Can Online Education Programs Solve the Cyberbullying Problem? Educating South Korean Elementary Students in the COVID-19 Era

Eunsun Choi,Namje Park

doi:10.3390/su132011211

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, public education has been forced to hold classes online, which increases the time students are on the internet at home. While this situation has significantly reduced the incidence of physical violence between students, cyberbullying has increased sharply, even among younger students. This paper examines a program developed to educate elementary school students on how to best respond to cyberbullying—a social issue that hinders the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs). The program was applied to students, and the educational effects were tracked. First, we analyzed education programs in South Korea and the United States that teach students how to cope with cyberbullying, extracted characteristic parts, and developed the online education program in accordance with the current situation in South Korea. Next, we conducted an online education preference survey through an independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. As a result, regardless of gender and grade, most study subjects preferred online education. In addition, we conducted a paired sample t-test to determine the prevention and response effects of suggested online education programs. According to the test, the study subjects experienced less cyberbullying and victimization after participating in the online education program. Additional benefits were the students’ increased ability to defend against cyberbullying and a decreased need for defenders and assistants in warding off the cyberbullies.

Highlights

Accepted: 8 October 2021Due to the recent development of information and communication technology, most adolescents in South Korea use smartphones and computers [1]
Regarding the subjects’ preference for the online education program, pre- and post-tests were not conducted in this study because it was important to analyze whether the preference for online education programs was inherently higher than that of face-to-face education, not the subjects’ preference for this online education program
To measure the preventive effect of the online education program proposed in this paper, we investigated students’ cyberbullying and victimization experiences before and after taking the education program

Summary

Introduction

Accepted: 8 October 2021Due to the recent development of information and communication technology, most adolescents in South Korea use smartphones and computers [1]. The ubiquitous access to and use of digital devices has increased the convenience of life, the downsides include addiction to smartphones and games and cyberbullying among teenagers [2,3]. The cyber world is not regarded as a secondary space but a continuum of life and an essential social space for forming relationships [4,5,6,7,8,9]. Based on their long-term virtual experience, they recognize that the cyber world strongly correlates with the actual community to which they belong [10]. The victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying are becoming younger day by day [12,13,14]

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Conclusion