders are present for 80% of
harassment incidents. In about 70% of those incidents, the target said a bystander
tried to make them feel better. Negative bystander reactions – for example laughing
or joining in – were “considerably less frequent”, but “still occurred in nearly a quarterof incidents and were associated with a significantly higher negative impact on thevictim”, the authors reported. In 60% of cases, adults were notified (a much higher
percentage than in research from the last decade). An earlier research milestone
on bystanders found that “bystanders are significantly affected by the bullying
they witness or hear about, so much so that they may be at an increased risk of
self-harming behaviour”.215

Digital citizenship and social literacy
There has been increasing interest in (as well as news headlines containing) the term
“digital citizenship”. In the US, it seems to be thought of as a term more palatable
to youth and perhaps educators than “internet safety” and a subject that basically
blends digital literacy and media literacy and has elements of “netiquette” and“classroom management”, or behavioural control. There is little in the mix to inspire
the “citizens”, however, and little clarity or consensus as to its definition. So it has
been refreshing to engage with educators at the Internet Governance Forum andInsights Page 137

other venues in other countries and discover that “digital citizenship” has included
civic engagement in definitions and practices.
A 2015 study from the CCRC offered a simple definition for “digital citizenship”,216
with three recommendations to educators:
f separate digital citizenship from digital literacy (internet and technical skills)
and cyberbullying prevention, which are important topics but more about
preventing harm than growing “specific online social skills”;
f define and simplify it to two elements: online respect and online civic
engagement;f align it with youth citizenship goals (e.g. participating in community activities
and addressing social injustices). A key aspect of youth citizenship the authors
highlighted in the scholarship on it – one that invokes the Harvard digital
ethics findings – is “the ability to move beyond one’s individual self-interestand to be committed to the well-being of some larger group of which one
is a member”.
Most relevant to the topic of social literacy was the CCRC study’s finding that citizenship reduces antisocial behaviour. To help “operationalise” good digital citizenshipeducation, they conducted a study of nearly 1 000 middle and high school students(ages 11 to 17) to test the relationship between online harassment and the two-part
definition of digital citizenship. Among other things, they found that “both online
respect and civic engagement were negatively related to online harassment perpetration and positively related to helpful bystander behaviours”.
This research suggests direct links between psychosocial well-being, social literacy and agency, or the capacity to effect change.217 Having social opportunities
reduced for the sake of “safety” (or less bullying) not only creates the potential forsocial marginalisation but also restricts the hope and capacity to “be the change” insocial situations where change is greatly needed. A term even newer than “digitalcitizenship” is “digital leadership”. The term, which might be seen as a blend of youth
citizenship and student leadership, is taught in every California public high school,
and in social-emotional learning.218

Something I observed a few months after the Born This Way Foundation launched, at
a summit for its first Youth Advisory Board, was a certain belief or disposition theseyoung activists shared. Many in this diverse group under the age of 24 had faced
and were still healing from bullying and social cruelty, but a theme emerged as they
told their stories: they were deriving strength from helping others. They seemed toknow that leadership was a work in progress, and they were there to celebrate theirvulnerability as well as diversity, growing their resilience and leadership not just in
a very social, but a very socially literate way.

Page 138 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

Chapter 15

The quest to develop
skills for an increasingly
digital life
Jorge Flores Fernández and Urko Fernández

Life skills-based education219

In 1993, the Mental Health Division of WHO launched an international initiative
called Life Skills Education in Schools.220 In this chapter, we will take a closer lookat those skills, more particularly how such skills can help young people become
more resilient to bullying and cyberbullying, and improve their interactions withpeers and others.
The purpose of the Life Skills Education initiative is to encourage training worldwide
in a group of 10 human skills designed to promote the psychosocial competenceof children and adolescents, and enable them to deal more effectively with thedemands and challenges of everyday life. Life Skills Education aims to improve
the ability of young people to live a healthier and happier life and to participate
actively in the construction of a more just, caring and equitable society. Although
there are different ways of classifying life skills, the proposed classification by WHO
is recognised for its flexibility and applicability, and includes the following set of
10 core skills:
f self-knowledge;
f empathy;
f assertive communication;
f interpersonal relationships;
f decision making;f problem and conflict solving;f creative thinking;f critical thinking;f the management of emotions and feelings;
f handling of tensions and stress.

Digital life skills v. digital skills for life
When we address the new skills that are needed in our everyday reality in a networked world, the focus is often on issues such as digital and media literacy: theneed to learn knowledge, procedures and attitudes associated with the digital world.
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To take the example of adolescents and the issue of privacy – efforts to promoteprivacy on social networks have often concentrated on teaching teenagers how
to configure privacy settings and how to ensure that their digital footprint does
not affect a future job selection process. However, neither of these issues should
be our main concern. To begin with, it is doubtful that a 14-year-old teenager
would be interested in imagining themselves in a future selection process. The
key thing is not teaching adolescents how to configure the privacy settings of asocial network, but encouraging them to want to do it. Life skills help convince
the user that it is advantageous to keep some of their information private as wellas providing them with the skills to find out for themselves how to do it and tocheck if their actions were successful.
In short, we must not get carried away with secondary issues just because they arepresented in a new way. In this digital and interconnected society, education in life
skills is equally or even more necessary. Nevertheless, we should not forget that life
today differs a lot from that which existed in 2000, before the popularisation of theinternet, or even from life in 2010, before internet access from mobile phones was
widespread. It is necessary to analyse our lives as they are now in order to judge
what life skills are more necessary or important now.

Digital life
Analysing how life at present is affected by recent changes brought about by
our digital networked society will allow us to identify the life skills that should be
strengthened in particular.

More choice
There is no doubt that the internet has allowed us to choose from many more
sources of information. It also allows us to access different service providers
and new services, and gives us the freedom to interact with a greater number ofpeople. This suggests that critical judgment in making these choices has greater
importance than previously.

Ever-changing
We live in constant evolution due to the rapid and profound changes brought
about by the internet and its social, economic and technological implications.
As a result, creative thinking may be particularly important to enable us to takeadvantage of these changes and know how to handle the tensions that can sometimes arise from them.

Abundant relationships
New and changing tools, different generations, different abilities and different cultures are constantly coming together online. In order to deal with so much diversity,a high capacity for empathy will be necessary, especially when so many humaninteractions are mediated by a screen rather than face to face.

