Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is when someone uses technology to deliberately and repeatedly bully another person. It can happen to anyone, anytime, and can leave you feeling unsafe, upset and alone.

Cyberbullying can include:

• sending abusive messages, texts and emails
• posting unkind messages or images
• sharing embarrassing photos or videos
• creating and sharing fake images of someone
• creating fake profiles to manipulate someone
• hacking online accounts
• posting personal and sensitive information without permission (also known as doxxing)
• stalking someone across online platforms to intimidate, harass or threaten them
• excluding others online
• setting up websites or online groups that are hostile or promote hatred towards a specific person or group of people
• engaging in aggressive and argumentative exchanges with someone to provoke a reaction (also known as flaming)
• tagging images inappropriately
• sharing, sending or posting any online or digital content about someone that is threatening, intimidating, harassing or humiliating.

1. Stay calm – and don’t retaliate.

As with any form of bullying, what the person cyberbullying wants from you is a reaction, so keep calm and try not to react.

• Don’t respond to messages or images.
• Responding or retaliating can lead to a rapid escalation of the situation. It also gives the person bullying what they want: for you to get upset.
• If you feel you must respond, take a break, leave the screen for a bit, perhaps go and talk it through with someone you trust, and respond only when you are calm.

2. Gather evidence

The next step is to gather evidence so you can report it.

• Take screenshots 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

3. Report it

• Report the cyberbullying to the platform it happened on (for example, social media, game or website). The eSafety Guide has reporting links for social media services, apps, games and websites.
• If you’re under 18 and the social media service doesn’t respond to your complaint within 48 hours, you can report threatening, intimidating, harassing or humiliating online behaviour to the eSafety Commissioner. They can have the cyberbullying content taken down.

4. Stop contact – mute, 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 Guide shows you how.
• After reporting the cyberbullying, you can block people via the account or device to stop further contact. (It can sometimes feel too anxiety-inducingor stressful to block people when they are part of the same friend group – in this situation, muting can be a good alternative.)

5.Seek support

• Being cyberbullied is upsetting and can have a big impact on your mental health and wellbeing. The sooner you seek help, the sooner you can help protect your mental health and begin to recover.
• If you are worried you might harm yourself, seek help immediately.

Remember, the sooner you report the bullying and seek help, the sooner things can change.