We already knew that Facebook was no longer the worst social media platform for cyberbullying, but now the company is taking a big step to actually eradicate it from its roots.
Acknowledging that students are more likely to open up with their peers rather than with adults about online bullying, Facebook has decided to partner with two youth charities — Childnet International and The Diana Award — to train "anti-bullying ambassadors" in each UK secondary school.
Tens of thousands of pupils in 4,500 secondary schools across the UK will learn how to provide peer-to-peer support and introduce online safety initiatives in the classroom, Facebook said in a press release.
Key to the initiative is the "House of Us" event running today and tomorrow for British schoolchildren, which allows them to feelI RL what it means to be bullied.
The immersive experience includes an audio maze that awakes feelings of being bullied, an interactive light room "that responds to positive sentiment" and a challenge using bullying and banter scenarios "to highlight the fine line between these behaviours," Facebook said in the release.
One of the pupils chosen to be anti-bullying ambassador, 14-year-old James Okulaja, said:
“My role is to go round schools and educate people on what it means to be an ‘Upstander’, which essentially is standing up to bullying and not watching it happen. Anti-bullying Ambassadors educate others about how to stay safe and what to do if they see bullying online - about the reporting buttons, how to block and filter comments, and also where to go if you need help.”
Antigone Davis, Facebook's head of global safety policy, said:
Over the last decade, we have developed a wealth of innovative resources on Facebook that enable young people to look after themselves and their peers, from our updated Safety Centre, to our online reporting tools. By offering trained digital safety ambassadors to every UK secondary school we are now taking this commitment offline too.
New research from ResearchBods, a youth research agency, that Facebook cited said that 13-17 year-olds are more likely to confide in a peer (72%) than a parent (60%) or teacher (34%) if they've been subjected to online bullying.
Facebook has long been the worst social network for cyberbullying, though recently Instagram has taken that lead. A study in 2013 by The Trolled Nation concluded that 87% of bullied teenagers said it had happened on Facebook.
In 2014, another study by Cox Communication found that 39% of teens had witnessed online bullying on Facebook, while 29% on YouTube, 22% on Twitter and Instagram.
But in July this year, a UK survey by anti-bullying charity Ditch The Label found that nearly half of all young people bullied online have been targeted on Instagram, while 37% on Facebook and 31% on Snapchat. The survey was conducted on more than 100,000 young people aged between 12 and 20.