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Challenges and risks
With greater opportunities also come greater challenges, and we should notforget that the internet has the power to cause damage and suffering. Aside from
empathy and resilience, emotion and stress-management skills are essential toproperly handle problems.

Fast-paced life
The advent of mobile internet has led to an increase in the frequency of our actions
and relationships. Everything can be acted on almost instantly and there is socialpressure to live in a permanent state of connection. This pressure can sometimes
become chronic and lead to compulsive behaviours. For this reason, it is necessary todevelop self-knowledge and self-awareness. It is also vital to have assertive qualities
that allow a person to cope with situations that do not fit their needs or preferences.
We must be able to manage emotions and adopt reflective thinking as an antidote
to a context that requires quick answers.

Life skills as key to prevent and cope with bullying andcyberbullying
Self-knowledge
Knowing ourselves better allows us to identify the abilities and resources we have at
our disposal to assess and overcome challenging situations. When people are being
victimised, they need to be able to step back and analyse their personal abilities,
skills and knowledge, which can help them resolve the issue. Both the victim andbystanders in incidents of harassment will need to use all the skills they have in orderto end such complex situations.

Empathy
Usually, when people are able to resist internal or external pressures on them tobecome aggressive, it is because their convictions or feelings dictate that they should
do so. To activate those convictions or feelings, you have to be able to appreciate thesuffering of the victim. If you do not see or feel the suffering of others, you cannot
trigger compassion. As studies have already shown, empathy is vital to reduce conscious and repeated violence towards another person.221 Technology complicatesthe situation since it allows us to have relationships with so many people, but at
the same time it limits the depth of human interaction. Observers would have more
inclination to act on behalf of the victim if they could better understand his or her
suffering. Equally, a victim who has developed empathy will be able to assess andbetter manage the situation in relation to other people involved such as parents,
friends or teachers.

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Assertive communication
In situations of bullying and cyberbullying, assertiveness on the part of observers is vital since they are neither victim nor perpetrator and have to decide forthemselves whether or not to actively or passively participate in the harassment
process. Being able to say “yes” or “no” when appropriate will prevent a personfrom succumbing to peer pressure and enable him or her to take an active stanceagainst violence.

Interpersonal relationships
Being able to establish and maintain positive relationships means that we arecapable of greater social acceptance and support, which in turn will help prevent
bullying and cyberbullying and serve as a defence where such behaviour occurs. It
also helps maintain a healthy level of self-esteem in situations that otherwise could
be seriously damaging.

Decision making
Life is a permanent decision-making process that becomes even more burdensome
and difficult for people when they are being victimised and are less able to adapt
to an ever-changing reality. Knowing how to formulate different courses of action
and being able to weigh up the consequences is very important for all three groups
involved in bullying – the victim, the perpetrator and the bystanders. In cyberbullying, people outside of these groups, often parents and educators, may also become
involved or affected.

Problem and conflict solving
In bullying and cyberbullying situations, resilience becomes a key quality because
it enables the victim to deal constructively with problems and to recover from theexperience more quickly.

Creative thinking
While bullying is an old problem, cyberbullying has revealed just how manydifferent forms bullying can take. The digital trends and developments that we
see emerging increasingly rapidly offer just a glimmer of how important it is tobe able to adapt our needs and interests in an imaginative way. Unfortunately,
in many cases collective creativity is at the service of bullying and other formsof harassment, and finding new and inventive ways to hurt. To respond to suchchallenges, we have to be capable of pitching our creative intelligence in withthat of others in an even more effective way.

Critical thinking
Critical thinking, together with assertiveness, is one of the skills that bystanders canuse to deal with bullying and cyberbullying, breaking down the barrier of silence
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and complicity. Being able to critically analyse information and actions will also
facilitate empathy, and vice versa, overturning the common notion that bullying
and cyberbullying are ordinary and inevitable evils that we have to learn to deal
with. In the digitally assisted reality in which we live, we cannot do without criticalthinking. The so-called “intuitiveness” of platforms and social services providers that
try to anticipate our wishes do nothing but reduce our field of vision and push us
into a new, increasingly rapid, “convenient” reality. There is no time for frustration
or criticism; our ability to think critically is chronically numbed as we get used tohaving others choose for us.

The management of emotions and feelings
Being aware of our own emotions and feelings, and being able to identify them andknow how they affect the attitudes and actions we take, is a first step on the roadto proactively managing them for our own well-being. In cases of peer violence,
victims are exposed to intense and unpleasant emotions that, mismanaged, canonly worsen the situation.

Handling tensions and stressTension and stress are two words that, to a large extent, define what a victim ofbullying or cyberbullying usually feels. If these two factors can’t be correctly dealt
with, then life becomes unmanageable and progressively and systematically all of
our capabilities, our relationships and even our health will suffer.

Good practices for education in digital life skills
Educating in digital life skills can be done in a number of ways, described in thefollowing sub-sections.

Strengthened sense of community, the internet as anenvironment of positive coexistence
When PantallasAmigas was founded in 2004, its slogan was “for safe and responsibleuse” because we were mainly dealing with technology and the content and services
that users were consuming. However, with the rise of social networks and mobility
along with decreasing internet access costs, we are now not only living throughthe internet, but also inside it. In 2009, PantallasAmigas chose a new slogan: “forresponsible digital citizenship”. We are all actors in this new context that we arebuilding every day; it is a context with no precedent and no boundaries, and where
sometimes the law is difficult to enforce. The internet is therefore mostly what thepeople that use it make of it. It is a community of neighbours where everyone needs
to respect the generally accepted rules of coexistence, while at the same time making
sure that others can see what they are doing.
The internet is not other people and it is not just “me”: we all are the internet. Theinternet is not created, we are building it, and as creators we share responsibility forthe result. To enjoy this environment, we have to be actively involved. The internet
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is also about not considering minors simply as people to protect, and pushing themto centre-stage as protagonists and managers. This is a context that is completely
natural to them, a context where they are “spending” more and more – and notjust their time. It is a challenging environment to manage, where coexistence andprivacy continue to evolve intensively in quite diverse ways. But it is nevertheless anenvironment where each of us needs to be actively aware of our roles and responsibilities. In September 2010, the education programme “Netiquette yourself: youth
netiquette for social networks”222 was launched as a practical exercise to get people
to work together to define the rules of cyber-coexistence.

