Cyber safety was talked about a lot in my schooling. I grew up during the rise of social media platforms, where cyberbullying was significantly high. We had at least two talks a year with counsellors or the local police on staying safe online. This started during the time that Amanda Todd’s story was first coming to light as I was in grade 4 at the time. After that, we learned about Cyberbullying and Cyber safety in health class.
When the police came to my school to do a presentation on Cybersafety, they would always use Instagram as an example and show us how to keep our accounts private. They would also stress that we should only be accepting follow requests from people we know, not strangers. When they wanted to scare us, they would tell us stories about people being Cyberbullied or being caught cyberbullying.
Overall, this approach worked well for me, especially since my parents enforced the same cyber safety teachings. It wasn’t as if I heard too much about cyberbullying within my class, but I don’t doubt that it still existed.
I think the best way to stay safe online is to be cautious. You can never know if someone is who they say they are. It is a bad idea to accept requests from strangers who randomly add you online.