Responding to cyberbullying

Strategies for dealing with cyberbullying

The best strategies for responding to incidents of cyberbullying:

• Don’t respond to the messages or images. Responding can lead to a rapid escalation of the situation. It also gives the person bullying what they want: a reaction.
• Save the evidence. A screen shot is a good option.
• Delete and block the sender. It can be hard sometimes for children and young people to block people when they are part of the same group. The fear of being left behind or missing out on what’s going on can be a stressful thing, especially for adolescents. If they don’t feel they can block the person, muting can be a good option.

How to report cyberbullying

There are some specific steps you need to follow when reporting cyberbullying.

1. Collect evidence

• Take screen shots or record the cyberbullying content.
• Save or record evidence of the web addresses (URLs) or social media platform where the content has been shared.
• Record the time and date that you collected the evidence.

The eSafety Commissioner provides in-depth and helpful advice about why and how to collect evidence.

2. Report harmful content

• Report the cyberbullying to the platform where it took place (for example, social media, game or website). The eSafety Guide has reporting links for social media services, apps, games and websites.
• If the person being targeted is under 18 and the social media service doesn’t respond to your complaint within 48 hours, you can report seriously threatening, intimidating, harassing or humiliating online behaviour to the eSafety Commissioner. They can have the cyberbullying content taken down and can help with further support.

3. Stop contact: mute, hide, block

• No one has to keep seeing upsetting posts and comments. In-app features let you ignore, restrict, hide or mute posts, comments and other users. The eSafety Guideshows you how.
• After reporting them, users can be blocked via the account or device to stop further contact.
• It can sometimes feel too anxiety-provoking or stressful to block people when they are part of the same group – in this situation, muting can be a good alternative.

4. Seek support

• Being cyberbullied is upsetting and can have big impacts on mental health and wellbeing. The sooner someone asks for help, the better the outcomes for everyone involved.
• Cyberbullying is serious and happens to a lot of people. There are resources to help children and young people recover.
• If you are worried a child might harm themselves, seek help immediately.