Search spaces to share, learn and work alongside children andteens
Accompanying is key, sharing is the attitude we have to take, and listening is a necessary condition to this. Overreacting or, on the contrary, ignoring what is goingon, does not help in any way. And it doesn’t help either to try to teach children andteens how to act, or to get them to ask us for help when they run into a problem. You
have to choose the right moments, the right activities, and even the right excusesthat allow us as adults to be together with children and teens in the digital environment, removing the barriers that are every bit as hard to scale as the physical walls
at home. Through sharing, we can teach and learn, guide and influence, advise andredirect, identify any sign of risk and anticipate problems. Because the internet isso accessible and the devices to access it so easy to move around – and not least
because children are online at an increasingly early age – we have to start talking
to our children about the internet from earliest childhood. To complicate mattersfurther, the independence that mobile devices offer makes it increasingly difficult
to help our children overcome the challenges they encounter online.
While education in digital life skills does not require much specialised knowledge,
it is by no means an easy task. Not everyone who should be responsible for helping
children develop these skills has the sensitivity or the ability to do so. Furthermore,
many adults lack the technical knowledge that would make such education for lifeon the Web more efficient and meaningful. Below, we will share with readers three
good practice examples in two aforementioned areas: taking a leading role andactively participating in one’s children’s activities.

Cybermanagers: service-learning and peer learning
Cybermanagers is an educational programme, the first pilot of which took place
between January and May 2010. It was presented publicly at the International Digital
Citizenship Conference co-organised by PantallasAmigas.223 Cybermanagers is a
“service-learning” experience that incorporates the benefits of peer learning and,of course, places young people at the heart of the process. In brief, the aim of the
programme was to train high school students about technology and the safe useof the internet so that they, in turn, would train, teach and mentor primary school
students and adults, mostly parents. The results were extraordinary. Due to theirwhole-hearted involvement and the dynamics the project generated, the participating teens were enabled to develop a number of the life skills outlined above.
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Shared workshops for parents and their children
Impressive results were also obtained by setting up activities that spontaneously
brought together parents and their children to share views, needs and experienceson internet usage and what their digital experiences mean. Both children and adults
openly expressed their thoughts and fears, and listened not only to what the othergeneration had to say, but also what their peers had to say. Such an activity places
the focus on listening and speaking, and being able to share and adapt to the viewsof the other. This is an exercise in knowledge and reflection, and sometimes also
negotiation. It could even be said to function almost as group and family therapy
since it helped both parents and children to shed the narrow, reactive and biased
perception that they may have had on the use, but also on the risks and abuse, of
the internet and smartphones. The methodology for running workshops like this can
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range from lively debates to more game-based activities, including video games thatlook at aspects related to the healthy use of ICTs. Getting older and younger people
to play simple video games together provides a great platform that harnesses theexcitement of playfulness in opening the window of communication.

Using video games
In this case study, we were able to create a successful methodology by building on
the natural attraction of audio-visual interaction and fun. Without going into competition with the international interactive entertainment industry, there is certainly
room today to design and develop serious educational and awareness-building video
games that do not require exorbitant investment. There is a growing trend towards
gamification in many areas, so including play activities when you are educating
children should not be ruled out. There are many opportunities in this field, andPage 146 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

PantallasAmigas has adapted developments whenever appropriate, moving fromdeveloping Adobe Flash games for the Web to taking the opportunity to bring suchgames to portable devices (phones and tablets) in app format.

PantallasAmigas has tested even more daring strategies with the video game “Peterand Twitter”, which promotes “cyber-coexistence and equality”.224 This game uses
a Microsoft Kinect device, and can therefore be played in public using an intuitive
interactive interface based on hand movements. This type of interaction suits players
who are less used to manipulating the controls of video game consoles. The gamehas been used at a number of events and conferences, as well as in training activities
to educate teens to prevent and fight gender-based cyberviolence. While in no way
detracting from the playfulness of the medium, this methodology turns the video
game into a catalyst for discussion.

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Through game-playing based on challenges and tests, players are led to reflect onvarious issues both individually and collectively. A series of short messages (tweets)
appear on the screen and players have to categorise them one at a time into one offour categories (positive, neutral, risky, negative). These messages change dynamically and even include messages that the players have created themselves prior to
the game.
Players must examine the message from different points of view. For example, consider a message like this: “Congratulations to Mary, today she goes on vacation so
she will get a break from household chores.” In theory, it carries a certain emotionalcharge (for Mary), has a good intention, and from the point of view of coexistence
could be qualified as “positive”. However, analysing the message from the perspective of equality, it could contain a risky or negative message. It could be classified as
negative or risky too, if it is examined from a privacy point of view.

In conclusion, educating in digital life skills is fundamental for children and young
people, and the more immersive the experience the more impactful it will be. We
have to learn to put children and teens at the heart of the experience that, in turnand through strategically guided activities, will raise not only their attention but
also their passion.

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Chapter 16

Mobilising peers tochallenge bullying
Helen CowieR

esearch into school bullying has traditionally focused on the actual protagonists – the perpetrators and the targets. Consequently, we know a great deal
about the psychological characteristics of bullies and victims and the consequences of bullying in undermining the emotional well-being of both targets andperpetrators. While an understanding of the personal aspects of the bully–victim
relationship is important, it only addresses part of the issue. Bullying is experienced
within a group of peers who adopt different participant roles and who experiencea range of emotions. In this chapter, I argue that bullies do not act alone but rely on
reinforcement from their immediate group of friends as well as the tacit approvalof the onlookers. I also make some suggestions about interventions to empower
bystanders to take action against bullying through, in particular, such interventions
as peer support.

