The Cyber Safeguard Blog

Many platforms are updating apps with the intent to decrease opportunities for cyberbullying and online harassment! Read more about Instagram’s approach allowing filtering of abusive direct messages.

In the online game, the students were “auctioning off” their classmates based on race. The school district identified this as cyberbullying and racial harassment and stated, “There is no room for racism or hatred in the [district], period.”

Egypt’s National Council for Women partners with Facebook to protect women from online harassment. The partnership “focuses on fighting violence against women in all forms” especially on social media.

An upset cheerleader posted a profane Snapchat after not making the varsity team and was banned from the program for a year. She sued the school for freedom of speech and won in lower court. The school district filed an appeal to the Supreme Court and arguments were heard on Wednesday, April 28. The case addresses off-campus freedom of expression and how this relates to social media as well as schools’ ability to respond to online disruption such as bullying.

Researchers at the University of Georgia have found that there is a link between excessive social media use and cyberbullying behaviors. Amanda Giordano, the principal investigator of the social media addication study mentions the role of dopamine and social media and said, “It’s feeding into that addictive behavior, and they may be using cyberbullying as a way to get likes, shares, comments and retweets.”