Directions for Teacher

Print slides as full-sized pages. Give one scenario to each pair or small group. If your group is large, you may give the same scenario to more than one small group.

Explore: Scenario A

Heather is a 4th grader who loves to explore online. On Monday, she receives an email from someone named stalker2020@gmail.com. The subject and body of the email state, “I’m watching you. Be afraid. Heather immediately deletes it and thinks nothing of it. On Tuesday, she receives another email from the same person. This one says, “I am getting closer, and I see you right now as you read this.” Heather starts to get worried, but she doesn’t want to tell her parents because they might take away her device time. As the week goes on, she keeps getting more and more scary messages from stalker2020.

What should Heather do?

If you were Heather’s friend, how would you help her?

Adapted from Hinduja & Patchin, 2020

Explore: Scenario B

Casey loves playing games on his Xbox Live, especially since it allows him to link up to and compete with other players from around the world. He recently met a teenager in Russia named Boris while playing Overwatch. Together they became an unbeatable team. One day, Casey told Boris he was going to start playing with a different player and didn’t want to play with Boris anymore. Boris was mad! He started sharing negative messages about Casey to other gamers on Xbox Live. Suddenly, Casey’s new gaming partner “dumped” him and all the other gamers rejected Casey’s invitation to play. Casey is starting to feel depressed since this game was his escape from tough things going on in his real life.

What should Casey do?

If you were Casey’s friend, how would you help her?

Adapted from Hinduja & Patchin, 2020

Explore: Scenario C

Courtney is a middle school student who appears to have everything going for her. She’s on the soccer team, plays in the band, and gets good grades. Unfortunately, she has recently been cyber bullied by some girls at her school. They have been ganging up against Courtney, creating fake accounts using Courtney’s picture to start false rumors about her. Courtney is worried that other people at school will believe these lies. She has been reporting the fake accounts to the social media site where they appear, but every time the company deletes the negative content or blocks an account, another one appears the next day.

What should Courtney do?

If you were Courtney’s friend, how would you help her?

Adapted from Hinduja & Patchin, 2020