The nature of bullying
The most widely used definition of school bullying is the one originally proposed
by Olweus (1993),225 which identifies three core components:
f there is an intent to harm or upset another student;
f the harmful behaviour is done repeatedly over time;f the relationship between bully/bullies and victim/victims is characterisedby an imbalance in power.
Since then, researchers have identified differences in how bullying is perceived anddefined, depending on the age of the child, young person or adult. Young children
have less differentiated perspectives on bullying and are more likely to focus on
physical bullying rather than psychological or indirect bullying (Smith et al. 2002).226
Furthermore, there appear to be wide cultural differences in how bullying is defined,
interpreted, encouraged or discouraged by children and young people227 and by
adults in the workplace.228
More recently, cyberbullying has emerged as a disturbing phenomenon among
young people. Like traditional face-to-face bullying, cyberbullying involves thedeliberate intent to hurt a person or persons through the electronic transmissionof messages and images that target the victim(s) repeatedly over time.229 However,as Purdy and York (2016) point out, there are some differences between the definitions of cyberbullying used,230 so it can be difficult to make comparisons acrossstudies. Nevertheless, one consistent finding is that cyberbullying rates are lower

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than those of traditional face-to-face bullying with a large overlap between the two,both for bullies and victims. In other words, those who are bullied face to face areat heightened risk of also being cyberbullied. Cyberbullying potentially reaches amuch larger audience (through, for example, social networking sites) and postings
can be viewed repeatedly, with extremely disturbing consequences for the targets,
including insomnia, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, self-harm and, in rarecases, suicide.231 The anonymity of the cyberbully is a powerful component. Kyriacou
and Zuin (2016)232 argue that this anonymity results in desensitisation of pro-social
values and empathy towards another person, and ultimately in a process of moral
disengagement since the cyberbully does not meet face to face with his/her target.
Thus there is less likelihood that the cyberbully will experience social disapproval orintervention on the part of bystanders.

Salmivalli (2010; 2014) has highlighted the social nature of bullying by identifying a
range of participant roles that go beyond the relationship between bully and victim
to locate bullying within the wider setting of peer group dynamics as a whole.233 She
points out that to a large extent, bullying is a social phenomenon since bystanders
are usually present during an episode of bullying, whether online or offline. These
bystanders often supply the bully with social rewards such as laughing and cheering
at the victim’s discomfort and humiliation. In this way, whether wittingly or not, thebystanders reinforce the bullying behaviour in their role as spectators of the “drama”.

There are a number of reasons why bystanders do not intervene to help the victims.234 First, bullies are often perceived positively by the peer group so bystanders
worry that they may become victims themselves if they intervene. Second, a form of
bystander apathy comes into play since, if no one else is intervening to help bullied
peers, there may be a perception that the majority approve of the bullying behaviour.
Finally, those who bully usually select vulnerable targets, such as those who have
low status within the group, so there may be little perceived benefit in going to theassistance of this particular peer. Salmivalli (2014) indicates the potential power thatthe bystanders have to reduce or prevent bullying since frequently they feel thatbullying is wrong.235 At the same time, Salmivalli et al. (1996) found that around 17%
of school pupils had the participant role of defender.236 These were children who felt
empathy for victims and wished to do something to support them. Salmivalli argues
that it may in fact be more productive to mobilise the peer group rather than try tochange the bullies, as she and her colleagues have done successfully in schools in
the Finnish KiVa anti-bullying programme.237

Does peer support offer a solution?
The practice of peer support is widely used as a method for mobilising the defenders
and perhaps motivating some of the bystanders to take action against bullying, so
giving direction to the idealistic desire of some young people to be active citizens
in their school.
Peer support systems are generally defined as flexible frameworks within whichchildren and young people are trained to offer emotional and social support to fellow
pupils238 through appropriate training in such skills as mentoring, active listening,
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conflict resolution, befriending and representation of young people’s issues inschool councils. Primary school schemes generally adopt a buddying/befriending
approach239 or a conflict resolution approach while secondary schools report using
mentoring followed by befriending. Schools that have been running peer support
over a long time also report using mixed methods simultaneously.240 In addition, someprimary schools incorporate other activities for peer supporters such as organising
co-operative games, supporting reading through peer tutoring and carrying out
one-to-one peer counselling work with vulnerable pupils who find it hard to makefriends.241 Secondary school schemes typically train peer mentors to build on themethods adapted for younger age groups. This may involve running a lunchtime
club, being available in a “drop in” room, facilitating workshops in tutor groups, ormentoring younger pupils in need. They also make use of a more sophisticated rangeof active listening and problem-solving skills.242
More recently, peer support systems have become internationally popular as antibullying interventions243 in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.244
Thus, peer support may act as both a bullying prevention method and as an intervention. The adoption of peer support within a whole-school policy has been shownto create opportunities for young people to be proactive in challenging bullying
when they encounter it and to support its victims, as well as contribute to a school
ethos in which bullying is less acceptable.
The Diana Award was set up as a lasting legacy to Princess Diana’s belief that young
people have the power to change the world. The Diana Award Anti-Bullying Campaign
equips young people, professionals and parents with the knowledge, confidence
and skills to effectively tackle all forms of bullying in their schools and communities,
both online and offline. Through its campaign and its anti-bullying ambassadors,
ENABLE and other resources, young people, professionals and parents feel inspired,educated, confident and empowered to tackle all forms of bullying within theirschools and communities.

A survey of 240 schools in England (130 primary and 110 secondary) found thataround 62% had developed some form of peer support system.245 These systems
were perceived as being beneficial in promoting emotional health and well-being
in the schools (Houlston et al. 2011). Cowie et al. (2008) demonstrated that peer
support systems have the capacity to improve pupils’ sense of feeling safe fromaggression and bullying at school.246 The research (a survey of 931 pupils) was
carried out in four secondary schools, each with a well-organised pastoral caresystem and an active anti-bullying policy. Two schools that had already developed
a peer support system were matched with two schools that had yet to commence
their peer support training. Those students who were aware of their school’s peer
support system reported feeling significantly safer at school and were more likely
to feel able to talk about negative things that had happened to them than similar
students in the control schools. In other words, for those students, the observation
or experience of the helpfulness of peer support had led them to view sharing of
worries and anxieties as a positive coping strategy.
Research studies consistently find that peer supporters benefit from their training andpractice, reporting enhanced feelings of confidence in their capacity to communicate
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and to offer effective help.247 They also report a sense of doing something useful for
their school community and pride in the value of their peer supporting role. Houlston
et al. (2011) has documented measurable gains in self-esteem for peer supporters.248
Those who make use of the peer support systems mainly report that it is helpful tothem and that they would recommend it to fellow students who are experiencing
interpersonal difficulties, such as being bullied, although a minority report that they
did not find it helpful.249 The reasons given by satisfied users typically refer to thehelpfulness of having someone who listens and of being able to explore a range of
coping strategies with an understanding peer.250
With regard to the school ethos, most of the research is qualitative and largely indicates satisfaction with the systems and a perception that the school climate improves
following the introduction of a peer support system.251 However, the evidence also
indicates that a proportion of pupils remain sceptical about the impact of peer support on the ethos of the school and about its power to reduce rates of bullying andincrease pupil perceptions of safety. By secondary school stage, positive perceptionsof improvements in school ethos tend to decline with the age of the students.252 In
situations where the system is not well-advertised throughout the school, Cowie etal. (2008) found that pupils in their control group (schools with no system of peer
support) reported feeling safer than did pupils in the schools with peer support.253
The positive effects were only felt by those who were aware that their school had apeer support system in place. In their international review of peer support research,
Cowie and Smith (2010) concluded that peer support systems that are widely promoted in the school are generally viewed in a positive way.254 The head teacher andthe staff who run the schemes play a substantial part in integrating peer support
systems into the wider school policies on children’s emotional health and well-being.

