After the final bell rings, a certain silence descends upon the hallway of an elementary school. Sneakers squeak on linoleum, backpacks swing out the door, and for a split second, everything appears to be OK. However, for an increasing number of kids, the abuse continues after they leave the building. It follows them home, right into their bedrooms, onto their tablets, and into group chats that they are too young to fully comprehend but old enough to be devastated by.
It took years for the COVID-19 pandemic to fully register. Millions of children were left navigating online spaces with little adult supervision as it gave them unrestricted screen time and eliminated the social boundaries that school buildings naturally impose. That combination turned out to be hazardous. Before 2020, cyberbullying was already a problem, but it has accelerated in ways that parents, schools, and even researchers are still attempting to quantify. Increased social media use during the pandemic was found to be statistically significantly correlated with an increase in cyberbullying incidents, according to research involving more than 200 participants. Anyone who has been paying attention will not be surprised by that. Surprisingly, the youngest victims have received very little attention in the post-pandemic school discourse.
Children in elementary school shouldn’t be the public face of this issue. Instagram drama, anonymous accounts, and the digitalization of high school social hierarchies all contribute to the public’s perception of cyberbullying as a teenage problem. However, the age floor decreased at some point during those two years of distance learning. Devices were given to children aged seven and eight so they could participate in Zoom classes. In certain instances, they developed online rivalries as well as friendships. Many of them had already internalized digital interaction patterns that wouldn’t seem out of place among teenagers by the time traditional classroom instruction resumed.
It’s possible that some parents still don’t fully understand the challenges their kids are facing. Nowadays, if you walk into any school office, you’re likely to hear a counselor describe situations that seem almost unreal: voice messages used to make fun of classmates, screenshots of a child’s drawing shared to make fun of them, or excluding second graders from virtual game groups. These are real-world examples. In the years since the return to in-person instruction, teachers and school psychologists from various school districts have reported precisely these kinds of incidents. Children did not become cruel as a result of the pandemic. However, it undoubtedly provided cruelty with new means.
The anonymity that digital platforms can provide, even for young children, makes this type of bullying especially challenging. According to some research, this anonymity makes victims feel helpless in a way that traditional face-to-face bullying frequently doesn’t. When a child is being made fun of on the playground, they can at least see who is doing it. When an attack occurs online, it may appear to be coming from both everywhere and nowhere at the same time. An adult who did not grow up with a smartphone will find it difficult to comprehend the helplessness of that experience.
Schools have made an effort. There are well-meaning posters about being kind online, assemblies, and classroom lessons. However, it seems that many organizations continue to view this as an awareness issue rather than a structural one. In actuality, post-COVID elementary school students are not just learning how to use technology; rather, they were raised in it during one of the most psychologically turbulent times in contemporary childhood. All of the social instincts, anxieties, and habits that were developed during those years are now entering schools every morning.
For a few more years, it’s still unclear if the full scope of this will be evident in mental health data. However, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the silence surrounding young children and cyberbullying is a warning sign in and of itself when one observes how covertly this issue operates. It’s not a loud crisis. That may be the precise reason it’s so risky.
