How to Prevent Cyberbullying with Technology

Cyberbullying is becoming more prevalent among children and teens, as young people now spend more time on phones, computers and digital devices. Cyberbullying Research Center (national survey, May 2025): A nationally representative survey of 3,466 U.S. middle/high school students (ages 13–17) collected in May 2025 found ~58% reported experiencing cyberbullying at some point in their lifetime, and ~33% reported cyberbullying in the most recent 30 days. Cyberbullying can occur via social media, text, email, instant messages and gaming platforms. It also frequently happens anonymously, making it even more difficult to address and prevent. 

The consequences of cyberbullying can be serious. A large study using real-world, school-monitored online activity found that multiple online risk factors, including cyberbullying, were associated with increased odds of subsequent severe suicide/self-harm alerts among youth, with risk rising sharply when multiple risk factors appeared together.

Historically, it’s been up to human moderators to manually censor offensive content—on social media platforms, for instance—but this is time-consuming and unreliable. Now, many platforms are using algorithms powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and censor harmful content. Read on to find out more, and what parents, teachers and young people themselves can do to combat cyberbullying. 

Cyberbullying can be hard to pin down, since some young people may not consider name-calling or other common behaviors bullying. Also, some may be reluctant to report being bullied online, due to embarrassment or fear of repercussions. 

There was a national U.S. youth sample to examine cyberbullying experiences and PTSD/trauma-related outcomes, framing cyberbullying as potentially trauma-relevant and informing trauma-informed interventions.

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center’s 2025 nationally representative survey, recent cyberbullying victimization among boys was highest at age 13 (44.8%) and generally declined with age through 17 (30.1%); the researchers note this age-based pattern was not as evident among girls.

Studies show that cyberbullying frequently takes place on social media. According to Security.org, kids are the most likely to be cyberbullied on the following social media platforms:

These are just a few of the platforms that children and teens use, however. The more digital platforms a person uses, the more opportunities there are to encounter cyberbullying.

AI is increasingly used to detect and triage bullying, harassment, and other offensive content at scale, helping platforms manage the volume of posts that would overwhelm humans alone. For example, YouTube says it uses a combination of machine learning and people to detect potentially problematic content, with human reviewers making the final call on whether content violates policies.

According to the TechTalks blog, “the advantage such algorithms have over parental control software and keyword-spotting blockers is that they should recognize subtle and sarcastic comments—a task that the former solutions can’t cope with. Besides, the use of machine learning is necessitated because slurs and insults can often be, intentionally or not, misspelled.”

Many companies are creating and training algorithms to detect hate speech and abusive language online.

Meta, formerly Facebook, has invested heavily in AI-driven content moderation and says it is focusing automated enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations, while relying more on reports for some lower-severity areas to reduce mistakes.”

Meta uses automated systems and human reviewers together: AI helps detect and prioritize potentially violating content at scale, and in 2025 Meta said it is also using large language models as a ‘second opinion’ in some moderation decisions before enforcement.

Meta’s 2025 reporting illustrates the scale of enforcement: between January and March 2025, Meta said removals on Facebook and Instagram fell from about 2.4 billion items to about 1.6 billion after policy and enforcement changes aimed at reducing errors. Even with AI, moderation remains challenging, especially for context-heavy content (including images and video) and for bullying/harassment, where nuance and intent can be hard for automated systems to interpret reliably.

While technology shows promise in helping to combat cyberbullying, there are many things young people, parents and teachers can do to address the problem as well.

Jump to: For Kids | For Educators | For Parents

Tips to Prevent Cyberbullying for Teachers and Educators

• IGNORE. It’s not easy, but don’t respond or react to negative comments or interactions online. According to StopBullying.gov, retaliating or trying to get revenge can escalate things or backfire and get you in trouble.
• RECORD. DitchTheLabel.org recommends documenting the bullying by taking screenshots, saving the chat log or keeping a record of the incident(s) in some other way in case the offending content is taken down by the bully before you report it. 
• REPORT. Report bullying or abuse to your internet service provider, website moderator or social media platform. If you don’t get a response or resolution, you can report it to DitchTheLabel.org. The organization claims it can remove most abusive content within 48 hours.
• BLOCK. UNICEF points out that many platforms have created various options for users to restrict others from accessing their full profiles or commenting on their social media. Users should familiarize themselves with the options and use them if necessary.

Tips to Prevent Cyberbullying for Teachers and Educators

• StopBullying.gov encourages educators to be on the lookout for warning signs that a student is being cyberbullied, including noticeable increases or decreases in device use, showing emotional responses (laughter, anger, etc.) to what is happening on their device and hiding their screen when others are near.
• If you think a child is being cyberbullied, the website also encourages speaking to them privately to ask about it and/or reach out to their parent(s). Serve as a facilitator between the child, parent and the school if necessary.
• Request that students sign an Internet safety pledge promising that they will not cyberbully or share their personal information.
• Establish acceptable Internet use and anti-cyberbullying policies in school; many teens who are victims of cyberbullying know their victimizers from school.
• Advise parents to establish Internet use rules for their children, which should include tangible consequences.

Tips to Prevent Cyberbullying for Parents

• Talk with your children about some of the risks and benefits of the Internet, giving examples of inappropriate incidents which teens may view as harmless or normal (e.g., a stranger initiating a conversation regarding pictures your child has posted of themselves online). 
• Check out websites, social media platforms and apps that your children use frequently to see what they encounter online. 
• Communicate rules and responsibilities for online behavior and enforce consequences for inappropriate behavior. 
• Tell your children or teens that it’s not their fault if they become victims of cyberbullying, but it is important for them to tell you if they are targeted. 
• Help victims keep a record of bullying incidents in case the situation escalates and law enforcement needs to intervene. If cyberbullying involves threats and harassment or frequent cyberattacks, call the police to ensure your child’s safety.

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Information last updated: January 2026