SysCloud's Guide To Prevent Cyberbullying in Schools

SysCloud's
Guide to Prevent
Cyberbullying in Schools
Read to Protect Your Students

Looking for a solution to stop Cyberbullying in Schools? Worried about
the increase in cyberbullying activities among students?
This article tells you everything you need to know about Cyberbullying
and how to stop and prevent it in your school.
If you are a school administrator use our actionable tips, and prevention
methods to make sure your students are safe from cyberbullying
attacks.
Version 1.0, updated on July 20, 2018

Contents
Introduction 3
What is Cyberbullying? 4
Why is Cyberbullying So Dangerous? 5
Why Should Schools Care About Cyberbullying? 7
Are Schools Fighting a Losing Battle Against Cyberbullying? 10
Legislative Initiatives to Stop Cyberbullying in Schools 11
Types of Cyberbullying 13
Major Causes of Cyberbullying 17
Effects of Cyberbullying on Students 18
How is Cyberbullying in Schools Affecting LGBT Students? 20
How to Identify Victims and Perpetrators of Cyberbullying? 22
Solutions to Stop & Prevent Cyberbullying 27
What Can Schools Do? 28
Tips That Schools Could Give Their Students 29
What Can Parents Do? 31
Use Technology to Flag Cyberbullying Incidents 32
Using Third-Party Tools – SysCloud 36
2
How to prevent cyberbullying in schools – An Ultimate Guide for k-12.
Introduction
Cyberbullying in schools has become a serious challenge for both
educators and parents alike. With students spending more time online,
the number of cyberbullying incidents reported has shot up.
In a study conducted by NSPCC (National Society for Prevention of

Cruelty to Children) in 2016, there was an 88 percent increase in
cyberbullying incidents among school-going children.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 21 out of

100 teens have been bullied at least once in their lifetime. Out of this
21 percent, 11.5 percent have been victims of cyberbullying in
schools, as shown in the graph below,
Cheryl Varnadoe, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension 4-H

Youth Development specialist, sums up the challenges of dealing with
cyberbullying in schools.
“Where geographical distance once made homes and other private

places safe havens, it’s harder to get away from bullies in a constantly
connected world. Many kids who face in-person bullying also have to
deal with online bullying even when they’re not in the physical
presence of their bully.”
3
According to research reports, teens in the United States spend about
9 hours a day on social media while kids in the 8 to 12 age group
spend about 6 hours a day online. As children of all ages spend more
time on social media, the chances of students becoming a victim of
cyberbullying have gone up.
School administrators are grappling with this new threat in an

increasingly challenging environment that’s demanding additional
resources (manpower, technology, processes) to keep students safe
while budgets are being cut.
So how to stop cyberbullying in schools?
We put together this comprehensive guide on cyberbullying to help

make sense of this issue, document strategies to identify and prevent
cyberbullying in schools.
Read the article where it was first published!
Click Here
What is Cyberbullying?
Bullying as a practice has always been around and cyberbullying is not

very different from bullying except the latter takes place over a digital
medium.
The surge in the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, and the introduction of virtual classrooms in schools such
4
as Google classrooms and Moodle has made it necessary for
students to be active online. These channels of communication also
provide opportunities for students to harass, threaten or embarrass
their peers online.
Cyberbullying includes creating, sending and sharing negative, harmful

or false content about someone else online. Texts, audios, videos, and
images are used as a means to harass others in private or public.
Private cyberbullying happens through text messages and chats on

social media or online games; whereas, the open comment sections in
popular social media networks like YouTube or Facebook provides an
opportunity for bullying others publicly.
Why is Cyberbullying So Dangerous?
You may wonder what makes cyberbullying more dangerous than

bullying.
Here are 4 reasons why cyberbullying in schools can have more

adverse effects on the victim:
1. Any information on the internet can rapidly spread over the social
media and reach millions. This makes it harder for the victim to carry
on with their day-to-day life.
Jessica Logan a high school senior, committed suicide as the nude

picture she sent to her boyfriend was forwarded by him to everyone in
her school after they broke up. Jessica was cruelly harassed for
months by the other girls at her school, who called her a slut and a
whore. When Jessica’s grades dropped, she started skipping school
and when she did go to school, she would hide in the bathroom to avoid
being teased. On July 3, 2008, her mother found her hanging in the
closet with her cell phone on the floor nearby.
5
2. Unlike bullying, a cyberbullying victim finds it difficult to go to a
safer place online. Even if victims change their social media accounts,
attackers can easily track them down and harass them again.
Amanda Todd was a cyberbullying victim who killed herself on 10

