How to act
I am a victim
5 tips if you are a victim of cyberbullying:
- Confide in people you trust (parents, friends, teachers, etc.)
- Change your settings: It is important to limit access to your social accounts. Confidentiality options exist to not display the list of your friends, deactivate geolocation, not display your photos, restrict your publications to certain people, etc. It is also possible to ban unwanted people.
- Don’t respond or retaliate: Rather than trying to respond, it is better to block the user, report them, or report the content for deletion, directly to the platform concerned.
- Keep as much evidence as possible of the content (screenshots, recordings,…), which will be useful when you file a complaint.
- Contacting a cyberbullying helpline
I am a witness
5 tips if you witness of cyberbullying :
- Do not share content (even to denounce it), but report it! Be careful, sharing, commenting, implies your responsibility before the law. Never forward photos, videos or messages of a hateful nature, even to report harassment.
- Warn the victim.
- Adopt a caring attitude: do not judge the victim’s behaviour and do not make them feel guilty.
- Support them: help them in their efforts, for example by taking screenshots (if they cannot access the publications), but only keep the evidence for as long as necessary. If the victim does not want to take action, respect her decision and do not do it for her.
- Inform people you trust (parents, teachers, etc.) or the police.
How to protect yourself on the internet
Six reflexes to adopt online
I ask for the agreement of the person or persons before publishing a photo or video on social networks.
I think about the consequences for me and others before publishing or liking content on the internet.
I protect my personal data (name, photos, email address,…), by configuring my social network profile privacy settings and strengthening my passwords.
I don’t accept strangers! It is important not to accept friend requests from people you don’t know. Set up your social networks to only accept requests from your friends.
I refuse to share or link to posts that mock or degrade others.
I report offensive and hateful content directly on the platform.
