Many peer support approaches can be effective in online settings. We can encourage children to be online ‘upstanders’ and support one another in digital spaces.
Key points for promoting online peer support schemes:
- Encourage kindness online: the main point to highlight to young people is that they should support people online as you would in real life. If they see someone being bullied online, send them a direct message. It is about transforming people from being a bystander to being an upstander.
- Provide clear actions for responding to online bullying: offer suggestions as to what young people can do if they see online bullying (such as reporting etc).
- Ensure cyber literacy: online peer support schemes require young people to be cyber-literate, which most of them will be. It will also require the teacher to be cyber-literate.
- Use peer support as a learning opportunity: use this as an opportunity to learn from the young people and build a stronger and more trusting relationship with them.
- Raise awareness of reporting structures: be mindful that some young people may not be aware of the different reporting structures in place on each platform and their effectiveness.
We have worked with the Royal Cyberbullying Taskforce and the Diana Award to develop a campaign called 'Stop Speak Support' which aimed to encourage people to become online upstanders.
You can access the resources for schools relating to the 'Stop Speak Support' campaign here.