Empowering the Youth against Cyberbullying

We have identified our issue as cyber bullying and we will be addressing this issue in a
government school. Cyber bullying makes use of various aspects of technology to threaten, harass,
humiliate or embarrass other internet users. It is an issue because events that take place in cyber space
can have long term consequences in real life. The drastic advance that has taken place in the
technological arena has given internet access to the majority of people. As a result the usual forms of
bullying that can be observed in society and school were transferred to this new arena. The anonymity
of the internet also allows people to be more aggressive towards each other as they do not expect any
physical retaliation. Children increasingly have access to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter,
MSN, Mix-it, my space and many others. However, as this is new technology children have not been
prepared to deal with this type of communication safely. The dangers are still becoming obvious to
researchers on a daily basis. Protection policies also do not fulfil the purpose they were designed for.
Our laws also do not address this issue properly. The short-term effects of cyber-bullying can include low
self-esteem and refusal or reluctance to attend school and humiliation. The long-term effects of online
harassment are even more severe, says Fisher: "Teenagers present with symptoms of generalized
anxiety and depression. Symptoms may include constantly feeling sad, feeling that life is not fun
anymore, feelings of worthlessness and even suicidal thoughts and self-mutilating behavior."

We want to change the level of awareness amongst school children regarding this issue. We also
wish to educate learners regarding the precautions they can take to avoid being bullied online. We will
address the problem by running a campaign that is aimed at raising awareness. This will be achieved
through distributing pamphlets, displaying posters and presenting a talk regarding the topic at the
school. We have a 3 month timeframe to research, plan and implement our advocacy campaign. Our aim
is to raise awareness and to provide students with information as knowledge is power. Thus providing
such information in an interesting manner will raise awareness. We would also like to give the learners
the necessary coping skills to enable them to handle cyber bullies. We can get the support of the
teachers, the governing body, the parents and the student body for this campaign. We are also hoping
to get support from the local community. This campaign will be run with shoestring media. If all goes
well we should be able to get most things for free or at a very low cost. Our objective is easy to
understand for those who are affected by it because the presentation will be focused on the intellectual
level of our target audience.

Our target market is Junior High School students thus they will be affected. Staff at the school,
parents and the governing body of the school will also be affected. We will also be affected as we are
the ones planning and running this campaign. We try to involve in this campaign are the school, the
parents and the learners as well as the community as far as possible. The students will benefit most as
they will be more aware of the dangers and will have better access to coping strategies. Both teachers
and schools will also benefit as it is often learners from the same school or class who bully each other
online. The bullies and cyber pedophiles will lose as teenagers will be better able to resist them. The
status quo is maintained by individuals who do not consider cyber bullying to be a real danger to
children. This can include parents, friends, teachers or anybody who perpetuates this belief. We can
affect the outcome of this issue through our campaign with the help of the teachers, the parents and the
learners.
 We can achieve our goals by implementing a small scale campaign on a local level which will
consist of speaking out against cyber bullying and distributing relevant information to all affected
parties. There are advantages and disadvantages of our strategy. We are targeting a smaller group which
allows us to provide more individual attention as well as keeping costs low. We can further focus on the
exact issue and answer all related questions. However, in doing so we will only reach a small portion of
the affected community.

The tools we will use to do it are information research, powerpoint, posters and pamphlets. The
resources we already have access to are computers, printers sponsored, internet, speaker. The
resources we will need are human resources and financial resources.

Our strategies and tactics are listed below.

 Plan the activities

 We will distribute pamphlets and do a presentation for learners regarding the issue.
 We will also display posters throughout the school environment and give learners a
questionnaires to complete as it will make them aware of their own online behaviors, especially
if they are guilty of bullying someone online. Such awareness could lead a child to stop
participating in cyber bullying.

How will we divide the tasks?

 Tasks will be divided evenly amongst our group.

 One will deal with administration, coordination and the creation of our presentation.
 One will create the poster and pamphlets and present the talk to the learners.
 One will create the presentation for the learners and assist with presentation.
 One will deal with the budgeting and questionnaires.
 All will assist with relevant research and funding.

How will we implement the campaign?

 We will firstly get the school and communities assistance with the campaign as well as
permission to present it to the learners.
 We will then create all relevant media and distribute it amongst the learners before presenting
our talk. We will also give learners relevant questionnaires to complete in order to help raise
awareness of personal responsibility..
 We will be using 4 grade classes (± 13 students in a class) in school.
 Two of these classes will be exposed to the campaign while the other two classes will not be
exposed so as to create a control group.
 After running the campaign, all 4 classes will be given a questionnaire regarding the campaign
and the issue itself. This should give us a clear indications of the impact this campaign had on
the students as well as indicated whether awareness has in fact increased.
 Develop appropriate questionnaires.
 Questionnaires to be given to students
 Assign responsibility for monitoring and evaluation tasks
How can this campaign be attacked?

Learners questioning the teachers’ availability to listen to the learners’ situation.

What if the teacher is the bully, who do I talk to then?

What if a guardian is the bully?

What if your parents or teachers support bullying?

Who is liable? Where did you get your information?

 Speak to the guidance councilors or write a letter to your teacher.

 Speak to your parents or a more approachable teacher.
 Research through reputable sources
 The person/s causing physical or emotional damage is liable for the costs of such damage
according to south African law.

Can we pre-empt a hostile response?

Avoid the questions by covering everything in our presentation. If the occasional attacking question
pops-up; the person presenting must be prepared well.