Conclusion
In conclusion, there is some evidence that peer support can be an effective means
to enhance children and young people’s social relationships and the emotional climate of schools. It provides a structure within which children and young people candevelop strategies for addressing real life issues in their school communities. There is a
growing body of evidence to indicate that school bullying happens in social contexts
in which other pupils adopt a range of participant roles, some of which facilitatebullying behaviour and some of which challenge it or provide support for victims.
If we fail to understand the complexity of peer group relationships and the dynamics of the social settings where bullying flourishes, then interventions will remain
largely ineffective. Initiatives that involve young people themselves have much
more potential to address the problem of bullying. Dialogue is essential here tochallenge the inaction of bystanders. Young people in focus groups in the study
by Purdy and York (2016) reported that often the issue of cyberbullying was “aclosed door subject” and they also admitted that during an episode of bullying it isoften easier to “go with the crowd” since they are afraid that the bullies will turn on
them.255 In contrast to such feelings of hopelessness, Salmivalli’s research256 shows
consistently that there is a proportion of young people who wish to take positive
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action against bullying. So key elements in the process of developing interventions
to address bullying must be an understanding of the ethos of the particular school(and even the surrounding community) and a willingness to develop interventions
in consultation with all members of the school community, including the children
and young people themselves.
The mental health difficulties experienced by both victims and bullies are welldocumented,257 so there must also be a willingness to provide therapeutic support
for the individuals most affected by bullying. Further, Kyriacou and Zuin (2016)
point to the process of moral disengagement that characterises bystanders’ apathy
in the face of an episode of bullying:258 bystanders who do nothing or who actively
rejoice in the victim’s humiliation and distress demonstrate that they have become
desensitised to pro-social values and seem to have suppressed feelings of empathy
towards the bullied peer.

The success or otherwise of interventions to prevent bullying depends on the extent
to which pupils respect the values of their school and have regular opportunities
to discuss why bullying happens, what motivates people to engage in it and why
bystanders find it amusing to witness the humiliation and distress of a peer. It isessential for schools to teach and demonstrate pro-social values right across thecurriculum with a strong specific emphasis on considering why and where young
people become morally disengaged from others.259 In view of the continuities ofbullying across time, it is essential to take action to challenge cruel, antisocial behaviour when it appears so that it does not persist from childhood through adolescence
into adulthood. Where better than school to help children develop strategies forchallenging moral disengagement when they encounter it?

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Conclusions
Janice Richardson
It is in education that the great secret of human nature’s perfection lies.
– KantThrough the pages of this publication, we have looked more deeply into the multifaceted challenges of bullying through the eyes – and the voices – of teachersand psychologists, medical researchers and parents, social media creators andusers, and children themselves, including those with special educational needs thatmake them more vulnerable to bullying. All of these people, adults and youth alike,have put forward their perspectives and those of the children and young people
they work with. They have invited us into their work place to share their practices
and learn from the case studies they describe, and given us a deeper understandingof certain issues by sharing their experience and knowledge. Through all of thesevoices, regardless of country or background, several clear messages emerge bothin terms of challenges and solutions. Our authors have taken us on a journey of
discovery from the US to Australia and from Portugal to Denmark and Croatia, while
maintaining a focus on Europe, where the added challenge of linguistic and cultural
diversity complicates an already highly complex topic.

What has emerged is a very clear message that well-being in today’s technologicallyrich world is almost impossible to achieve without:f a solid understanding of our rights and responsibilities;
f a sense of respect for each other and for the ecosystem in which we live;
f the resilience to bounce back from adversity, misfortune or change.
These three qualities are cited by several authors as the essential “three Rs” of today.
They could also be seen as the cornerstones of democracy, intercultural understanding and active citizenship, as well as an antidote to violence and radicalisation. All
three qualities encompass a vast palette of knowledge, skills and awareness of thecore values on which our society is based. Yet they do not often figure among thelearning objectives of school and parents do not always know where to begin. The
old saying “It takes a village to raise a child” is certainly truer than ever today, as it
also takes a digital community to raise a digital citizen.

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Social and emotional learning – A sine qua non in today’ssociety
The contributors to this publication raise a number of issues that society will rapidly
need to come to grips with on the bumpy road ahead. Just as many parents are atlast beginning to overcome the disenfranchising refrain that their lack of technological knowledge prevents them from playing an active role in the online life of theirchildren, another unruly monster is rearing its head: virtual reality. In “Perspectives”,
we get a glimpse of the vast opportunities that VR can open up, but also the risks
it may pose. What level of social and emotional skills will we require as we switch
between two different realities where “what you see is not what you get”? What
will be the impact on bullying and hate speech, and how can we counteract this?

Technology is also opening up exciting new possibilities that allow many children
with special needs to interact more than ever before both in and out of school with
their “mainstream” peers. Yet how can we protect them from being the butt of jokesthat so easily morph into bullying and hate speech? And in a world where privacy
has lost a lot of its former sense, and graphic extremism is becoming common fare,what education can we give our children to help them learn to embrace diversity
and reject intolerance?
Over the past two years, the ENABLE team has investigated three main lines of action
in an effort to better prepare young people to positively contribute to society: socialand emotional skill development; peer support; and a holistic approach engaging
the whole community, parents, teachers, young people and other stakeholders alike.
It goes without saying that there is no easy fix to complex issues such as bullying,violence, radicalisation and the many other social pressures that children, teens andyoung adults face nowadays. We cannot sufficiently emphasise the importance of
placing much greater focus at school and at home on ensuring that young people
have the tools, skills and space to learn “to be” and “to live together”. To provide theseessential components, perhaps the key lies in communication and in putting down
our own digital tools for a moment to listen more carefully to what young people
are saying. Children need the support of parents and teachers if they are to succeed
in piercing through their action-filled world of fast-moving sounds and images tobegin shaping their own life rather than being shaped by trends and technology.