October 2012. She was relentlessly harassed by a man whom she met
on an online chat room. He threatened to release her private and
sensitive information online if she did not comply with his demands.
Upon or denial he released it online and they went viral among her
schoolmates, friends, and family. Following this, she faced severe
bullying both online and in real life by her schoolmates and friends.
Even though she changed three schools in different cities, he continued
to harass her by creating more fake profiles online, making it
impossible for her to escape from being cyberbullied.
3. It is very difficult to remove pictures, videos, and comments used to

bully someone online. Online bullying victims have to deal with
repeated taunts long after the incident.
Hope Witsell was a 13-year-old student who was harassed and

bullied by her schoolmates after a private photo that she sent to her
boyfriend was forwarded to everyone in the school by another girl. The
message kept circulating among the whole school giving way to
endless harassment both online and in real life. The incident reached
the school authorities after a few months and they immediately
dismissed her for one week even without inquiring about the incident.
The harassments continued and on 12 September 2009, she killed
herself.
4. Perpetrators can easily mask their identity behind a gadget. This

makes it very difficult for school administrators and parents to find
the attacker or stop the harassments.
6
David Molak, a sophomore at Alamo Heights High School in Texas
hung himself in his family’s backyard after being constantly
cyberbullied by six to ten students from his school. These students
used fake profiles and accounts to send him a series of abusive
messages that insulted and humiliated him only because he was dating
a popular girl in school. The identities of the perpetrators remain
unknown.
Cyberbullying in schools has made it NECESSARY for school

administrators to take decisive steps against it.
Why Should Schools Care About Cyberbullying?
7
In 2016, a survey conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Centre
found that nearly 2.57 million students in the age group 12-17 in the
US skipped classes at some point in time due to cyberbullying in
schools.
The survey found that children who were bullied online were also
bullied physically at school.
A 2015 research conducted by Dr. Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin

in a US school, found that 34.4 percent of the students were
cyberbullied at least once in their lifetime. 21 percent of students
reported that they were cyberbullied more than once in the past 30
days.
When asked about specific types of cyberbullying in schools within

the last 30 days, ‘rumors spread online’ (19.4%) and ‘mean or hurtful
comments’ (12.8%) continue to be among the most commonly cited.
8
When schools and parents refuse to act on cyberbullying or remain
unaware of this issue, the results are not pretty.
Here are a few shocking incidents of cyberbullying in schools and its

aftermath:
On January 2018, two middle school students were arrested for

cyberbullying in relation to the suicide of a 12-year-old Gabriella
Green from Florida. The two students confessed to harassing
Gabriella over texts and in person. They spread rumors about her and
threatened to expose personal and sensitive details about her online
Brandy Vela, an 18-year-old cyberbullying victim from Texas shot

herself in front of her family. She constantly received abusive text
messages from untraceable numbers. The attackers created fake
profiles on Facebook and online dating sites with her name and phone
number as a free sex worker. Brandy’s school could not do anything
even after she lodged a complaint as they did not have any means to
track the attacker.
Mallory Grossman, a 12-year-old student from New Jersey, killed

herself after allegedly being bullied by her classmates. The sixth
grader was relentlessly harassed by her classmates for months
through text messages, Snapchat, and Instagram. It got to a point
where she did not want to go to school and her grades plummeted.
The school authorities and parents of the accused dismissed these
allegations as a joke and refused to help Mallory
It’s clear from these incidents that school administrators and parents
cannot remain on the sidelines and have to take decisive steps to stop
9
cyberbullying in schools. School administrators should implement
effective cyberbullying solutions to reduce and prevent such incidents.
Are Schools Fighting a Losing Battle

Against Cyberbullying?
Unlike bullying, cyberbullying in schools is a difficult problem to
manage. There are limitations to what schools can monitor, technical
challenges in flagging incidents of cyberbullying, as well as
understanding the nuances of detecting cyberbullying in schools.
What happens outside the school network?
Cyberbullying can happen within the school network or outside.

