A seminar on identifying and opposing bullying and cyberbullying took place on 29 November in Lutsk. Its participants were school social pedagogues and psychologists from the regional center. The event was organized by the Volyn Press Club in partnership with the Department of Education of the Lutsk City Council as part of the 16th Travelling International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA in Volyn.

There are many kinds of bullying, of both verbal and physical type; however, with the development of information technology, online bullying, or cyberbullying, has become especially widespread. It’s invisible from the outside, but its consequences are no less real than the consequences of visible bullying.

According to UNICEF, 29% of teenagers surveyed in Ukraine have suffered from online bullying, and 16% have had to skip classes because of it.

“It is no secret that for many teenagers, reality is now in their smartphones. Gadgets play a very significant role in their lives. All their news, all their communication which they don’t have at school is online. And the ‘parental control’ function does not always work. To escape bullying, you can go home, change your school, but you can’t hide from cyberbullying. In addition, only 1% of those who suffer from bullying go to their teachers, about 3% go to other adults, and the overwhelming majority go to their friends. That is why we must teach teenagers to recognize the danger on time and respond appropriately,” noted Bohdan Moysa, an analyst for the Human Rights Department of the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA.

The expert focused the audience’s attention on the types of cyberbullying, its signs, and the mechanisms that can help us use the internet as safely as possible. He also asked to send in successful stories about opposing cyberbullying, proposals on how to improve legislation, because it has many gaps that prevent us from responding to violations properly: “Currently the law works in the direction of writing protocols, and the wave of prevention is only starting. Unfortunately, we don’t have regulations in our laws that would protect children from demands to meet and other actions that harm them. There are no ready-made solutions against cyberbullying. But you should always tell adults and go to the police, call the National Children’s Hotline and the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union’s public offices.”

After working in groups to analyze concrete stories related to cyberbullying, event participants watched the film Bully by the American filmmaker Lee Hirsch. The film provoked a lively discussion around the topics of leadership among teenagers, participation of parents and teachers in children’s lives, approaches to conflict resolution; the viewers also proposed options to reduce the pressure on the protagonist by his peers.

“Both the film and the topic of today’s meeting is very important to us. We have to talk to children, communicate information to them, provide examples to them with our own attitude. Because communication should be built on love and respect for the child,” noted Olha Matviychuk, head of the Education Methodology Office at the Psychological Service of the Lutsk City Council’s Department of Education.