KIRO
Keep It Real Online
Cyberbullying
What it is
Bullying that follows a child onto their phone — group chats, comments, memes, or exclusion designed to hurt. Unlike playground bullying, it can carry on at any hour, from anywhere, which is part of why it wears a child down faster.
What it looks like on your child's phone
- Sudden reluctance to go to school or open a particular app
- Checking their phone anxiously, then looking upset
- Being left out of a group chat they were always part of
- Deleting social accounts abruptly
What to do tonight
- Listen first — don’t take the phone away as a first response, it can feel like punishment for telling you
- Screenshot the evidence before anything gets deleted
- Report it to the school and to the platform (most have a report button)
- Agree together on what happens next — a child who feels consulted is more likely to keep talking to you
What the law says in India
India doesn’t yet have one dedicated cyberbullying law. Depending on what happened, it can fall under the IT Act (privacy or obscenity provisions), the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, or school-level policy — CBSE and CISCE both require affiliated schools to maintain anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying policies.
General information, not legal advice.
Still not sure what to do?
Talk it through with Vaani, in your own language.