Engaging Teenagers in Cyberbullying Prevention: Insights from a Digital Toolkit

Abstract

Diverse and multi-faceted approaches are needed to combat cyberbullying, given the different platforms and applications used daily by teenagers, from image- and video-based social media to chat applications and video games. While existing contributions often employ social media-inspired applications to engage teenagers, they typically evaluate a single tool in isolation. This leaves a critical gap in understanding how different technological affordances uniquely impact adolescent engagement, motivation, and empathy. In this work, we present the evaluation of a novel digital platform that integrates three different tools, a chat-based role-playing activity, an Instagram-like application, and a 3D serious game, orchestrated via an educator dashboard. Evaluated with 244 students aged 11–17, the study assessed interest, perceived appropriateness, and intrinsic motivation against a baseline of self-reported empathy. Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of New Childhood Studies and Brave Spaces, our comparative analysis reveals that design mechanics inherently carry demographic and psychological biases. Notably, real-time, text-based role-playing acts as a pedagogical equaliser, effectively engaging teenagers regardless of age, gender, or baseline empathy. Conversely, engagement in image-based feeds and action-oriented games is heavily dependent on age and gender, respectively, and largely appeals to already empathetic individuals. Empirical findings are abstracted into 5 explicit, transferable design principles intended to guide developers and educators in creating inclusive, theoretically grounded digital environments for cyberbullying education.