School administrators are constrained by what they can do to control
cyberbullying outside the school network. Parents have a role play,
however, there are privacy issues and parents may not have access to
their children’s online accounts.
Need for technology solutions
Without specialized tools and technologies, it’s impossible for school

administrators to monitor content on their school network. Student’s
even use shared cloud folders, email, and chat to get away with
cyberbullying. Considering the large volume of data that schools
administer within their networks, schools cannot effectively control
cyberbullying without sophisticated tools.
Difficulty in understanding grey areas
10
It is quite difficult to find whether the derogatory comment on a
student’s post is really cyberbullying or an insider joke. Cyberbullying
is the repeated harassment over the internet.
Many only see fragments of these harassments. For example, if one

saw a rude comment on someone’s post, it’s easy for an online
bystander to dismiss it as a one-time incident. They might not see the
sequence of harassment that span other social networks. There are
also chances for mistaking an insider joke between two people as
cyberbullying.
The increase in incidents of cyberbullying in schools has forced the

Government to take the necessary steps to tackle this problem.
Legislative Initiatives to Stop Cyberbullying in

Schools
There are laws that cover cyberbullying both inside and outside the
school campus.
The graph shown below shows the number of states that have
implemented various laws against cyberbullying.
(The rest of the page has been intentionally left blank)
11
49 states in the US, except for Montana, has implemented a ‘School
Policy’ that mandates all schools under their jurisdiction to have
formal policies to help identify cyberbullying in their schools and take
necessary actions against it.
48 states have included cyberbullying or online harassment laws;

whereas 44 states have implemented criminal sanction for
cyberbullying or electronic harassments.
45 states have given schools legal sanction for taking necessary

actions to discipline their students in the event of cyberbullying and 16
states have laws that allow schools to monitor off-campus
cyberbullying activities of their students.
To know more about these laws click here.
12
To know about the sexting laws which is also a part of cyberbullying
click here.
Types of Cyberbullying
There are different types of cyberbullying such as:
1. Flaming
Flaming is the posting of sensitive or embarrassing content on

someone’s social media page or writing rude comments for their
posts. This type of cyberbullying comes out of anger and usually
contains obscene language.
Flaming can easily escalate into physical fights.
2. Denigration
Spreading bad rumors and gossip about a person through online

media is called denigration. Such an action can come out of an
inferiority complex or a feeling of authority.
Denigration is usually an act of revenge for reasons such as being

bullied or for not being let into a group.
3. Impersonation
Sometimes the perpetrator hacks into the targeted victim’s account or

creates a fake account with the victim’s information and sends
messages in their name. This is also called as identity theft and is a

crime. Impersonation happens to degrade a person or ruin
friendships.
13
4. Trickery or Blackmail
The perpetrators blackmail or trick the victim through texts or emails

into doing things against their will or force them to reveal secrets
about their close friends. In order to prevent the bullies from leaking
their personal information online, the victim is forced to comply with
their demands.
5. Outing
An outing is when someone who pretends to be a friend reveals

private and personal information online about victims to embarrass
them in front of their peers.
This type of cyberbullying is slightly different from denigration. In

denigration, they spread false rumors whereas in outing they reveal an
embarrassing truth about the victim online.
6. Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is the constant monitoring of someone through their

social media accounts and keeping a tab on their daily activities with a
motive to harm the person, create fear in the victim, seek sexual
advancements, and for revenge.
7. Self-Cyberbullying
Self-cyberbullying is the practice of sending abusive and hurtful

messages about themselves from fake accounts. Teens indulge in
self-cyberbullying either to get attention or sympathy from others.
This is also a form of self-harm. Some teens who are regularly bullied,
self-cyberbully as a means to mentally prepare themselves for real
bullying incidents.
14
8. Trolling
Trolling is the act of making hurtful and sarcastic comments about

