Tips for Youth
How can I stop bullying?
Prevention
- Show kindness, respect, and empathy for others.
- Be inclusive and welcome other individuals into groups and activities.
- Reach out to vulnerable individuals who may be at risk for bullying or cyberbullying.
Intervention
- Try to defuse a bullying incident by using humor or changing the subject.
- If you feel safe doing so, openly state your objection to the bullying and question the bullying behavior. Be assertive, but not aggressive.
- Seek assistance from a friend, classmate, or trusted adult if necessary.
Standing Up for Yourself
- If you can, walk away before an incident can occur.
- Avoid reacting or retaliating to the bullying behavior.
- If you feel safe doing so, tell the bully to stop.
- Seek assistance from a friend, classmate, or trusted adult if necessary.
Addressing Bullying Behavior
- Report the incident to a parent, teacher, or other trusted adult.
- Privately reach out to the individual who was bullied and offer your support.
- If you feel safe doing so, privately reach out to the individual who was bullying to express concern and encourage them to stop.
How Can I Stop Bullying Others?
You are not a bully.
It is a behavior and not your identity.
Understand why.
Bullying is a learned behavior and is often used as a coping mechanism for a stressful situation.
Seek a resolve.
Find a way in which you can resolve the situation. Get help. You are deserving of support.
Reprogram your stress.
It's important to recognize stress and deal with it accordingly.
Speak about it.
Find somebody you trust and talk about everything that is bothering you.
Understand the impact.
Cyberbullying hurts in real life.
How can I protect myself online?
- Never give out your personal information online.
- Never accept friend or network requests from unfamiliar people.
- Avoid websites, networks, and apps that have poor security or privacy settings, provide easy access to personal information, or encourage interactions among strangers.
- Never click on links or download software or content from strangers or unsecured websites, apps, or forms.
- Regularly change your passwords for websites and social media apps, and delete any accounts that have been hacked.
- Block questionable or threatening people from seeing your profile or personal information.
- If you feel uncomfortable or threatened by someone else's comments or content, block or report and tell a trusted adult.
How Can I Stop Cyberbullying?
Think before you text or post online.
Assume everything you text or post online is permanent and public. Never share personal information or anything you wouldn't share in real life online.
Refuse to participate.
Do not like, share, or respond to mean or hurtful comments or content. Either ignore or report the comments or content.
Tell the individual(s) to stop.
Be assertive, but not aggressive. Use humor to help defuse the situation and direct it away from the targeted individual. Do not retaliate or fight back, as it will make the situation worse.
Block the individual(s) from your phone, games, and apps.
Unfriend the individual(s) on games and apps. Change your privacy and security settings to prevent the individual(s) can't access your personal information.
Take a screenshot of the incident(s) for evidence.
This will help support your claim when you report to relevant authorities.
Report the incident(s) to relevant authorities.
This can include social media platforms, moderators, school officials, trusted adults, and other relevant authorities. Provide the evidence you collected as support for your claims.