In the tech-based ecosystem in which we live today, we are all journalists, filming
the most beautiful but also the most horrific scenes at the touch of a screen, andspreading our story to all and sundry in a stunted 140-character media release. The
ripple effect of our thoughts and actions are grossly magnified by the speed andreach of our mobile devices. While professional journalists are guided by a codeof practice, today’s neo-journalists can only draw on the set of values inculcatedin them by their family, school and peers. Hence, being empowered to manage
emotions and social interactions, and being capable of empathy, can have a broad
impact on society. If this is not integrated as a core subject at school, along withreading, writing and the other core subjects that enable young people to take theirrightful place as active citizens, where else will such skills be developed and when?
Social and cultural literacy is proving every bit as important as functional (reading,Page 156 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

writing and maths), digital and media, or informational literacy, if current world
events serve as any indication!

Give me a child until he is 7 … I will show you the man
Little mention has been made of very young children throughout this publication,
mainly because ENABLE has, in its initial two-year phase, worked mainly with 11- to
14-year-olds. This is usually seen as a transitional period for children both physicallyand socially as they move to secondary school and heed more what they hear frompeers than from their parents. In most countries this age is also referenced as thatwhen most bullying occurs. Our second recommendation, following on from theurgency to integrate social and emotional skill development in the school curriculum, is to integrate this learning and the notion of values from the very first class at
school, and even from pre-school onwards.
Aristotle is credited with having said “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show
you the man”, an adage that was later taken up by Francis Xavier, becoming a central
pillar of Jesuit education. Our neural connections multiply at a far greater rate inearly childhood than at any other period of our life, and research on mirror neurons
suggest that these may be the key to developing empathy and can only develop
through “real life” interactions, primarily before age 5.260 Where does this leave us in aperiod when parents proudly inform us that their children are online from the cradle
onwards, almost certainly to the detriment of face-to-face interactions and “real” play?
Research is beginning to emerge, at least in Europe, suggesting the need to include
social and emotional skill development in the curriculum from the earliest age.
However, little guidance exists in this area for parents, or for pre-school or primaryschool teachers. Even fewer useful learning resources exist. We continue blithely
giving our children apps and online games – the ideal babysitter for parents inmany social situations – without really understanding the potential pedagogicaland sociological implications. Our second recommendation concerns the need formore research, more information for parents and teachers, and more relevant pedagogical resources for young children to develop social and emotional skills. Indeed,
if we were to develop and implement a version of ENABLE for those under 7 years
old, perhaps we could solve a number of issues that appear in later childhood andearly adolescence.

Peer support – Paying more than lip service
One of the central threads of the ENABLE approach is the training of peer supporters
and the development of “bright ideas” and campaign materials for them. We are only
too aware that for most young people their chief learning source is their peers; andincreasingly so as the era of face-to-face communication becomes buried under an eraof WiFi, mobile phones and tablets. Yet this avenue has been insufficiently researchedin education. Almost half a century ago, Ivan Illich suggested “deschooling society”261
by setting up peer-matching educational webs that “heighten the opportunity foreach one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, andConclusions Page 157

caring”. Without going so far as “deschooling”, empowering young people to support
their peers is proving a very strong element in bullying prevention.
We can learn a lot from young people if only we learn how to heed what they say. To
use the words of a 14-year-old encountered some years ago, “You are always asking
us our opinion, but you never tell us how you use our ideas … if you do use them!”
And from another youth of a similar age: “We are your future, so shouldn’t you be
working with us to create the future we all want?”

The Diana Award has successfully led this strand within the ENABLE approach overthe past two years. It has long been advocating peer-led activities and is producing
particularly promising results, not only in combating bullying and hate speech but
also in encouraging young people to embrace diversity and reject intolerance inall of its forms. Early findings from ENABLE nevertheless underline that the successof peer engagement depends very much on the strength of support provided bysenior leadership in schools. It is also proving more difficult to involve boys than
girls, especially when more “formal” peer support relating to social interactions andemotions is involved.
Peer support is also relevant for parents. Although only one or two chapters in thispublication are dedicated to putting forward the perspective, practices and insightsof parents, it goes without saying that many of the authors are speaking from thepoint of view of parents as well as experts. Moreover, one of the most frequently
downloaded resources that has been created within ENABLE is the parent pack.
Peer support among teachers has progressed considerably over recent years, butmuch less is being done in the realm of using peer support techniques with parents.
According to a recent study by the European Social Network,262 pre-school centres
are in an ideal position to coach parents and bring parents into contact with eachother and thus help to prevent bullying from occurring. However, here too we get
the proverbial have/have not divide. In countries where the child-staff ratio is lower,
for example in Scandinavian countries, pre-school staff are able to play an importantrole in tackling social and cultural inequalities. In other countries where the ratio ishigher, there is simply no time to play this role.
Childhood is the moment when we set the scene for adulthood, and hence shapethe environment and the social, economic and cultural conditions for all. Intolerance
is not inborn, nor is it fully nurtured. Home, school, friends and media all play amajor role in shaping the individual. The focus of this publication, and indeed of
ENABLE, has been bullying, in part because we now know from longitudinal researchthat being involved in bullying during childhood can have a dramatic impact on
health, income and well-being in later life too.263 However, many of the practices
and insights discussed can be applied to other issues such as violence, hate speech
and radicalisation. The path from childhood to adulthood has always been strewn
with complex challenges to which there are rarely easy solutions, and particularly
today, when the whole world is within reach of a teenager’s fingertips. Nevertheless,
we can help young people safely and responsibly tread the path to adulthoodby giving them every opportunity to develop sound social and emotional selfmanagement skills from earliest childhood, and by encouraging them to support
each other in “being” and “living together” well.

Page 158 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

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Useful links (all accessed 22 November 2016):– OFCOM report: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/
media-use-attitudes-14/Childrens_2014_Report.pdf– South West Grid For Learning: www.swgfl.org.uk; Parents’ sessions: www.swgfl.org.uk/
Training-CPD/Parents-Session; Digital literacy and citizenship: https://boost.swgfl.org.uk/
about/swgfl-whisper/– Safer Internet: www.saferinternet.org.uk– 360safe: www.360safe.org.uk; E-safety award: www.360safe.org.uk/Accreditation/E-Safety-Award– SurveyMonkey: www.surveymonkey.com– URL shorteners: Bitly: bitly.com; Google: goo.gl– QR code generator: www.the-qrcode-generator.com– Online compass: www.onlinecompass.org.uk– ThinkUKnow ambassador training: www.thinkuknow.co.uk/Teachers/Thinkuknow-FAQ/
CEOP-Thinkuknow--Ambassador-Training; Parents: www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents– Marc Prensky’s website: http://marcprensky.com– Vodafone parents’ website: www.vodafone.com/content/parents.html– Safer Internet Programme: sipbench.eu/phase7.cfm/secid.7; Parents’ guide to technology:
www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-and-resources/parents-and-carers/parents-guide-totechnology; Parental controls: www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-and-resources/parents-andcarers/parental-controls; Helpline: www.saferinternet.org.uk/about/helpline– Childnet: www.childnet.com/resources/know-it-all-for-parents– NSPCC: www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety– SHARP – Student Help Advice Reporting Page System: www.thesharpsystem.com– Google alerts: alerts.google.com
Author’s note (Corish and Milovidov): Further reading:
Chadwick S. (2014), Impacts of cyberbullying, building social and emotional resilience in schools,
Springer International Publishing, Cham; Patchin J. W. and Hinduja S. (2016), Bullying today:bullet points and best practices, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA; Gold J. (2014), Screen-smart parenting: how to find balance and benefit in your child’s use of social media, apps and digital devices,
Guilford Press, New York; Uhls Y. T. (2015), Media moms & digital dads: a fact-not-fear approach
to parenting in the digital age, Bibliomotion; boyd d. (2014), It’s complicated: the social lives of
networked teens, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
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education-27902500, accessed 22 November 2016.
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Publishing, Paris: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264216075-en, accessed 5 December 2016.
Q&A: Special educational needs, available at www.bbc.com/news/education-11296012, accessed
22 November 2016.

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The following are some examples of school curricula from various countries on the topic ofcyberbullying (all accessed 22 November 2016):– K-5 curriculum: www.goffstown.k12.nh.us/common/documents/K-5Curr.pdf– Cyberbullying: understanding and addressing online cruelty, http://archive.adl.org/education/
curriculum_connections/cyberbullying/cyberbullying_lesson_2.html– The Cybersmile Foundation, downloadable resource: www.cybersmile.org/downloadable-resources– Cyberbullying for Grades 3-5 updated and expanded: www.hazelden.org/OA_HTML/
ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=331133&sitex=10020:22372:US– InCtrl – Lesson, Cyberbullying: www.teachinctrl.org/lessons/standupinctrl.php