someone or something they did. When an attacker constantly trolls a
particular person with the intention of emotionally hurting them it
becomes cyberbullying.
9. Cyberbullying through Online Gaming
Most online games allow gamers to chat with other players. Some
people misuse the chat feature to harass others online.
A research study conducted by Jami Cotler and Meg Fryling found

that out of 936 adolescents who were asked about what could be the
major causes of cyberbullying in online gaming environments, more
than 80 percent said that ‘anonymity’ was the reason. ‘Ignorance’ was
found to be the second biggest reason with around 76 percent and ‘no
fear of punishment’ came third with around 74 percent as shown
below.
15
The study also found that students who are perpetrators or victims of
cyberbullying were twice as likely to have been exposed to violent
video games. Around 6% of the survey participants also stated that
the game design was a major cause of cyberbullying.
16
Major Causes of Cyberbullying
17
Effects of Cyberbullying on Students
Cyberbullying has adverse effects on the mental health of the victims,

especially youngsters. It might negatively affect their personal
development and confidence.
These are some of the negative effects cyberbullying can have on its
victims:
1. Extreme Stress: Some students feel overwhelmed while dealing

with cyberbullying making them stressed out and helpless.
2. Increased Fear and Paranoia: Students who are victims of

cyberbullying find it difficult to feel safe anywhere, be it at school or at
18
home. The internet finds them wherever they hide and this creates a
fear in them to the extent that they become paranoid.
3. Humiliation: Victims of cyberbullying face constant humiliation as

the harassment is available for their peers to view and share.
4. Anger: Sometimes cyberbullying victims take out their humiliation

and anger on to other students online.
5. Isolation and Loneliness: In the absence of a support system and

redressal mechanism cyberbullying can trigger feelings of isolation
and loneliness among its victims.
6. Physical Illness: Extreme stress and fear can also result in physical
illness such as headaches, stomach aches or fever.
7. Psychological Issues: Students who are victims of cyberbullying

may develop psychological issues that could have long-term effects
on their lives.
The survey of the National Center for Education Statistics shows the
various negative effects of cyberbullying on teens. The negative
effects may affect aspects like self-identity, school work, relationship
with family and friends, and physical health.
19
As shown in the above graph, cyberbullying impacts a student’s self-
identity the most. As a result, students may have low self-esteem and
low confidence in themselves. Cyberbullying in schools also has a
strong impact on the academic performance of the victims. Their
grades begin to plummet as they find it hard to concentrate on their
studies and other activities amidst the constant bullying. They start
avoiding their family and friends, slip into depression leading to
physical ailments as well.
Reference: What are the effects of cyberbullying, Cyberbullying
How is Cyberbullying in Schools Affecting LGBT

Students?
LGBT student community seems to bear the brunt of cyberbullying.
A survey of 444 junior high, high school, and college students between
20
the ages of 11 and 22 conducted by the Iowa State University found
that 54% of LGBT students have been victims of cyberbullying in
schools!
The survey reported a range of negative emotions as a consequence

of cyberbullying among LGBT students. These include feeling
depressed, feeling embarrassed, feeling anxious about attending
school, and having suicidal thoughts.
As the effects of cyberbullying are quite devastating for its young

victims, it is necessary for the school authorities and parents to
identify the victims of cyberbullying and offer necessary support.
Kenneth Weishuhn, a high school freshman from Paullina Iowa

committed suicide after being bullied by his classmates both online
and in real life. He was abused and bullied by his friends and
classmates
21
after he came out as gay. His classmates made an anti-gay Facebook
group and send him hate messages.
How to Identify Victims and Perpetrators

of Cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying can cause physical harm as well as psychological
trauma among students. It is practically impossible for school
administrators to identify behavioral changes that can be directly
attributed to cyberbullying.
The following behavioral changes will help school administrators and

parents to identify possible victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying
in schools.
Here are 20 indicators that could help identify possible cyberbullying

