The students of the British Council of Madrid lay the foundations to create an application to fight against cyberbullying. This is the first time an initiative of this kind has been created in Spain.
The students, aged between 10 and 16, have had the help of different actors. On the one hand, Parry Aftab, one of the most recognized activists in the fight against Cyberbullying at international level, and advisor to platforms such as Facebook. On the other hand, the Stop CyberBullying platform, which is committed to turning the children’s ideas into an app.
The aim of the work done so far by the children is to break down the generational barriers between parents and children to report situations of harassment on the Internet, to know how to detect the symptoms and to generate resources to stop these behaviors.
One of the ideas that have stood out the most is the creation of a “Panic Button” that would alert parents when bullying occurs.
According to Aftab, there are countries where family ties are stronger, and this is a determining factor in the fight against online bullying. And one of them is Spain; “even if parents don’t have technological skills, they know how to talk to their children, they care about them, they don’t want them to see pornography or be exposed to hate. And using those ties and the interest of parents and children to communicate and work on their future we can do a lot in countries that are more disconnected.”
That is why Aftab feels it is important to follow up on the ideas of the Spanish students, as they bring a fresh perspective to tackling the problem. “We, as parents, know that we have to block outlets so kids don’t stick a fork inside when they’re little. But they when they’re crawling see some that we don’t even see. We see it from above and they see it from below. We have to look at the way young people look at the Internet because they see plugs that we don’t see.”