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– CYBERCOOL: 15 positively powerful lessons to teach digital citizenship and stop cyberbullying,www.opheliaproject.org/cyber/CyberCoolMiddleSchool.pdf– Seattle public schools – Middle school cyberbullying curriculum: www.seattleschools.org/cms/
One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=19914– Cyberbullying for Grades 6-12 Updated and Expanded: www.hazelden.org/OA_HTML/
ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=331136&sitex=10020:22372:US
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Hinduja S. and Patchin J. W. (2013), Cyberbullying prevention – Questions parents should ask theirchildren about technology, Cyberbullying Research Center, available at http://cyberbullying.org/
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fully, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIPmKouFiwQ, accessed 22 November 2016.
Online tools for parents and carers to support the online activities of their children (all accessed
22 November 2016):– Resilience guide for parents & teachers: www.apa.org/helpcenter/resilience.aspx– Building resilience in children: www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/emotionalwellness/Building-Resilience/Pages/Building-Resilience-in-Children.aspx– Raisingresilientchildrenandteens:
www.psychologytoday.com/blog/
raising-resilient-children-and-teens– Resilience: helping your teenager “bounce back”: http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/
resilience_teenagers.html– The resilience doughnut: www.theresiliencedoughnut.com.au
Reporting and incident management platforms (all accessed 22 November 2016):– Cyberbully Hotline: www.cyberbullyhotline.com– Safe2Tell: http://safe2tell.org– StopBullies: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQwfKAJHHIO– STOPit: http://stopitcyberbully.com– www.the-contactgroup.com/support/– The Bully Bøx: http://bullyboxreport.com
In more recent years, several programmes and apps have been specifically developed forintervening and preventing possible cases of cyberbullying. These include (all accessed
22 November 2016):– CyberBully Radar: www.cyberbullyradar.com– #DeleteCyberbullying: http://deletecyberbullying.eu– KnowBullying: http://store.samhsa.gov/apps/knowbullying/index.html– ReThink: www.rethinkwords.com
Author’s note (Collier): The “Meanness and cruelty” papers we worked on were part of the firstphase of The Kinder & Braver World Project, a research series presented by the Born This Way
Foundation and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University andsupported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, available at https://cyber.
law.harvard.edu/research/youthandmedia/kinderbraverworld, accessed 22 November 2016.
Author’s note (Collier): From “born this way” to move this way: a new foundation, my 2 March2012 blog post based on notes from the Foundation’s launch event on 29 February 2012,
available at www.netfamilynews.org/from-born-this-way-to-move-this-way-a-new-foundation,accessed 22 November 2016.
Author’s note (Collier): The eight papers of the research series’ Phase 2, The Role of Youth
Organizations and Youth Movements for Social Change, available at https://cyber.law.harvard.
edu/node/92222, accessed 22 November 2016
Finkelhor D., Turner H. A. and Hamby S. (2012), “Let’s prevent peer victimization, not justbullying”, Child Abuse & Neglect Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 271-4, available at www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/
CV239.pdf, accessed 22 November 2016
Durlak J. A. et al. (2011), “The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning:a meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions”, Child Development Vol. 82, No. 1,
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Slovak K. and Singer J. (2011), Study finds nearly half of school social workers feel unequipped tohandle cyberbullying, press release, Temple University, available at http://news.temple.edu/
news/study-finds-nearly-half-school-social-workers-feel-unequipped-handle-cyberbullying,accessed 22 November 2016.
Finkelhor D., Turner H. A. and Hamby S. (2012), “Let’s prevent peer victimization, not justbullying”, Child Abuse & Neglect Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 271-4, available at www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/
CV239.pdf, accessed 22 November 2016.
Faris R. and Felmlee D. (2011), “Status struggles: network centrality and gender segregationin same- and cross-gender aggression”, American Sociological Review Vol. 76, No. 1, pp. 48-73,
available at www.asanet.org/images/journals/docs/pdf/Faris_FelmleeASRFeb11.pdf, accessed
22 November 2016. See also coverage in The New York Times, available at http://well.blogs.
nytimes.com/2011/02/14/web-of-popularity-weaved-by-bullying and a blog post about it
in Net Family News, available at www.netfamilynews.org/new-view-of-targets-bullies-study,
both accessed 22 November 2016.
For further comment on social rivalry and adolescent development, see a commentary in
Psychology Today from psychologist Carl Pickhardt, available at www.psychologytoday.com/
blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/201001/social-cruelty-why-early-adolescents-treateach-other, accessed 22 November 2016.
The skills, or competencies, as described by the Collaborative for Social, Emotional andAcademic Learning (available at www.casel.org/social-and-emotional-learning/corecompetencies, accessed 22 November 2016) are self-awareness, self-management, social
awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making.
Author’s note (Collier): From my notes at the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Summit(available at www.samhsa.gov/samhsaNewsLetter/Volume_22_Number_4/experts_
convene_bullying_prevention/) in Washington, D.C., August 2014, available at www.netfamilynews.org/leadership-bullying-prevention-much, accessed 22 November 2016.
Testimony by P. Agatston to the Online Safety and Technology Working Group at the US
Department of Commerce, 2009, included in the task force’s 2010 report to the US Congress,
available at www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/reports/2010/OSTWG_Final_Report_060410.pdf. See also
application of the levels of prevention to youth harassed online, available at www.netfamilynews.
org/important-new-resource-for-online-risk-prevention, accessed 22 November 2016.
Mitchell K. et al. (2015), “The role of technology in peer harassment: does it amplify harm
for youth?”, Psychology of Violence Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 193-204, available at www.apa.org/pubs/
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James C. (2014), Disconnected: youth, new media, and the ethics gap, The MIT Press, Cambridge,
MA, reviewed at Net Family News at www.netfamilynews.org/disconnected-crucial-book-forclosing-the-ethics-gap-online, accessed 22 November 2016.
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pp. 34-42.
Purdy N. and York L. (2016), “A critical investigation of the nature and extent of cyberbullying
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Sourander A. et al. (2010), “Psychosocial risk factors associated with cyberbullying among
adolescents”, Archives of General Psychiatry Vol. 67, pp. 720-28.
Kyriacou C. and Zuin A. (2016), “Cyberbullying and moral disengagement: an analysis basedon a social pedagogy of pastoral care in schools”, Pastoral Care in Education Vol. 34, No. 1,
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Cremin H. (2007), Peer mediation, Open University Press, London.
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Cowie H. et al. (2008), “The impact of peer support schemes on pupils’ perceptions of bullying,aggression and safety at school”, Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties Vol. 13, pp. 63-71.
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peer support initiatives and the social and emotional well-being of bullied and non-bullied
students”, Children and Society Vol. 25, pp. 293-305.
Cowie H. and Olafsson R. (2001), “The role of peer support in helping the victims of bullying
in a school with high levels of aggression”, School Psychology International Vol. 21, 79-95;
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Schools) Programme”, Research Report RR570, DfES Publications, Nottingham.
Cowie H. et al. (2002), “Knowledge, use of and attitudes towards peer support”, Journal of
Adolescence Vol. 25, pp. 453-67.
Mental Health Foundation (2002), Peer support: someone to turn to. An evaluation report of the
MHF Peer Support Programme, Mental Health Foundation, London/Glasgow; Thompson F. andSmith P. K. (2011), “The use and effectiveness of anti-bullying strategies in schools”, Research
Brief DFE-RB098.
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secondary school”, British Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 79, pp. 69-86.
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Cowie H. and Smith P. K. (2010), “Peer support as a means of improving school safety andreducing bullying and violence”, in Doll B., Pfohl W. and Yoon J. (eds) (2012), Handbook of youth
prevention science, Routledge, New York.
Purdy N. and York L. (2016), “A critical investigation of the nature and extent of cyberbullying
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pp. 13-23.
Salmivalli C. (2010), “Bullying and the peer group: a review”, Aggression and Violent Behaviour
Vol. 15: 112-20; Salmivalli C. (2014), “Participant roles in bullying: how can peer bystanders be
utilized in interventions?” Theory into Practice Vol. 53: 286-292.
Sourander A. et al. (2010), “Psychosocial risk factors associated with cyberbullying among
adolescents”, Archives of General Psychiatry Vol. 67, pp. 720-28.
Kyriacou C. and Zuin A. (2016), “Cyberbullying and moral disengagement: an analysis basedon a social pedagogy of pastoral care in schools”, Pastoral Care in Education Vol. 34, No. 1,
pp. 34-42.
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Page 172 Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights

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Bullying seems to be part of human nature and has beenwith us since ancient times, but that is no reason to accept it
fatalistically as “natural“ and, for children, part of growing up.
Only in the 1970s was research first undertaken to explore
the phenomenon and to attempt to understand why it takes
place and its impact on individuals and societies. With the
emergence of the internet and social media, bullying hastaken a more sinister turn, becoming more relentless, constantand inescapable for victims.

PREMS 006417

This book aims to explain to both experts and the interested
layperson what is known about bullying, its causes, effects
and, crucially, how it can be reduced, in particular by fosteringsocial and emotional skills in young people. Authors from
more than a dozen countries have contributed to thispublication, presenting widely differing perspectives, practiceand insights on how they are tackling or think we should betackling modern societal issues such as bullying and hatespeech. While some chapters focus more specifically on casestudies and what the research tells us, others look at issues
related to bringing up and educating children for the world
we live in. This publication also provides information on thework of the ENABLE network and aims to introduce readers to
the psychologists and researchers, teachers, parents and social
media innovators that have helped to shape it.

ENG
The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading
human rights organisation. It comprises 47 member
states, 28 of which are members of the European
Union. All Council of Europe member states havesigned up to the European Convention on Human
Rights, a treaty designed to protect human rights,
democracy and the rule of law. The European Courtof Human Rights oversees the implementationof the Convention in the member states.
http://book.coe.int
ISBN 978-92-871-8352-1€21 / US$42
9 789287

183521