Introduction to Identify Cyberbullying

In this lesson, you will brainstorm questions or guidelines you should think about before you post things online or send a text.

You will add these questions or guidelines to a document.

Then, you will make a list of safe actions or interventions you can take if you witness or experience cyberbullying.

Posting comments online, texting, playing online role-playing games, and sharing photos on social media are all ways to communicate with your friends, family, and others using technology.

These activities can be a lot of fun and positive ways to express yourself.

However, hiding behind a screen can lead people to post messages or text without thinking.

People might send text messages, share photos, or post comments online that are hurtful.

“Cyberbullying” is using technology to intimidate, threaten, or embarrass another person.

Even someone who would never bully a classmate or stranger in person might cyberbully.

When people interact online, they can’t read each other’s emotions, body language, or facial expressions.

They can say and post things without experiencing others’ reactions.

This can make it easier to write or post something harmful about another person and not think about how it might make them feel.

Things you post on the internet also might affect people far in the future.

A comment on social media or in a messaging app might be deleted, but if people reposted it or took photos and screenshots, it may never be truly gone.

For these reasons, cyberbullying can affect the reputations of everyone involved for a long time.

Because cyberbullying can affect anyone at any time, it’s up to everyone to prevent it, recognize it, and stop it.

To complete this lesson, you will: create a new document, type two lists of ideas, link to a source for one idea, and add headings and bullets to the lists.

This lesson uses Google Docs, but you could apply these skills and concepts in any word processing application or even on a piece of paper.

Using a digital tool, like Google Docs, allows you to quickly share your work with others and refer back to it in the future.

If you’d like, you can use voice typing or other helpful features within Google Docs to make using the app easier.

Click on the links next to this video to learn how to use these features.

To start, sign in to your Google account.

Open a new tab in your browser, and navigate to "google.com" If you are not signed in, do so now.

If you do not have a Google account, pause the video and create one now.

Then, create a new document and rename it.

If you’d like, you can ask your teacher if you can work on this lesson with a partner or group.

Group members will gather around a single computer.

Share your document with the people you’re working with.

If you’re working by yourself, you can skip this step.

Select the permission you want to use: "Editor" means the people you are sharing it with can make changes directly in the document, "Commenter" allows them to make comments, but not change the document, and "Viewer" lets them see your document only.

For this lesson, choose "Editor." Finally, send the document.

Now, it’s your turn: sign in to your Google account, create a new document, rename it, and share it if you’re working with others.