OPINION — When parents think about bullying, they may picture a confrontation in a school hallway or a cruel comment at lunch. Those situations still happen, but social media and messaging apps have extended bullying well beyond the school day. A child can be home, sitting beside a parent, while classmates target them on their phone.
An April 2026 Pew Research Center report found that roughly 3 in 10 U.S. teens who use Snapchat have experienced harassment on the platform, including offensive name-calling, rumors or physical threats.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month, an opportunity to rethink how we recognize and respond to bullying. That starts with taking children’s online experiences as seriously as what happens in person.
