There is no single guaranteed method to prevent cyber bullying. Preventing cyber bullying must be a joint effort among schools, families, and the community. The effort to prevent cyber bullying should be directed at helping adolescents develop prosocial attitudes and behaviors to help them build and maintain healthy relationships among their peers.
School Interventions
Schools are responsible for stepping in to create a learning atmosphere where every child can feel comfortable and included. Schools are encouraged to create a comprehensive school wide program. These programs are designed to change norms and behaviors. These policies include strong policies against online harassment among students, protective skills on how to respond to online harassment, and increase student perception of safety (Mason, 2008).
Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
BPP (bullying prevention program) is the most widely used bully prevention program in school. Use of the program has been reported to reduce levels of bullying in school by 25% to 50%. Student reports showed improved order and discipline, more positive social relationships between peers, and a more positive attitude towards school work. BPP has reduced bullying in multiple studies in Europe and the United States.
School interventions improve overall school climate to create a safe learning environment. The goal is to reduce if not eliminate cyber bullying. Schools should start by administering anonymous surveys to the student population to find out the level of severity of bullying on and off campus, develop a coordinating committee, conduct in-service training for staff and parents, increase supervision online, create and enforce school rules, and get parents in the community involved in antibullying efforts (Mason, 2008).
Schools are encouraged to make all students sign a statement saying they will not use internet or technology to bully. The statement should include serious consequences for students who fail to obey the guidelines. Olweus recommends using cooperative learning activities in school to teach social skills, and use the council of teachers and administrators to take charge in implementing antibullying programs (Mason, 2008).
Classroom Interventions
Olweus says class room interventions are designed to improve an individual classroom’s social climate. Teachers should integrate antibullying lessons and life skills into the classroom. Antibullying programs should focus on teaching students’ effective decision making, problem solving, and communication skills. Teachers should focus on values like kindness, caring for one another, empathy, and perspective taking. Classrooms should have discussions on netiquette, which is a set of rules for internet etiquette. Classrooms that implemented this part of the BPP showed greater reduction in bullying/victim problems than those classrooms that did not implement components of BPP. Not every child is taught at home how to manage their anger or make respectful choices towards their peers. That is why it is important that life lessons are implemented daily into the classroom to reduce bullying (Mason, 2008).
Individual Intervention
Schools are encouraged to get to the root of the matter for the victim and the offender by assisting victims and their families to figure out appropriate responses. Some appropriate responses include peer mediation in school; involve the schools resource officer to be directed to outside sources, legal assistance, and law enforcement.
Increasing Parental Involvement
Today adolescents and teens have access to a whole new world online that many adults know little about. Research has found that only a small percentage of adults monitor their children’s internet use. Because there are no boundaries and no rules on the internet cyber bullying goes unseen. Low internet monitoring verses high internet monitoring increases the likelihood of cyber bullying by 54% (Mason, 2008).
Parents are encouraged to become involved in monitoring their children’s internet use to assure a safe online world. Parents should talk to their children about online bullying. Children are more likely to open up about cyber bullying if a parent address it with them in conversation (Mason, 2008).
Working with Students
Adolescents should be warned about the consequences of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is a crime. Cyber bullies can be liable in tort for defamation, public disclosure of private facts, and invasion of privacy, assault, or intentional infliction of emotional distress (Mason, 2008). The most important thing an adult can do for a child is listening. Children are told to often to “toughen up” or “ignore it”. This kind of response may make a child feel helpless and result in them isolating themselves more (Marson, 2008).