The Bureau of Youth Research released the following statistics at UNISA ¹ in 2017 concerning the nature, extent and impact of bullying among secondary school learners in Gauteng.

Learners who shared personal information with known friends online/offline

• Shared cell phone password (66.1%)

• Shared social network login details (33.9%)

• Shared email login details (16.8%)

Learners who shared personal information with an unknown person met online

• Shared cell phone password (25.5%)

• Shared social network login details (20.7%)

• Shared email login details (8.1%)

• Giving your child a cell phone before they are 13 years old is not a good idea. That is the minimum age required to be on social media as well. Why not? Bill Gates Says This Is the ‘Safest’ Age to Give a Child a Smartphone
• Install Google Safe search on the device before giving it to them to protect them from harmful content.
• Install a password that only you know on the device to block access to pornography.
• Tell them you will check their search history every month. If they delete it, you will confiscate the device. Kids only delete search histories when they have been on forbidden sites.
• Please help them to choose a strong password. Test the password on www.howsecureismypassword
• See that your child sets strong privacy settings.
• Please keep them from using their real first name or middle name.
• Keep them from posting their location online. Turn location services off.
• Teach them never to post online that they are home alone.
• Never let them post any contact information online.
• They may not add any person they don’t know personally as a contact.
• They must ask your permission to download any app, and they may only do so once you have approved the app.
• Teach them to report abusive posts or harassment immediately to you.
• Teach them not to post the following: the family’s full birth dates, their relationship status, current location, and pictures of your kids with tagged names.

1. Treat everyone with respect. Always be polite online as you are in person. Stop and think before you say or do, or post something that could hurt someone.
2. Stick to safer sites. Some sites have age restrictions. Visiting unsavoury sites will show up on the search history.
3. Guard your passwords. If someone can sign in as you, you cannot control what they do or say. Anyone will think it’s you. Therefore, do not share your password with anyone except your parents.
4. Limit what you share with online friends. It is best to think first and type second when you are telling stuff about yourself online. Anything you post can be used against you by bullies.
5. If you are being bullied, talk to an adult you trust. They can make a plan to stop the bullying.
6. Neither respond to nor forward cyberbullying messages.
7. Be friendly to a bullied fellow learner. Your kindness and friendship can make the bullied learners feel included and welcome, as they often feel left out and alone. Friendships can also help prevent bullying because bullied learners are less likely to pick on learners when they are with friends.
8. Refuse to pass along cyberbullying messages or participate in the bullying incident by laughing at it. This behaviour can encourage bullying to continue. Instead, side with the bullied person and stand against the bullies.
9. Get involved in the bullying prevention initiative at school.
10. Keep evidence of cyberbullying (e.g. save and print screenshots, email and text messages). Use this evidence to report to web or cell phone service providers.

1. Undertake a bullying assessment in your school and develop and implement a whole-school bullying prevention programme. This can include establishing coordinating task teams and learner advisory groups and instituting prevention rules, policies, and guidelines related to bullying.
2. Train staff in bullying prevention.
3. Promote empathy, ethical decision-making skills and respect among learners.
4. Teach learners about ethical and legal standards for online activities.
5. Intervene immediately to bullying behaviour. It may show learners that bullying is taken seriously.
6. Model respectful behaviour when you intervene in bullying incidents.
7. Meet any immediate medical or mental health needs.
8. Involve bullied learners in making amends or repairing the situation. This will help them see how their actions affect others.
9. Encourage learners to keep their passwords safe and not share them with friends.

Login: Two-factor authentication is a security feature that helps protect your Facebook account and password. If you set up two-factor authentication, you’ll be asked to enter a unique login code or confirm your login attempt each time someone tries accessing Facebook from a browser or mobile device we don’t recognize. You can also get alerts when someone tries logging in from a browser or mobile device we don’t recognize.

Password: Use a strong password. NEVER EVER share your password with anyone. Check the strength of your password on howsecureismypassword.net

Privacy settings:

1. Set your settings so only your contacts can see your information.
2. Never set your settings to “everyone”.
3. Remember, every time Facebook redesigns its platform, your settings might go back to the default settings.
4. Check often that your settings are still private.

Check-in: Put your location on the off setting. By checking in everywhere, you give predators or criminals information on where you are. They can use the information to break into your home if you are not home or home alone or abduct you from the location where you have checked in. Remember that a child goes missing every 5 hours in South Africa, which is an average of 5 children every day!

Timeline: Are you aware that universities and potential employers scan your “digital CV”? If you sit with a glass of wine on every second post, your potential employer will be advised that you might have a drinking problem, and they won’t even interview you. Likewise, a university might not accept you because your digital CV portrays a party animal if you have posted many partying pics on your timeline. Be aware of the image you portray of yourself online. Keep most of your life private.

Sharing & liking: Be careful what you share and like. You may feel strongly about sharing a post on politics or shaming a person. Once you share it, you have no idea what the next person will comment on. It might be a racist or defamatory comment. Legal action can be taken against everyone who shared or commented on a post. Also, remember that more than 40% of all Facebook posts are fake. There are people out there who post phoney information to stir people up. Always check where the information comes from. Google the information to double-check whether it is true or false. The best advice is to read a post and scroll past without liking, sharing or commenting.

Tagging: Set your settings to approve all tags. You don’t want to be implicated in something if you weren’t even there.

Posts: Set your settings so only your friends/contacts can see your posts. You don’t want a paedophile who stalks young boys and girls online to like your post on your last beach holiday.

Groups: Be aware of what is posted in groups. If you like a post – and someone comes later and makes a defamatory comment – you have to distance yourself from that comment by stating that you are dissatisfied with the comment. If you don’t, it can be viewed that you agree with the comment – and you can be held legally responsible for what was said online. Instead, leave a group immediately if it violates another person’s fundamental human rights. Best practice: Avoid using like buttons. Avoid leaving comments – you can think it – but don’t post it.

Playing games: If you play a game posted on Facebook or complete a quiz – it gives 3rd parties access to your information. It is how Facebook and its advertisers make money. They need you to click on their post. The more clicks, the more money they make. Their excuse is that they want to present you with more specific online content – for example, if you looked at clothing, you would notice more and more clothing adverts jumping up when surfing Facebook. Don’t click on adverts, quizzes or games if you don’t want them to have information on your interests and likes.

An internal Facebook report leaked this year, for example, revealed that the company could identify when teens feel “insecure”, “worthless”, and “need a confidence boost“. Tech companies can exploit such vulnerabilities to keep people hooked, manipulating, for example, when people receive “likes” for their posts, ensuring they arrive when they are likely to feel vulnerable, in need of approval, or maybe just bored.

Blocking: Know how to block and delete unwanted contacts.

Delete: WhatsApp now allows you to delete a post you wrongfully posted for the first time —you can choose between “delete for me” or “delete for everyone”.