Cyberbullying and the Bystander - Bullying - Australian Human ...

Chapter 1. Executive summaryIn May 2011, the Child Health Promotion Research Centre (CHPRC), in partnership with PrimaryCommunication, were commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Commission to conduct a study toidentify the most effective strategy, messages, content and technology to be used to undertake a socialmarketing campaign targeted at young people aged 13 to 17 years old. The social marking campaign willfocus on encouraging cyberbullying bystanders to take positive, effective and safe action when theywitness cyberbullying.The Cyberbullying Bystanders Project comprises five stages in a two phase plan. This report presents thefindings and outcomes as part of Phase One (Stages 1 to 3). A communications strategy will be preparedby Primary Communication for the Australian Human Rights Committee which utilises the findings in thisreport to inform future directions of the campaign.The CHPRC used three strategies to consult with young people to answer the following researchquestions:1. How can barriers to taking positive bystander action be removed?2. What would motivate the target group to take positive bystander action?3. What are the most effective messages to communicate bystander strategies?4. What is the most effective content including user generated and the use of mobile applications?5. What is the most effective platform(s) for implementation?First, Cyber Friendly Student Leaders recruited as part of the CHPRC‟s Cyber Friendly Schools Project(n=60) were consulted, via a written worksheet, about their technology use, preferred Australiancelebrities and perceptions of friends‟ behaviours. Second, Student Edge were engaged to conduct amoderated online blog to determine students‟ experiences as bystanders to cyberbullying andrecommendations for campaign strategies. Of the 409 responses posted on the blog, 277 (68%) wereprovided by the target age group (13-17 year old students) by students nationwide. Finally, Year 8 and 10students (n=102) at five Perth metropolitan, non-government secondary schools were recruited toparticipate in focus group discussions (approximately 40 minutes duration) to consolidate the themesarising from the previous consultation stages. The methods and results of each research stage aredescribed in full in Chapters 3 and 4 of this report. The findings arising from these stages weretriangulated to answer the five research questions comprising the Cyberbullying Bystanders Project, asdiscussed below.Page 1 of 197