turned into the principal or appropriate school leader. The form encourages the submitter to describe the incident and list any witnesses. A similar form is available on Louisiana Key Academy’s website for those students, and can be submitted online. Episcopal School of Baton Rouge utilizes Speak Up!, an anonymous anti-bullying monitoring and management system to report bullying and cyberbullying incidents. Anyone with the phone number can either call or text to report an incident, and upon receiving the report, the school administrator will be able to respond. The system masks the submitter’s phone number to allow anonymity. ON SOCIAL MEDIA While there are many benefits to using and creating with social media, those same platforms can be used for cyberbullying. Knowing this, popular platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook have implemented processes to protect the younger generation. Here are some of the precautions the most popular apps and forums are taking to prevent bullying. TikTok: TikTok provides private accounts; customizations for For You Pages, messages, and who can Duet or
Stitch videos; comment control; filtering comments and keywords; and reporting. Instagram: Instagram provides tag and mention controls, a space to report users or content, the ability to block users, and the ability to limit or restrict users from interacting with the victim. Instagram also includes a comment warning feature, which flags potentially offensive comments before they are posted, reminding the commenter of Instagram’s Community Guidelines and warning them that if they proceed, their comment may be removed or hidden. Facebook (Meta): Facebook and Instagram are Meta Platforms, so they share similar features when keeping teens safe on social media, including blocking and reporting bullying. Meta employs teams that review reports of bullying and harassment 24/7. However, they also utilize technology in order to find and remove inappropriate content, often before it even gets reported on. Snapchat: Snapchat allows users to block others and report bullying. The company has also partnered with the Crisis Text Line to provide additional support and resources to Snapchatters. Users can text
KIND to 741741 to chat with a live, trained crisis counselor. This service is free and available 24/7. Discord: Discord’s Community Guidelines are similar to other social media platforms. Some of the guidelines state that users are not allowed to send unwelcome or unwanted content to an individual, call for the suicide or self-harm of others, or post content with the intent to cause disgust, anger, or fear. Those who disobey the guidelines, Discord will take action against the accounts. Users who see the policies being disobeyed are encouraged to report the guilty users and content. The majority of the apps that teens are using have strict community guidelines in place. However, a good rule of thumb is that if teens are using any apps without safety measures or anti-bullying policies in place, that is probably not an app they should be using. Unfortunately, even with the best-laid plans and safety measures in place, bullies can slip through the cracks and still cause others harm. Preventing cyberbullying and protecting our children is still a work in progress, but work we should consistently do until cyberbullying is no longer trending.
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