What to Do When Witnessing Cyberbullying
- Ashwanth Sundaramoorthi
- Jun 8
- 3 min read
By Ashwanth Sundaramoorthi
Many students, parents, and other individuals use technology every day, whether it’s for
personal use, everyday work, or just hanging out online with friends and family. However, certain types of danger can be encountered when being online, such as hackers, spam calls, and mainly cyberbullies. It is also important to know what to do in these situations, since many people may not even recognize that there may be a problem such as this at hand.
So what is cyberbullying? Well, cyberbullying can range anywhere from sending harmful posts about somebody to impersonating someone else online to hacking someone’s account.
According to Pew Research Center, it is revealed that “Nearly half of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 (46%) report ever experiencing at least one of six cyberbullying behaviors asked about in a Pew Research Center survey conducted April 14-May 4, 2022.” From the research conducted, it was revealed that the most common type of cyberbullying among teens was name-calling.
Whenever encountering someone being cyberbullied, such as friends, people most likely feel as if they are helpless, and don’t believe that they would be of any help to stop this from happening, making themselves bystanders. To prevent this situation from happening, it is essential for everyone to understand and know what to do and how to act when in a situation like this. Here are some important steps or actions to keep in mind:
Comfort the victim
It is important to understand that many people can find it overwhelming, sensitive and even frightened when bullied by someone, especially when the bully’s identity is unknown, and they are not sure if it is online cyberbullying. This can lead to depression, anxiety, and high levels of stress for the victim. To prevent this from escalating, you, or a trusted friend/adult, need to speak to the victim, to calm that person down, and to explain to them that he or she will be alright. This will help lower stress levels, and lower the intensity of this problem for everyone.
Collect evidence of the bullying
In order to track down the cyberbully, one of the main steps is to collect evidence, such as past posts or images the bully had sent, and then present these to a trusted parent, teacher, or adult to decide how to handle the situation. This way, the bully can’t escape easily and get away with what they’ve done.
Block the bully
Ideally, after collecting the proof and evidence of cyberbullying happening, remember to block the bully immediately! If you stay in contact for too long, they may be able to retrieve your personal information, such as your contacts, and sell it online, or they may keep trying to bully you. By blocking them, they won’t have any access to any of your information, and you won’t have to receive any posts from them.
Tell a trusted adult
To prevent cyberbullies from coming back to you by making fake accounts, and sending you even more posts, inform a trusted adult about this situation. This can ideally be a family member, a school teacher, the principal, or anyone else trustworthy. They will most likely be able to help you prevent your social information from being leaked out when online, and help you with the cyberbullying problem.(unicef.org)
By following these four steps at minimum, in no particular order even, safety and precautions can be further strengthened and exercised for many people. Therefore, not only will you help create a safe environment for the victim, but for yourself and the community as well!
Works Cited
Atske, Sara, and Sara Atske. “Teens and Cyberbullying 2022.” Pew Research Center, 24
Child Mind Institute, “How to Help Kids Deal With Cyberbullying”, 2024,
“Cyberbullying: What Is It and How to Stop It.” UNICEF, www.unicef.org/end-violence/how-
Jarocha, Timothy. “How to Help Kids Deal With Cyberbullying.” Child Mind Institute, 19 Aug.
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