Stop Cyberbullying Day 2020 Highlights and Activities from around the World
Author: SCD Team
June 26, 2020
What a day we had! Stop Cyberbullying Day 2020 brought people together on and offline (respecting social distancing obviously) from all over the world. Brands, experts, governments, celebrities and educators all pledged and demonstrated their commitment to a kinder more inclusive internet at a time when it has never been more important to promote kindness and acceptance on and offline.
There are way too many Stop Cyberbullying Day activities to compile everything that happened from all over the world into one article – so we’ve put together a number of highlights from the day below:
BRAND AND INFLUENCER SUPPORT
Stop Cyberbullying Day 2020 saw a wide range of familiar brands, organizations, governments, news agencies and celebrities pledge their support for the day, with brands and organizations across the world recognizing the event as an ideal platform to launch products and initiatives.
In addition to contributions from Cybersmile Ambassadors and influencers including Paige Spiranac, Jake Zyrus, Johnny & Lauren Orlando, Chessie King, Normani and WWE superstar Nikki Cross – some other key supporters and participants of the day’s events included:
- Cadbury
- Hockey Canada
- Telus
- Telenor
- Nerds
- Rimmel London
- Samsung
- Department for Education
- Ohio Dept of Education
- UNICEF
- Bitdefender
- Communications Authority of Kenya
- National Cyber Security Centre
- Zoella
- Kapook
- European Union Digital Single Market
- Canadian Centre for Child Protection
- Police Scotland
- Umniah
- dtac
- Anti-Bullying Alliance
- Insafe
- Safer Internet Day
- CIMB Thai Bank
- The National Trading Standards eCrime Team
- Child Focus Belgium
At this point we want to say a huge thank you to all the brands, influencers and organizations who supported the event and helped make it such a huge success during a very difficult time for everybody, we salute you!
We are always keen to hear from brands, governments and influencers who want to work with us for a truly inclusive internet without the fear of hate, ridicule and abuse – reach out if this sounds like you and we can explore alignment opportunities!
GLOBAL CALL-TO-ACTION ON TWITTER
For Stop Cyberbullying Day 2020, we launched a global call-to-action on Twitter with a sharable live conversation card reaching millions of internet users across the platform – all individually pledging their support for the day and for a kinder more inclusive internet.
The conversation card allowed people to pledge their support and share the message with their communities and followers – in turn inspiring them to do the same.
CYBERSMILE LAUNCH DIGITAL WELLBEING 2020 REPORT
Cybersmile marked Stop Cyberbullying Day 2020 in the U.K. by launching the Digital Wellbeing 2020 report, a national study of young people focusing on their relationships with technology and their perspectives of available support structures for online problems. Some key findings from the report include:
- 60% of young people feel that the time they spend online negatively impacts other important areas of their life including sleep, diet, exercise and study.
- 46% of young people consider themselves addicted to their smartphone.
- 42% of young people consider their parents to be addicted to their smartphones.
- 35% of young people feel that internet and social media use negatively affects their mental and/or physical health.
- 18% of young people would like their parents to help them more with reducing the amount of time they spend online.
- Over a quarter (27%) of young people feel that their parents would not know how to help them with online related problems.
- A third (33%) of 16-year-olds feel that their parents would not know how to help them with online related problems.
- 30% of young people feel that their school would not know how to help them with an online related problem.
- 18% of young people do not feel comfortable going to their parents with an online related problem.
- Over a quarter (27%) of 16-year-olds do not feel comfortable going to their parents with an online related problem.
- 9% of young people feel that their parents’ internet social media use has affected their ability to look after them.
- 12% of 13-year-olds feel that their parents’ internet social media use has affected their ability to look after them.
- Internet and social media use among young people has doubled during the Covid-19 lockdown with the daily average time spent online among participants aged 12-16 years old increasing from 3 to 6+ hours per day.
1000 young people (12-16) were asked a number of questions relating to a wide range of topics such as smartphone addiction, parental support, school support, screen-time and other key indicators identified by Cybersmile as areas of potential risk to mental and physical wellbeing.
You can learn more and explore the full report here.
COMMUNITY GROWTH
Cybersmile has always seen an increase in followers and engagement around the time of Stop Cyberbullying Day but his year has broken all the records! For 2020, Cybersmile’s community of followers and positive activists has grown by 500,000 across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – welcome to the community everyone!
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
To mark Stop Cyberbullying Day 2020, Cybersmile launched an awareness campaign highlighting our education program which is supported by a number of brands including Claire’s, Rimmel London, and Microsoft. The campaign reached and educated more than 550,000 internet users from around the world on the following important topics:
- Online Safety
- Positive Gaming
- LGBT Awareness
- Livestream Basics
- Gender Awareness
- Parental Guidance
- Digital Civility
- Digital Wellbeing
- Content Authenticity
- Online Security
- Emoji & Emoticon
- Beauty Cyberbullying
The Cybersmile Education Program provides a full curriculum of interactive modules suitable for all age groups and abilities. The program delivers fun and engaging education on important topics affecting internet users of all ages. The program currently provides geo-targeted versions of either US or UK English languages, depending on the user’s location. You can explore the Cybersmile Education Program and educator lesson plans here.
EXCLUSIVE GIVEAWAYS
Exclusive Stop Cyberbullying Day giveaways this year included a personally signed golf bag from Paige Spiranac, a signed copy of Chessie King’s new book and signed official Cybersmile t-shirts from Johnny & Lauren Orlando, Daniel Padilla, Kathryn Bernardo and Normani.
Winners of the giveaways have been randomly selected and announced on social media. The lucky winners are:
Normani
Chessie King
Paige Spiranac
Johnny Orlando
Lauren Orlando
Daniel & Kathryn
Stay tuned for lots more exciting giveaways throughout the year on Cybersmile’s social channels. Remember that you need to be following us to win!
CREATIVE AWARENESS CAMPAIGN WITH ONE MINUTE BRIEFS
For the fourth consecutive year, One Minute Briefs supported the day with an online campaign which encouraged the creative community on Twitter to design a poster based on this year’s Stop Cyberbullying Day theme of kindness and acceptance. Throughout the day, a diverse selection of posters were created and shared by top creatives from around the world! This year saw a record number of entries and we want to say congratulations to Farhana Bheda for creating the winning poster (above)!
A SPECIAL APPEAL FOR KINDNESS FROM CYBERSMILE AMBASSADOR JAKE ZYRUS
Cybersmile Ambassador Jake Zyrus called for a kinder internet on Stop Cyberbullying Day through a statement issued on his social media channels. The singer’s call-to-action to his millions of fans and followers was highlighted by several media outlets and promoted by ABS-CBN across the Philippines throughout the day,
A BIG THANK YOU!
We want to say a HUGE thank you to all our partners, Ambassadors, friends, brands, supporters, activists, governments, donors and everybody inbetween for helping make Stop Cyberbullying Day 2020 such a massive success during such challenging times.
We want to say a special thank you to Twitter and Instagram for their continued support of Stop Cyberbullying Day – THANK YOU!
GET INVOLVED NEXT YEAR!
Stop Cyberbullying Day 2021 will take place on Friday June 18th so be sure to get it in your schedule now! We’ve got lots of surprises to come including the launch of a brand new Stop Cyberbullying Day official website and brand identity – which will elevate Stop Cyberbullying Day to a whole new level!
We are now accepting applications and proposals for official partnerships of all levels for Stop Cyberbullying Day 2021. If you would like to see your brand involved next year, let’s talk!