Cyber For Youth, a non-profit, student-run institution, held its first-ever workshop for freshmen during their P.E. classes in the Student Union on Monday, Nov. 18, educating students on topics such as digital footprint awareness, cyberbullying and online security. Founded by junior Ria Sethi, the organization promotes education about digital safety and cyberbullying awareness for students and parents through workshops, and education sessions.
During each period, Cyber For Youth members gave presentations about identifying cyberbullying in certain situations, followed by active discussions among table groups and hands-on simulations in which students indirectly experienced the perspective of the victim to help identify situations of cyberbullying.
Sethi has been coordinating with MVHS administrators to organize this workshop over the past few weeks and carefully planning sessions with members to prepare for the event. She believes that it is important to educate on such topics at the start of high school, as she has found through surveys and data that cyberbullying often starts earlier than high school.
“Freshmen do get a presentation at the beginning of the year from a School Resource Officer on cyberbullying,” Sethi said. “However, talking to a lot of my friends this year and from other grades, they said that they either forgot about the presentation or it didn’t help them in any way, so we wanted to do something more serious and interactive that would help them.”
Basis Independent junior Nirvika Choudhury, who is Head of Research and Writing at Cyber For Youth, personally helped handcraft much of the content for the workshops. She says this process involved days of planning activities for the event alongside the team.
“Our goal is to empower students and educate them about online safety, especially on topics like digital footprints that affect them in their college career and beyond,” Choudhury said. “We want them to know about these early on, so that they don’t make mistakes that they are not aware of and they’re just really positive online.”
Overall, Sethi is proud of how the event went, stating that the workshops flowed smoother than they had planned, despite small distractions and some periods being less engaged than others. Choudhury and Sethi both plan to reach out to more schools in the future and expand their efforts, stating that this will be the first of many.
“I think it’s really important because a lot of people have misconceptions about cyberbullying and don’t fully understand how big of an impact it can have,” Choudhury said. “Through this workshop, we aim to show the real effects it has on people. We’re not just focusing on MVHS, we’re working on getting this implemented in the Cupertino Union School District. We think it’s crucial to target middle schoolers as they are beginning to handle online activities.”