victims
Nervous after receiving a text or email
Sudden deactivation of social media accounts
Secretive about online activities
22
Abrupt shutting down of computer mid use
Avoiding friends and classmates or often seen alone
Frequent skipping of school
Continuous grade drops, lack of interest in school work
Frequently falling sick or is faking illness
Increased stress
Depression
Sudden changes in eating habits or often found eating alone
Unexplained weight loss or gain
23
Lost or destroyed clothing, books, electronics, or jewelry
Trouble sleeping at night
Withdrawal from interactive activities at school
Avoiding social events in real life
Unexplainable injuries
Talks about suicide and self-harming practices
Possession of guns or other self-harming weapons
Suicidal thoughts or suicidal attempts
24
Here are 15 indicators that could help identify possible cyberbullying
perpetrators
Using multiple online accounts
Excess use of their device(s)
Gets unusually upset if they can’t use their device(s)
Laughing excessively while using devices and refuse to share what

was funny
Quickly switches screens or hides their device
Avoids discussions about what they are doing online
Sudden behavioral and attitude changes
25
Increasingly withdrawn or isolated
Making new friends with the ‘wrong crowd’
Demonstrates violent tendencies
Regular detainment for misconduct
Exercise power and authority over other students
Demonstrates increasing insensitivity or callousness towards others
Having unexplainable extra money or new belongings
Overly concerned about reputation and popularity among peers
26
Solutions to Stop & Prevent Cyberbullying
27
What Can Schools Do?
28
Tips That Schools Could Give Their Students
According to research conducted by the Cyberbullying Research

Center in 2016, even simple strategies may be effective in stopping
cyberbullying to a large extent. Around 30 percent of students who
participated in the survey, said that blocking the perpetrator had some
immediate effect in stopping cyberbullying. Around 19 percent said
ignoring helped and telling their parents was effective for around 16
percent of the students.
29
What Can Parents Do?
30
References: Taking on Cyberbullying, How to Help Teens Cope with
Cyberbullying.
Use Technology to Flag Cyberbullying Incidents
As cyberbullying takes place over digital media it is important to use

technology to flag such incidents. Human monitoring alone cannot
stop cyberbullying and school administrators should consider using
sophisticated monitoring solutions in their school networks.
Using G Suite (Google Apps For Education- GAFE)
A majority of the schools in the US use G Suite. Schools can use G

Suite features to detect cyberbullying in their networks. To enable this
feature, a policy has to be created in the admin account where school
administrators can insert keywords to be detected and flagged.
Follow these steps to enable this feature.
● Log in to the G Suite Admin account.

● Click on the “Apps” option in the dashboard. You will be then
redirected to the following page.
31
● Click on the “G Suite” option
● Click on the “Gmail” option to set up the policy for emails and
chats (Hangouts) as shown below.
32
● Click on advanced settings option
● Select “objectionable content” under compliances and click on
“add policy”
● Enter the desired policy name

● Select the desired email categories to be covered under the
policy
● Add the keywords to be flagged
● Add a subject line for the alert emails and click on “add settings”
to create the policy.
33
34
● And click on ‘Save’ to activate the policy.
Drawbacks of using this feature are:
● Policies can be applied to the entire domain or subdomain and

cannot be applied to individual accounts within the domain
● False positives will be high as it doesn’t take the intent and
context into account.
Using Third-Party Tools – SysCloud
SysCloud is a security tool that uses machine learning to monitor a

domain to flag any content that could point to a possible cyberbullying
incident.
How to set up a cyberbullying policy using SysCloud?
● Install SysCloud from G Suite Marketplace and create an

account.
● Log in to SysCloud.
● Click on “Compliance” -> “Create Policy”.
35
● Next, click on the “cyberbullying” option and choose “Create New
Policy”
● Enter the desired policy name and click on “Next” to proceed

further.
36
● Next, select users or domains for which you want to apply the
compliance.
● Click on “Next” option.
● Select the desired domain (G Suite or Office 365 or both).
37
● Select the users you want the policy to be applied and click
“Next” to proceed further.
38
● Include or exclude users by specifically mentioning their email id
(if needed) and click “Next”.
● Customize the settings for documents and files, as shown

below.
39
● Next, click “Next” to add customized keywords and set the risk
threshold for your policy.
40
● Set up the file sharing conditions for drive documents and files
to be checked for cyberbullying content
● Then click “Next” to set the email conditions that allows you to
monitor emails sent to external domains.
41
● Next, set the “Real-time actions to take” when a cyberbullying
content is flagged.
● Setup the Exception management, to allow or prevent users from

