In March 2022, the project #YouthAgainstCyberbullying gathered 30 young people from France, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary and Denmark, in Copenhagen, Denmark for a workshop on Cyberbullying and how to combat it. For 5 days we made the youth work hard and had them go through various workshops.

They had a workshop on “Digital Bullying and the EU” with Mette Frobenius who is a Danish comedian, speaker, debater and business lawyer. She talked about the, European Convention on Human Rights vs. the Freedom of speech, the new EU Digital Service Act and the importance of Role Models in Anti-bullying campaigns.

Another workshop with Nikola Sardevic, from Croatia, who has experience from dealing with bullying. The workshop was a roleplay, where roles of bullies, followers, jokers, defenders and victims were portrayed. Through playing these roles the youth got an understanding of how cyberbullying occurs, develops and what impact it has on anyone involved.

A third workshop was on how to combat cyberbullying and understand the digital culture. Themes such as what is cyberbullying, what is SoMe, what are algoritms and what kind of power does it all have? Were covered by digital cultural expert Katrine K Pedersen. This workshop resulted in a common digital code of conducts:

1. We should be able to trace the origin of our data
2. Don’t make fun of any group in society that you are not part of yourself
3. Be yourself and take up the space you want
4. Enjoy content and don’t comment hate
5. Be mindful and respectful towards others
6. Always ask for consent when you’re willing to share private contents
-> #PostContentWithConsent
7. Remember that ‘digital words’ are real and so also the people are real
8. Respect everyone’s opinions regardless of their beliefs, political views and/or identities
9. Limit your time online
10. Consider your intentions could be misunderstood, as well as you can misunderstand the intentions from the others
11. Make the digital world more inclusive
12. Everybody leaves traces on the internet: be careful about information’s you are putting online and who can access it
-> #data
13. Take some time to think about what you are doing while you are online

The final workshop with final tips to fight cyberbullying and digital education – how to behave online by Jon Christian Lange from Red Barnet (Save the children). This workshop explained why it is difficult to act online and how bullying patterns has changed with the emergence of the internet and SoMe. With cyberbullying, a victim, does not have peace after school, it is now glocal, public humiliation is easier, anonymity of bullies creates uncertainty, it is invisible to adults and it is a diffeent ‘language’. Further it takes experience to navigate online, because you do not have acess to body language, the boundaries between private and public has moved and not everything is what it seems to be (scams, fake news and grooming). Here’s 7 advices from Save the Children on onlin behaviour

By Sabine

During the workshop, young people passed on the knowledge they gained in Denmark to their peers, but they also talked about their motivation to apply for this training, the experience of participating in #Erasmusplus training, they talked about impressions from Denmark and young people from Italy, France, Hungary, Croatia and Denmark they met there.

“As our lives, and especially the lives of children, take place more and more in the online sphere and with the use of digital technologies, social facts such as violence are gaining their specific digital forms. Although maybe less recognized, they can have equally dangerous consequences for the psychological and physical integrity of an individual. That is why it is important that we work together to identify harmful forms of behaviour on the Internet, whether we are in the role of a victim or a perpetrator. Violence can happen to anyone, it is not a shame to talk about it “- is one of the main messages from the workshop.

By Ivana

This meeting was a continuation of the pan-European seminar that took place a few weeks earlier in Copenhagen as part of the #Cyberbullying project, orchestrated by Erasmus+ and bringing together 6 non-profit european organizations.

Different organisations, a common goal

Representatives from diverses organisations came during a whole afternoon to present the tools and actions that they developed to adress cyberbullying in France :

The Centre Hubertine Auclert has been actively working against gender-based and sexual violence for several years. It has produced numerous resources on the matter and is very active across different projects and organisations.

The association E-Enfance has been working with schools on Internet-related issues for nearly 20 years. Its vice-director presented “Les Superhéros du Web”, a playful and educational workshop for children that is aimed to deal with issues such as cyberbullying, online identity and screen time.

The Marion la main tendue association was founded after the tragic death of Marion, a young girl that killed herself after she was bullied at school at the age of 13. Her mother and a team of volunteers are raising the voice all over France through workshops and conferences to alert and exchange on bullying at school.

The Ceméa also presented the actions they implemented around cyberbullying, including an educational training course on cybersexism currently conducted by the Ile-de-France association.

