Teaching students to be aware of Cyber Bullying in Patna

On 17th July 2018, Naina Jha conducted an awareness workshop on Cyber Bullying for 30 girls of St.Louis Public School in Patna.

Naina kicked off the workshop by talking about the meaning of the word ‘bullying’ to gain a general understanding of the student’s perceptions and views. She then went on to speak about cyber crime- a term none of them had heard of, explained what it means and how it plays out in daily life and the effects of being a victim of cyber crime. Since most of them already use social media to an extent, she asked whether any of them had faced an uncomfortable situation or harassment while on social media to which many replied in the affirmative. They shared experiences of being trolled, receiving unsolicited vulgar comments and messages from fake accounts and more. One of the girls also shared how her pictures were taken and shared on social media without consent and she faced victim-blaming due to it. Due to this, she had to delete all social media accounts. With the helps of these examples and more, Naina explained what cyber bullying means. She also taught the students ways of intervening and stopping cyber bullying and of the importance to reporting and speaking up against those unknown faces sitting behind a laptop or system and harassing someone.