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Gathering of good practices
The Catalogue “Initiatives Against Cyberbullying and Hate in Social Media” was compiled by interviews with local professionals/ stakeholders/ NGO members/ public institutions etc. that have taken part or are aware of initiatives against cyberbullying and hate speech. More specifically, in the first few months of the project, all partners conducted interviews with relevant stakeholders in order to gather good practices of preventing and addressing cyberbullying and hate speech. In Cyprus, one representative from the Cyrus Youth Council and one from the Youth Board of Cyprus took part in the interviews. They were asked to give an overview of cyberbullying and hate speech in the country and mention relevant initiatives/ projects/ campaigns that have been carried out by their organization. They referred to relevant reports and publications, initiatives that have taken place in Cyprus, as well as initiatives carried out by the EU.
Following the interviews, each partner carried out their own desk research, in order to discover current and previous initiatives taken by public or private bodies, local or European projects carried out by NGOs, youth organisations and associations, as well as online and offline campaigns. In Cyprus, the data gathering process included academic research through the online library of a university, online research in the websites of relevant organisations, as well as online research using relevant keywords, such as ‘cyberbullying’, ‘hate speech’ etc.
Both the interviews and the desk research resulted in the gathering of ten good practices, which were included in the Catalogue.
In Slovakia, at the beginning of the project, the partners approached several experts and sent them interview questions – one of them was targeted on the good practices they know about Cyberbullying in Slovakia. The partners also contacted the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights – national anti-discrimination body. During the project span the partners discussed the collection of Good Practices with experts in the field, such as Mrs. Švecová, psychologist at the Centre of pedagogical – psychological counselling and prevention. The recommendations that the partners received from experts led to nice cooperation during the multiplier event, which was very successful.
Cyberbullying and its prevalence in a pandemic – Multiplier event about Cyberbullying in Slovakia
During the period of pandemic and restrictions, we were largely dependent on communication through new media or social networks. However, online communication in the last year has shown that the need to talk about the topic of protecting individuals and communicating safely via social networks is even more pressing. It is for this reason that an online Multiplier event on the topic of cyberbullying was held on 30 March 2021 at 11:00 a.m. under the title At School or on the Web, We Don’t Want Bullying.
The online event, organized by QUALED in cooperation with the University of Žilina, was attended by 43 students, teachers and representatives of Faculty of Humanities, Department of Mediamatics and cultural heritage, as well as the Department of Pedagogical Studies. The target group consists of teachers, future pedagogues and future media workers and future workers in heritage sites or libraries. We choose these two groups because they will be dealing with bullying and cyberbullying in their professional life or might have such experience as students.
The speaker, psychologist from Centre for Educational and Psychological Counselling in Žilina, Júlia Švecová, described and focused on the possible detection of cyberbullying and bullying, its prevention, current research findings on the topic, and the steps to take after detection. The second part of the event QUALED presented our Stopcyberbullying.eu website and a Catalogue of best practices from several European countries, which is the basis for seeking further information for our target group.
At the end of the event, there was a lively discussion on the topic, where students and teachers asked questions and shared their own or mediated experiences with cyberbullying.
The article about the event will be published in the journal Mediamatics and Cultural Heritage, Journal of New Media and Cultural Heritage 1/2021. https://fhv.uniza.sk/mkd_revue/.
The importance of Cyberbullying prevention in times of COVID – Multiplier events in Cyprus
The COVID-19 restrictions and the long stay of students and young people at home revealed the need for preventing and addressing phenomena like cyberbullying and hate speech on social media. In Cyprus, two multiplier events were organized by CSI on completion of the project, in order to spread the word and reach as many people as possible.
The first event took place on Saturday, 30th of October 2021 at Aigaia School of Art and Design. It brought together students, teachers, youth workers, trainers, youth organisations and young people in general, who were informed about the main project outcomes, got familiar with the Catalogue of Good Practices against Cyberbullying and exchanged experiences and ideas for the recognition and prevention of cyberbullying and hate speech.
The second event took place on Friday, 5th of November 2021 at the 2nd Regional High School of Nicosia. During the event, more than 100 students and teachers were informed about the main project outcomes, got familiar with the Catalogue of Good Practices against Cyberbullying and exchanged experiences and ideas for the recognition and prevention of cyberbullying and hate speech.
