Educational resource

Understand cyberbullying

Recognising harmful digital behaviour is a first step towards building a safer, kinder, and more responsible online Malawi.

Explore the guide

The basics

What is cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is bullying or harassment carried out using digital devices and online services. It can involve sending, posting, or sharing hurtful, threatening, humiliating, or private content to target or distress someone.

Every situation is different. Repeated targeting is common, but a single serious incident can also cause harm. Online disagreement or criticism is not automatically cyberbullying; context, impact, and behaviour matter.

Recognise the signs

Harm can takemany forms online.

These are examples, not a complete list. If something feels unsafe, seek advice from someone you trust.

Abusive or intimidating messages

Sending hurtful, intimidating, or threatening messages through texts, voice notes, email, or direct messages.

Threats and intimidation

Using digital communication to threaten harm, frighten someone, or pressure them through coercion or extortion.

Impersonation and fake accounts

Pretending to be another person online or misusing their identity to mislead, target, or harm them.

Public humiliation

Targeting someone with humiliating posts, edited images, memes, or rumours intended to invite ridicule.

Sharing private content without consent

Forwarding private messages, personal details, images, or recordings without permission can put someone at risk.

Group attacks and exclusion

Coordinating repeated attacks, piling on, or deliberately excluding someone in group chats or online communities.

Digital life in Malawi

The platform may change.Respect still matters.

Harmful behaviour can happen anywhere people communicate, including on platforms commonly used for community, school, and social connections.

Group chats and forwarded content

Harm can include exclusion from a group, repeated targeting, or forwarding rumours, private messages, and voice notes without consent.

Facebook

Comments, pages, and fake profiles

People may be targeted through hurtful comments, impersonation, misleading posts, or rumours shared with a wider audience.

TikTok and Instagram

Images, videos, and direct messages

Examples include unwanted edits, humiliating posts, repeated hostile messages, or sharing someone’s content to target them.

People come first

Online harm can have real effects.

Being targeted online may affect someone’s wellbeing, confidence, sense of safety, relationships, and ability to focus. The impact is personal, and everyone responds differently.

Emotional wellbeing

Someone may feel worried, isolated, embarrassed, or less confident. A calm, supportive conversation can help.

School, work, and community life

Online targeting may make it harder to concentrate or feel comfortable participating in everyday activities.

Small steps can help

Safer habits foreveryday online life.

Pause before posting or forwarding, especially when you feel upset or pressured.
Review privacy settings and limit who can see your personal information and posts.
Do not forward private messages, images, recordings, or rumours without permission.
Check whether a claim is reliable before sharing it with a group or wider audience.
Use platform tools to block, mute, and report content that breaks the platform’s rules.
If someone is being targeted, offer support privately and involve a trusted adult when appropriate.

If you or someone you know needs help, explore safer next steps.

Find victim support