How to Use Technology to Prevent School Bullying

Bullying and cyberbullying continue to be prevalent in K-12 schools. In fact, 90% of students in Grades 4-8 report that they have been bullied or harassed and 19.5% of students in Grades 9-12 report that they have been bullied at school.

Access to technology has only increased instances of bullying online. In a survey conducted by Lightspeed Systems®, over 67% of IT professionals said cyberbullying had increased at their school due to technology.

Inappropriate use of technology leads to cyberbullying–but using technology to help prevent bullying can be the key to the success of a school’s bullying prevention program.

How can you leverage K-12-specific software to address bullying and cyberbullying in your district?

Using technology to address instances of bullying and cyberbullying in K-12

Infographic of average amount of daily screen usage for teens is 7 hours and 22 minutes

Technology products are often your best chance at identifying instances of cyberbullying. The students of today are constantly connected to their devices—at home and at school. For many students, their entire day is spent online. Teens spend on average, 7 hours and 22 minutes on their personal devices––in addition to their schoolwork. For schoolwork, 56% of students spend over two hours actively engaged in digital learning per day. Students start the day scrolling on a personal device, use a school-issued device in class, and then use devices at home for homework and socialization. As a result, more of their peer interactions are taking place online, including bullying.

Technology products are often your best chance at identifying instances of cyberbullying. The students of today are constantly connected to their devices—at home and at school. For many students, their entire day is spent online. Teens spend on average, 7 hours and 22 minutes on their personal devices—in addition to their schoolwork. For schoolwork, 56% of students spend over two hours actively engaged in digital learning per day. Students start the day scrolling on a personal device, use a school-issued device in class, and then use devices at home for homework and socialization. As a result, more of their peer interactions are taking place online, including bullying.

Infographic of average amount of daily screen usage for teens is 7 hours and 22 minutes
Lightspeed Alert scanning for bullying svreenshot

Lightspeed Alert™ has bullying-specific artificial intelligence features that scan for hate speech and key terms related to bullying like racial slurs, sexual slurs, or wishes of violence or suicide on another student. These alerts are flagged and sent to your designated staff in real time so they can address instances of bullying before a situation escalates to violence or self-harm. Reports from Lightspeed Alert’s software provides timelines and screenshots to help district administrators get the full picture of bullying and cyberbullying incidents for appropriate documentation and intervention.

To better support your safety staff, alert notifications are also sent to the Lightspeed Systems human review team, known as safety specialists. With backgrounds in education, law enforcement, and investigation, Lightspeed Safety Specialists have further training in threat assessment and suicide prevention. The specialists review alerts 24/7/365 so that no alert goes unnoticed no matter the day or time. Lightspeed Alert provides a critical layer of protection to help stop bullying and cyberbullying before it becomes a bigger problem.

How a web filter can help prevent bullying

In addition to catching instances of bullying, technology solutions can support your bullying prevention efforts. It is essential that your district’s technology products can do the following:

  • Filter BYOD as easily as school-issued devices to protect students of all ages from harmful online content known to facilitate bullying and harassment.
  • Prevent harmful behavior before it starts by allowing safe social media use with “read-only mode” and customizable social media controls to keep valuable content accessible to students, without the risks.
  • Ensure YouTube is a safe, distraction-free learning resource by blocking potentially harmful videos, comments, and sidebars.

Lightspeed Filter™—our patented, CIPA-compliant web filtering technology—addresses all of these concerns to ensure that your IT staff and district leaders have easy-to-use controls that grant or deny access where it makes sense for your district and students’ unique needs.

Lightspeed Filter lets school districts customize social media controls so they can set appropriate policies to common cyberbullying platforms—like Instagram and Twitter—while on school devices. With Lightspeed Filter, schools can allow, block, or set social media sites to “read-only mode” so social platforms are used appropriately. 

Lightspeed Filter blocks other harmful content or sites related to bullying, including YouTube content. Easy SmartPlay™ controls keep students from reading or sending potentially malicious comments on YouTube so they can stay focused on educational videos.

With students living in a digital world and technology so ingrained in the learning process, implementing technology products that are designed specifically to address instances of bullying in K-12 schools is critical to maintaining a safe and healthy environment for students. Software like Lightspeed Alert can help K-12 schools address bullying and cyberbullying when it happens, and Lightspeed Filter can help prevent it.

Social media controls from Lightspeed Filter
Social media controls from Lightspeed Filter

Lightspeed Filter lets school districts customize social media controls so they can set appropriate policies to common cyberbullying platforms—like Instagram and Twitter—while on school devices. With Lightspeed Filter, schools can allow, block, or set social media sites to “read-only mode” so social platforms are used appropriately. 

Lightspeed Filter blocks other harmful content or sites related to bullying, including YouTube content. Easy SmartPlay™ controls keep students from reading or sending potentially malicious comments on YouTube so they can stay focused on educational videos.

With students living in a digital world and technology so ingrained in the learning process, implementing technology products that are designed specifically to address instances of bullying in K-12 schools is critical to maintaining a safe and healthy environment for students. Software like Lightspeed Alert can help K-12 schools address bullying and cyberbullying when it happens, and Lightspeed Filter can help prevent it.

Schedule a demo or request a quote to see how Lightspeed Systems can help your district address and prevent bullying in all its forms with technology.

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  • Ensure all students interact with only the right online curriculum — precisely when they’re supposed to use it.
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Prevent suicides, cyberbullying, and schoolviolence. Lightspeed Alert™ supports district administrators and selected personnel with advanced AI to detect and report potential threats before it’s too late.

  • Human review
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  • Activity logs provide visibility into online activity before and after a flagged event

Protect students from harmful online content. Lightspeed Filter™ is the best-in-class solution that acts as a solid barrier to inappropriate or illicit online content to ensure students’ online safety 24/7.

  • Powered by the most comprehensive database in the industry built through 20 years of web indexing and machine learning.
  • Ensure CIPA compliance
  • Block millions of inappropriate, harmful, and unknown sites, images, and video including YouTube
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Gain complete visibility into students’ online learning. Lightspeed Analytics™ gives districts robust data on the effectiveness of any tools they implement so they can take a strategic approach to their technology stack and streamline reporting.

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