requesting an exception for flagged content.
42
● Click “Next” to set notification alerts in the event of a violation.
● Hit the “Finish” button to activate the policy.
43
● A pop up with policy details and confirmation will appear (as
shown below).
Here is an example of how a cyberbullying violation alert appears in

the SysCloud threat center.
44
SysCloud also sends an email after a violation is detected. Here is an
example.
45
Want a free demo of the product?
Click here for free demo.
46
Be Proactive!
Enable SysCloud’s Cyberbullying
Policy to monitor your student’s online
activity in real-time.
Available for G Suite & Office 365
Start Free Scan
----------------Trusted by -------------
47
For more information, please contact us at
sales@syscloud.com
Or Visit us at
www.syscloud.com
48

SysCloud's Guide To Prevent Cyberbullying in Schools

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Título original

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

SysCloud's Guide To Prevent Cyberbullying in Schools

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

SysCloud's

Read to Protect Your Students

Version 1.0, updated on July 20, 2018

In a study conducted by NSPCC (National Society for Prevention of

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 21 out of

Cheryl Varnadoe, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension 4-H

“Where geographical distance once made homes and other private

School administrators are grappling with this new threat in an

So how to stop cyberbullying in schools?

We put together this comprehensive guide on cyberbullying to help

Read the article where it was first published!

Bullying as a practice has always been around and cyberbullying is not

The surge in the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter,

Cyberbullying includes creating, sending and sharing negative, harmful

Private cyberbullying happens through text messages and chats on

Why is Cyberbullying So Dangerous?

You may wonder what makes cyberbullying more dangerous than

Here are 4 reasons why cyberbullying in schools can have more

Jessica Logan a high school senior, committed suicide as the nude

Amanda Todd was a cyberbullying victim who killed herself on 10

3. It is very difficult to remove pictures, videos, and comments used to

Hope Witsell was a 13-year-old student who was harassed and

4. Perpetrators can easily mask their identity behind a gadget. This

Cyberbullying in schools has made it NECESSARY for school

Why Should Schools Care About Cyberbullying?

A 2015 research conducted by Dr. Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin

When asked about specific types of cyberbullying in schools within

Here are a few shocking incidents of cyberbullying in schools and its

On January 2018, two middle school students were arrested for

Brandy Vela, an 18-year-old cyberbullying victim from Texas shot

Mallory Grossman, a 12-year-old student from New Jersey, killed

Are Schools Fighting a Losing Battle

What happens outside the school network?

Cyberbullying can happen within the school network or outside.

Need for technology solutions

Without specialized tools and technologies, it’s impossible for school

Difficulty in understanding grey areas

Many only see fragments of these harassments. For example, if one

The increase in incidents of cyberbullying in schools has forced the

Legislative Initiatives to Stop Cyberbullying in

(The rest of the page has been intentionally left blank)

48 states have included cyberbullying or online harassment laws;

45 states have given schools legal sanction for taking necessary

To know more about these laws click here.

Flaming is the posting of sensitive or embarrassing content on

Flaming can easily escalate into physical fights.

Spreading bad rumors and gossip about a person through online

Denigration is usually an act of revenge for reasons such as being

Sometimes the perpetrator hacks into the targeted victim’s account or

messages in their name. This is also called as identity theft and is a

The perpetrators blackmail or trick the victim through texts or emails

An outing is when someone who pretends to be a friend reveals

This type of cyberbullying is slightly different from denigration. In

Cyberstalking is the constant monitoring of someone through their

Self-cyberbullying is the practice of sending abusive and hurtful

Trolling is the act of making hurtful and sarcastic comments about

9. Cyberbullying through Online Gaming

A research study conducted by Jami Cotler and Meg Fryling found

(The rest of the page has been intentionally left blank)

(The rest of the page has been intentionally left blank)

(The rest of the page has been intentionally left blank)

Cyberbullying has adverse effects on the mental health of the victims,

1. Extreme Stress: Some students feel overwhelmed while dealing