Timing: 50 minutes
Learning outcomes: learners will be able to…
- Consider the importance of context in determining whether behaviour is cyberbullying.
- Explore the motivations behind cyberbullying through social media comments.
Key vocabulary:comments, context, motives, strategy, privacy, prevention, reputation.
Resources: Google Slides, CREENDER tool
Key questions:
- Have you ever seen cyberbullying on visual social media platforms (e.g. Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, etc.)?
- What forms did that bullying take?
- What do you think are the motivations for posting negative comments under someone’s photo post?
- What might the comments focus on (e.g. appearance, gender, ethnicity, LGBTQ+, etc.)
- Are negative comments on a post always cyberbullying behaviour?
- How could you tell the difference between the in-jokes of close friends and persistent bullying behaviour?
- What steps could you take if you saw upsetting or offensive comments under someone else’s photos?
- What steps could you take to prevent cyberbullying comments appearing on your social media posts?
The digital educational tool that accompanies this activity will be available from August 2022 onwards.
Please see this video for a brief explanation of the tool.
PLEASE READ THESE DOCUMENTS BEFORE STARTING THE ACTIVITIES
NOTE: Before starting this activity, it is highly recommended that you take time to discuss and agree with learners the expectations around behaviour. It is also advisable to set some ground rules and an agreement that any negative language expressed during the activity or through discussion is confined to this session and used as examples.
Further information on ensuring the session can be run safely can be found in the Child Protection Guidance.
Starter activity (10 minutes)
What is CREENDER?
Explain to learners that this session is about exploring the circumstances under which someone might receive bullying comments on the photos they post on social media, and the steps that they or other users can take to prevent it from happening.
Introduce the CREENDER tool to learners and explain how it works:
The tool selects images at random from a preselected database of images, grouped into various categories based on what they portray (e.g. male, female, religious images, LGBTQ+, etc.). Before displaying the images, the tool provides some context for learners to consider whether they would post negative comments in that scenario.
Learners will then see an image and decide whether or not they would post a negative comment. If ‘Yes’ is selected, learners can explain the reason for that reaction (e.g. ‘body, ‘clothing’, ‘pose’, etc.)
The results can be collected and discussed as a class/group, to see what motivated learners to post negatively.
Activity (25 minutes)
Would you comment?
Select from the possible scenarios (detailed on slide 5) and allow learners time to work through the CREENDER tool individually (5-10 minutes). Encourage them to be as honest as possible when responding, using the context of each scenario to decide whether they would post negatively, and why they would choose to do so.
Depending on the time available, you may wish to export the results to guide the subsequent discussion, or ask learners to work on memory from their CREENDER responses.
Discuss learners’ responses to different images and consider the following questions:
- From whose perspective did you approach the scenario (e.g. the bully, a bystander, a supporter of the bully, etc.)
- Did you answer ‘Yes’?
- If so, what was it about the image that motivated/triggered you to do so?
- Was your intention to cyberbully the subject/poster?
- If not, what was your intention?
- What impact do you think your comments would have on…
- …the target?
- …you (or your reputation)?
- …other users?
Plenary (15 minutes)
Ask learners to consider the following questions:
- What steps could you take if you saw upsetting or offensive comments under someone else’s photos?
- What steps could you take to prevent cyberbullying comments appearing on your social media posts?
Remind learners that there are tools on social media to allow reporting and blocking/muting. There are also privacy settings on social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and TikTok that allow a user to control who can comment on their posts/profile/channel, and to enable commenting on a post by post basis.
If time allows, ask learners to explore these settings on the apps/social media platforms they use. They could also research where the instructions for these settings can be found online, to share with their peers and help them understand how to use these settings.
The following links might provide a useful starting point: