In the millennial era, UPH realizes that cyberbullying is susceptible to occur among teenagers. With the advanced development of technology, teenagers could not be separated from their smartphones. Bullying is now not only in the form of verbal and physical abuse but also digital abuse on social media. Observing this phenomenon, UPH felt the urge to invite teachers to understand cyberbullying through the Teacher Seminar with the theme “How to Recognize Cyberbullying?”. The event was held on 14 August 2019 at B326 UPH Lippo Village campus.

71 teachers from different schools received knowledge brought by Irmawan Hadiraharja, Executive Director of Family First Indonesia.

Irmawan revealed, “A research in Indonesia stated that 58% of respondents do not understand the problem with cyberbullying and 39% do not understand Internet security. It is different from my generation, where we make friends with the surrounding community. Now, teenagers find it easier to make friends in cyberspace. This has resulted in their susceptibility in becoming a victim or a cyberbully.”

Moreover, Irmawan added that at their age, teenagers strive to find their true selves and this process is often based on people’s acceptance and perspectives of them. They define themselves based on their social circles and turn it into their standard of living. As a result, when they receive a bad comment, they become intimidated and dejected. Many victims of bullying stay silent and are afraid of reporting the bullying.

Irmawan added, “Cyberbullying has many forms which are less known by the people. These forms include frapping, outing, and trolling. Frapping is when someone uses another person’s name for his or her social media and posts indecent things in his or her name. Outing is when someone spreads another person’s data. Trolling is posting negative comments in public forums.”

Through his explanation, Irmawan reminds his audience that they can do many things to prevent cyberbullying, including protection of private data, treasuring friendship in the real world, and being selective in choosing friends. For the teachers, Irmawan left a message that they should be guides at school, pushing teenagers to develop their talents and potentials, teaching them to update healthy and responsible things online, and to always open a channel of communication that is warm and responsive for the teenagers’ actions.”

Teacher Seminar is part of the UPH Festival 2019 “Grace Upon Grace”. The benefits of Teacher Seminar was received by attending teachers. This was delivered to us by Ambros, a teacher from SMA Marsudirini Bekasi.

Ambros said, “The seminar opened up new things for the teachers about recognizing and handling cyberbullying. Many students moved to our school with a history of being a cyberbullying victim. Therefore, we must know how to prevent it so that it will not be repeated in our school.”

At the end of the seminar, teachers were invited to participate in a workshop, where they make leather wallets. The workshop was led by Richwan Hartono, an alumnus of Product Design from the School of Design UPH 2019, at the B314 building. With this activity, teachers were equipped with not only knowledge about cyberbullying, but also with the fun and creative experience at UPH.”