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, aiming to educate 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, education sessions and indirectly experiencing the victims perspective.
During the sessions, Cyber For Youth members gave presentations about determining cyberbullying in certain situations, followed by active discussions among table groups and even hands-on activities to help identify situations of cyberbullying, indirectly experiencing the perspective of the victim.
Sethi has been coordinating with MVHS administration 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 the highschool year, 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 with an SRO on cyberbullying,” Sethi said. “However, talking to a lot of my friends this year and a lot of my friends from other classes, 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 Chaudhary, 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 activity held in the event, alongside the team.
“Our goal is to empower students and educate them about online safety, and especially with topics like digital footprints that affect them in their college career and beyond,” Chaudhary 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. Chaudhary 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,” Chaudhary said. “Through this workshop, we aim to show the real effects it has on people. We’re not just focusing on Monta Vista, 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.”
