Question

Studies have shown that when adults are educated on bullying, the incidents decrease. Choose one of these Interactive Scenarios (http://preventingbullying.promoteprevent.org/cyberbullying/interactive-scenarios) to participate in and write a reflective response on what you’ve learned. In your response, be sure to: Briefly describe the scenario you chose. What was the issue? Explain the intervention strategies that were considered/used in the scenario. Were they successful? If the situation would have continued to escalate, what effects may it have had on the psychosocial development of the person being bullied? Based on what you learned in this module, suggest additional ways in which this scenario could have been prevented or handled differently.

Answer 1

Briefly describe the scenario you chose.

• What was the issue?
  • While silencing her son Matthew’s phone, Anna (his mother) discovers a concerning message about his friend, Ronny. After reading through the messages, she realises that it is a case of cyber bullying. Then, she educates Matthew about digital citizenship.
• Explain the intervention strategies that were considered/used in the scenario.

Were they successful?

• Anna asks Matthew about the situation and tells him about bullying in the cyber space.
• She tells him about being an active bystander and how he can help the victim. She tells him about digital ethics.
• They were successful, mostly because she helped Matthew understand that it is not harmless if someone is being singled out.

• If the situation would have continued to escalate, what effects may it have had on the psychosocial development of the person being bullied?
  • It could result in low self esteem/ self harm
  • Withdrawal from family and loneliness
  • Reluctance to let parents or other family members anywhere near their mobiles, laptops etc
  • Finding excuses to stay away from people
  • A change in personality i.e. anger, depression, crying, withdrawn
• Based on what you learned in this module, suggest additional ways in which this scenario could have been prevented or handled differently.
  • I think Anna handled it perfectly.
  • Another way of preventing this could be a workshop in school or college
  • Gamification could also work
  • Cyber bullying should be treated like on premise bullying
  • On Campus counsellor could help