Online Safety

Cyberbullying is the use of digital platforms to harass or harm individuals through hurtful messages, rumours, or offensive content. It inflicts emotional distress and requires awareness, reporting, and prevention measures for online safety. 

Online bullying can take many shapes but not all forms are easy to understand.  

The most common types of cyberbullying are:  

• Baiting - to intentionally make a person angry by saying or doing things to annoy them. 
• Catfishing - stealing someone’s profile or setting up fake profiles to lure people into starting online relationships. 
• Cyberbullycide - suicide indirectly or directly influenced by cyberbullying experiences.  
• Cyberstalking - sending repeated and frequent messages that include real threats of physical harm. 
• Dissing - sending or posting information that’s intended to damage someone’s reputation. 
• Doxxing - Derived from the term ‘dropping dox’ or ‘documents’, doxing involves searching for and revealing private or identifying information about someone (i.e.. their address or bank account details) for everyone to see – usually with malicious intent.  
• Exclusion - deliberately excluding someone from online conversations, games and activities. 
• Flaming - sending angry and abusive online messages to intentionally provoke someone into starting an argument 
• Fraping - when somebody logs into your social media and impersonates you while posting inappropriate content. 
• Ghosting - Mostly used to end romantic relationships, ghosting can also occur between friend groups when one or more of them completely ignores a once-close friend, breaking off all contact and disappearing from all interactions. 
• Griefing - abusing and angering people through online gaming. 
• Hacking -This occurs when someone bypasses your security settings to gain access to your personal accounts and use the information – often for illegal or malicious activity. 
• Happy slapping - an extreme form of bullying where physical assaults are recorded and shared online for public consumption. 
• Harassment - targeting an individual or group with persistent and offensive messages which could develop into cyberstalking.  
• Outing - publicly sharing personal, private or embarrassing information, photos or videos about someone online. 
• Phishing - Manipulating (tricking or persuading) the victim into revealing personal and/or financial information about themselves or their loved ones. This is then used to purchase items in the name of the victim or their parents. 
• Revenge porn - practice of posting or distributing sexual videos or images of a another without their consent – often after a painful or non-mutual breakup. 
• Sadfishing - where people make exaggerated claims about their emotional problems to generate sympathy and attention.  
• Screen name mirroring - Cyberbully creates usernames almost identical to the victims own name to send messages whereby the recipients think they were sent by the target. 
• Sexting - sexually explicit text messages or images designed to embarrass the victim when shared online. 
• Sextortion - when someone threatens to expose a sexual or compromising image of another person to make them do something or for other reasons, such as revenge or humiliation. 
• Trolling - deliberately posting provocative and insulting messages about sensitive subjects or inflicting racism or misogyny on an individual.  
• Roasting - ganging up on an individual online and sending offensive abuse until the victim is seen to ‘crack’. 

Internet Matters has a host of resources on their What is cyberbullying? wepbage including a What is cyberbullying? - Advice for parents video and 10 things you need to know about cyberbullying.   

Here you will find safety and security advice about key social media platforms and apps: 

• Facebook - Meta Safety Center 
• Instagram - Parent's community 
• Snapchat - Common Sense Media - Parents ultimate guide to Snapchat 
• Threads -  Safer Internet - Threads a guide for parents and carers 
• TikTok - Guardians guide 
• Twitter - Safety and Security 
• YouTube - Safer Internet - Youtube guide for parents and carers 
• WhatsApp - Internet Matters - WhatsApp safety guide for parents and carers 

Gaming and streaming online offers entertainment, but safety is crucial. Ensuring online safety for young people involves monitoring content, setting age-appropriate restrictions, and educating them on responsible online behaviour.  

Parents should implement parental controls, limit screen time, and engage in open communication to address potential risks like cyberbullying. Regularly reviewing and updating privacy settings is crucial for a safer online experience. 

• Think U Know - Gaming: what parents and carers need to know 
• Internet Matter - Gaming Guide for Teens 
• Ask About Games - Video Game Guides 
• Connect Safely - Parents guide to Twitch 

Cybersecurity aims to protect against such threats through measures like encryption, firewalls, and user education. Vigilance, strong passwords, and verifying sources help mitigate the risks of phishing, safeguarding personal and organisational data.  

• Think U Know - Parent's Guide to Cybersecurity 

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, refers to computer systems performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. It involves machine learning, where systems learn from data, making decisions, recognising patterns, and solving problems. Although the possibilities of AI are exciting it can also be used to content that is not based on fact and identities or images that are fake. Understanding AI is important.  

Learn more about AI: 

• Internet Matters - a guide to using AI with children and young people 
• Digital Parenting Coach – Parent’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT