Cyberbullying in education addressed at UNESCO workshop in Addis Ababa
Educators and youth leaders in Addis Ababa took part in UNESCO training on cyberbullying prevention and digital safety in schools.
UNESCO has used a two-day workshop in Addis Ababa to push cyberbullying, hate speech, misinformation, and other forms of online violence in schools higher on the education and digital safety agenda, bringing together teachers, education experts, government representatives, youth leaders, and academics in training organised by its Liaison Office to the African Union, UNECA and Ethiopia alongside the Addis Ababa City Government Education Bureau.
Held on 7 and 8 March, the event was presented as an effort to strengthen local capacity to recognise, prevent, and respond to online harms affecting students, while framing cyberviolence not only as a student well-being issue, but also as a broader challenge for safer and more inclusive learning environments.
According to UNESCO, such harms can affect learners’ mental health, sense of safety, and academic performance, placing cyberbullying and online abuse within a wider discussion about digital well-being and protection in education. That framing matters because it treats online violence in schools as more than an issue of classroom discipline or individual misconduct.
The organisation also linked the workshop to wider evidence of harm in digital spaces, citing data showing that 58% of young women and girls globally have experienced online harassment on social media platforms. The Addis Ababa event can be read as part of a broader attempt to build institutional awareness and response capacity around online harms affecting young people.
Training sessions covered digital safety, cyberbullying prevention, digital rights and responsibilities, digital well-being, and UNESCO guidance on tackling cyberviolence in education. The emphasis was not only on identifying risks, but also on helping educators and youth leaders respond to them more effectively in both online and offline learning settings.
While the workshop did not introduce a new policy framework or regulatory measure, it suggests that cyberbullying is increasingly being treated as part of a wider public-interest conversation about education, student protection, and digital harms.
That gives the event greater relevance than a routine training session, particularly in a context where schools are being pushed to address the social consequences of digital platforms more directly.
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