THUNDER BAY - Youth are spending more and more time online, particularly now during the COVID-19 pandemic, and with that also comes the possibility of experiencing cyberbullying.
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit is reaching out to the youth through an online survey to get a local perspective on what cyberbullying looks like and how to both educate online users about it and how to prevent it.
“We know kids are online more than ever right now for education, socialization, recreation,” said Marianne Stewart, healthy relationships coordinator of the Youth Violence Prevention Project with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
“We know cyberbullying in Canada the numbers are high. We know about third of youth report being cyberbullied, so we would assume that is similar in Thunder Bay. There are a lot of great education packages out there, but none targeted locally, so we wanted to speak with youth locally.”
There are nine community organizations partnering with the health unit to gather the data from the survey and release a social media campaign for local youth about cyberbullying.
The campaign will focus on two groups of youth, including Grade 7 and 8s, as well as high school students. Stewart said she expects it could take on two phases, one to educate youth about what cyberbullying is and another on how to prevent it and pathways to seeking help.
“Youth are growing up with technology from an early age now and we think educating them that what happens to you online and being embarrassed or humiliated is not okay and what you can do to protect yourself from that,” Stewart said.
“How can they keep themselves safe and prevent that and those ripple effects of being exposed for long periods of time where you wouldn’t have that necessarily with in-person bullying.”
Bullying is nothing new for youth, but unlike previous generations, there is no longer escaping the schoolyard bully at the end of the day because technology is keeping youth so connected.
Stewart said the campaign does not seek to judge or make youth feel negative for how much time they spend online.
“It’s acknowledging that youth are online and it is really hard to turn off. So instead it’s that harm reduction approach, managing being online and managing these risks,” she said.
“We really want to see what the youth have to say about that. Is some of their advice is to stop engaging in certain platforms, or can you still remain and stay engaged, but keep yourself safe.”
There is no shortage of platforms that youth engage with online, from social media to video sharing sites and apps, many of which are used to grow a following.
Stewart said the survey will allow youth to address these kinds of concerns.
“How do you keep yourself safe when you are also trying to grow your popularity on social media,” Stewart said. “And ideas on how to keep yourself mentally healthy if you face cyberbullying and some of the strategies you use to deal with that.”
The survey will be available until May 28. So far more than 125 youth have already participated since its launch on Monday.
Stewart said the partnering organizations will collect the data to inform the social media campaign that is expected to be released in late summer or early fall.
“If we are targeting cyberbullying, that is the best way to get out there is on technology,” she said.
Youth interested in participating can fill out the online survey. It is 13 questions long and should take no more than 10 minutes. No personal information is collected and there is a chance to win a gift card.
