New Measures Announced to Strengthen Fight Against Bullying at School and Cyberbullying

Faced with this tragedy, the Minister also announced today, Thursday June 1, 2023, a series of new measures to strengthen the fight against bullying at school, and in particular against cyberbullying.

Reinforcement of the subsidies allocated to the two associations managing the listening platforms

Listening attentively to victims and witnesses of harassment is essential. Two associations, E-Enfance and EPE (School for parents and educators), respectively manage the platforms and toll-free numbers on cyberbullying (3018) and bullying at school (3020) in partnership with the Ministry of National Education and Youth. In this context, the resources allocated to them will be increased in order to recruit more psychologists, social network experts and listeners.

The reminder of the legislative provisions to all the heads of establishment

Instructions have been sent to all heads of establishments so that they have all the levers to fight against harassment within their establishments, and in particular the legal lever of article 40 of the code of criminal procedure and of the law of March 2, 2022 aimed at combating school bullying, which invites them to systematically report all declared acts of bullying.

The launch of an intergovernmental mobilization to better fight against harassment on social networks

The Minister will invite the main managers of social networks to exchange views, in particular the Meta France group (Facebook, Instagram), SnapChat, TikTok and Twitter, in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Territories, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry in charge of the Digital Transition and Telecommunications. This intergovernmental mobilization will make it possible to jointly identify the levers of action to ensure that the platforms respect their legal obligations in terms of moderation.

These measures complement actions already undertaken during this school year:

• The extension of the pHARe program to high schools from the start of the 2023 school year.
• The guarantee that 100% of schools and colleges effectively deploy the pHARe program.
• The communication of emergency numbers 3018 and 3020 will be systematized at each start of the school year in correspondence books and other digital media.
• The training of all national education personnel in the fight against school bullying. As article 5 of the law of March 2, 2022 provides, all staff must be trained, starting with trainee teachers.

Granting teams the means to resolve the most complex situations in the first degree, by allowing, when the intentional and repeated behavior of a pupil poses a risk to the safety of other pupils, to change the author of the harassment of school and to set up an adapted follow-up.