Grażyna Hanaf, Julia Lisiecka and Teresa Rudzińska have produced an educational film that can be shown during a lesson to address a very important topic with students: online hate.
– Until now, I travelled to schools to give lectures, but the epidemic meant that we had to look for other ways of reaching students and teachers with this topic – says the group’s leader and project initiator Grażyna Hanaf. – In cooperation with the Psychological and Pedagogical Counselling Centre, together with the boleslawienie.eu Association, I organised several dozen free presentations discussing how one of the most common forms of cyberbullying works. In the 2018/2019 school year and at the beginning of 2019/2020, I met more than 800 students. Thanks to support from the budget of the Marshal’s Office of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, the film could be made, and our lecture can now reach even more students – Grażyna Hanaf reports.
Journalist Grażyna Hanaf wrote the film script, while Teresa Rudzińska, director of the Psychological and Pedagogical Counselling Centre, provided the project with substantive supervision, preparing it in accordance with the developmental needs of children and young people aged 9–15. Teacher Julia Lisiecka collected data and a list of institutions interested in using the film during lessons, and also provided substantive support in preparing the lesson plan.
The film and lesson plan will be sent to female teachers free of charge. The educational film addresses issues such as the emotions caused by online hate: fear, loneliness and ostracism; internet safety; support for hate victims from adults and institutions; and victims’ rights.
Excerpt from the film “How Does Online Hate Work?”
The problem of online hate
Both in Poland and around the world, there is an ongoing discussion about the impact of information technology on the lives of children and young people, particularly during the pandemic, when students use the internet more often than usual. This impact can take an adverse form as peer violence using electronic media online. An analysis by the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) from 2016 shows that Poland belongs to the group of countries with high numbers of cyberbullying victims and perpetrators. In surveys, students and teachers acknowledge that cyberbullying affects more than one-third of students. Cyberbullying is particularly dangerous when directed at minors. Moreover, it affects not only the victim directly, but also the entire group in which the person experiencing cyberbullying functions.
The NIK research findings correspond with the results of research by the Research and Academic Computer Network (from December 2016), in which 39 percent of surveyed students said that they had not told anyone about violence directed at them online, while fewer than 3 percent had informed a teacher. This is why it is so important to carry out measures aimed at preventing and combating cyberbullying among students, as well as preventive activities among students affected by or at risk of this phenomenon.
The advantages of the “How Does Online Hate Work?” lesson
The lesson is structured so that students learn what emotions drive people who use forms of communication such as insulting, mocking, humiliating or verbally attacking others online. Students receive information about the rights of the person being attacked and the obligation to report serious threats or attacks on our privacy to the police. They experience compassion (empathy) for people who are attacked and isolated, and gain an understanding of their own needs and the mechanisms behind their own behaviour online. Students can understand how aggression and jealousy function in our lives and how dangerous the internet can sometimes be. The lesson covers the following topics: boundaries, respect and needs, as well as safety among peers, at school and at home.
Contact: how can you receive the film and lesson plan?
The free film and lesson plan for conducting a lesson or discussion about the dangers of digital media can be obtained by emailing: gh@istotne.pl, or by calling 792 177 320.
The project is co-financed from the budget of the Marshal’s Office of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.
