Together Everyone Can Prevent Cyberbullying

Now that so many classrooms across the world have moved totally or partially online, to stop the spread of COVID-19, children of all ages are spending a lot more time in the virtual world. They are using social media & apps more frequently than in the past. Although there is much good that can come from these online interactions, they are not without risks. According to L1ght, an organization that monitors online harassment & hate speech, there has been a 70% increase in cyberbullying in just a matter of months, from 4%–72%. They also found a 40% increase in toxicity on online gaming platforms, a 900% increase in hate speech & a 200% increase in traffic to hate sites.

Prepared or not prepared, teachers and students (and parents) are forced to use online platforms for learning. The TECPC project raises an alarm about digital education readiness; teachers & educational systems are very focused on how to learn in short time how to make the education to survive through the use of hybrid & digital platforms teaching, but they eliminate the risks to the huge exposure to the online life. Unfortunately more time online creates more opportunities for harassment.

The project will support the practice of digital competences of teachers and school counsellors, including the development and use of an open educational platform with an open course and free and open source educational software for learning about the cyberbullying. The project will promote innovative methods and tools for teaching, training, and learning about the benefits of the fight against cyberbullying in order to promote an inclusive education, non-violent attitudes and a netiquette in digital communication and learning. The TECPC project will train the teachers, school counsellors and parents to be involved in the online life of their children and how to transform the internet in a safe and advantage place for the teaching-learning process.

The TECPC project is a comprehensive approach to address the prevention, recognition and intervention of online harassment against its cruel social, psychological-medical & educational impact for children & teens. The project empower educators, counsellors, parents, students, from the primary to secondary education level, with knowledge of how to prevent & respond to cyberbullying in the digital era, by providing specialised guidance, training & proactively engage the actors in educational games & activities to learn about signs of cyberbullying & how to approach different situations in case.