During this afternoon, all these organizations had the opportunity to present their different programs and actions, but above all to exchange tools and practices to address these issues with young people and their parent

To undestand and raise the voice through cinema

Following these discussions, the Center hosted a screening of two medium-length films on cyberbullying during a movie-debate. These two films, Virtuelle by Leopold Krauss (2019) and Tony with an I, by Marco Alessi (2019), were screened and awarded during the International Education Film Festival, an annual event run by the Association Nationale des Ceméa.

While Virtuelle deals with cyberbullying in a very shocking approach, and tells the tragic story of a shattered young girl after the massive diffusion of a sexual video by her ex-boyfriend, Tony with an I presents a more contrasted situation, and tells how a community of Internet users comes to the aid of a young teenager who was being harassed by her peers at school.

These two stories served as an introduction to the discussion that followed. Willy Pierre, founder of the association “Les Parents”, which also works to raise awareness about bullying in schools was invited to present his organization and to lead the subsequent discussions.

The audience was made up of regulars from the center and Ceméa activists who were able to share their understanding of the phenomenon, their concerns, tell their stories and consider possible courses of action.

Building a common future

Addressing cyberbullying is about understanding and sharing between the actors who are currently involved to build sustainable solutions and to help the people affected by theses violences.

Following the European exchange introduced by Erasmus+, this day was an opportunity for these different organizations and audiences to share their practices, knowledges and experiences and to build together common perspectives to address harassment and cyberbullying among youth.

By Théophile

But what are the goals of #YouthAgainstCyberbullying ?

The project has as its ultimate goal the creation of a website, an application and a brochure containing information, articles, multimedia materials, games and quizzes translated into several languages on the topic of cyberbullying. In this way we hope to reach and sensitize as many people as possible and, most importantly, to help them deal with the problem.

Why is it so important today to talk about cyberbullying ?

There are more and more aspects of our lives that take place online, from the most everyday and trivial actions, such as reading a magazine on the internet or buying a sofa cover on Amazon, to our work or our studies, until you get to our social life: all of us, with rare exceptions, we routinely use some social network: Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Whatsapp etc. …
The pandemic has greatly expanded this phenomenon, this “translation” of our experiences from the physical world to the online world. Cyberbullying, which we focus on, is just one of the many facets that is part of this great social transformation.

What is cyberbullying ? And what are the differences with bullying ?

Exactly like the already well-known bullying, cyberbullying consists of both physical and psychological intentional assaults that are perpetuated over time against individuals who are unable to defend themselves. In the case of cyberbullying these actions are conducted through telematic tools (sms, mms, photos, videos, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, websites, phone calls …). In practice: unauthorized sharing of private photos or videos, constant insults received via whatsapp or in the comments of photos and posts on social media, anonymous calls at any time and much more.
The differences between the two behaviors unfortunately are not limited to the means by which they are implemented: on the network bullying becomes cyberbullying and expands enormously, multiplies its possibilities, and consequently, also the damage it can cause to the victim.
Let’s make some examples: on the internet there is the possibility of anonymity, many people write online things that they would never say or do in real life, online ethics is different from face to face. There are no space-time limits on the net: cyberbullying can be carried out at any time, in any place and by any person, a huge difference if we think of traditional bullying, which takes place in school or sports environments, at certain times, mainly by peers. Last but not least, cyberbullying is much more difficult to identify, recognize and counteract.There are still many who underestimate the problem, but the truth is that we are facing a new and much more complex phenomenon, and it is more important than ever today to talk about cyberbullying.

By  Catherine

Already working with vulnerable people :

Some of the people who participated in this project were already helping people in their work or their volunteering. They found in this seminar a way to increase their knowledge on the cyberbullying question to learn even more correctly how to act and how to understand this kind of situation.

Do we talk about cyberbullying in your country ?

How is treated cyberbullying in other European countries ? Here is the answer ! A way to have a global perspective on this topic.

It can happen to everyone :

Cyberbullying is not only happening in movies. It this important to understand that it can happens to everyone, and faster than we think. We must be careful around us to prevent this kind of problem.

It is usually unnoticed and misunderstood :

Nikola, a psychologist, explains how a lack of knowledge can make the situation worse for the bullied. It is not simple to solve cyberbullying, especially as a parent, so it is important to take time to understand the problem, and then find some solution. Remember that everyone lives it differently.

What actions to fight cyberbullying ?

After the seminar, the goal is to organize something in the respective country. A workshop is a nice way to sensibilize people to cyberbullying as it offers a large choice of activities to do. It is important to address this message to everyone, not only to teenagers.

By Elia