What we can do against cyberbullying
The COVID-19 pandemic brought some winds of change to the educational community, forced by a lockdown situation in which new technologies have played a particularly prominent role. Some might think this has been a respite for all children and adolescents who are victims of bullying. It is true that there is data explaining a decrease in awareness that a classmate is being bullied in class, as revealed in the Third Report on Bullying Prevention in Schools during the Pandemic 2020 and 2021, but the number of cases remains high. According to data from the NACE Association (Association Against Bullying ), one in five school-aged children suffers bullying in Spain, and only 15% of victims dare to tell family members or teachers.
What to do if cyberbullying is detected?
With lockdowns and the interruption of in-person classes, cyberbullying emerged in spaces like WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok, among others. Cyberbullying , the form of bullying that takes place in the digital environment, is well-known, although not always fully understood by all members of the educational community : teachers, students, and families. So the phenomenon didn't disappear; it simply moved to new spaces with their own rules of engagement.
In this special issue, we have chosen to address the need to promote emotional education in the digital environment , a topic that is undoubtedly still pending, and not only among children and adolescents. We pause to clarify terms and concepts, understand the social context in which it occurs, and, above all, emphasize the importance of the role we all play in prevention and intervention when we detect a case of cyberbullying in the school environment, creating safe communication environments for everyone, regardless of the role adopted by the child or adolescent.
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