Breaking Down the Smoldering Finale of Smoke
Warning: This post has spoilers for the finale of Smoke.
Across nine episodes, Smoke traced destruction as it traveled from suburban streets and storefronts into more figurative places—the dark recesses of identity, the fragile façades to which people cling in order to survive. By the season finale, “Mirror Mirror,” long-buried truths surface, demanding a reckoning as emotional as it is inevitable.
Creator Dennis Lehane always envisioned a climax that erupted on every level. “It’s such a cliché, but I wanted to have an explosive finale,” he tells TIME. “This is a show about fire. We’ve been promising them fire, so we’re going to give them the fire of all fires. We wanted to go as big as we can—just go for broke, and if we miss, we miss.”
That eruption plays out most vividly through the series’ two central figures. If Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) serves as its moral compass, Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) is its shape-shifter, the man whose presence destabilizes every scene because even his sense of self is built on deception. Over the season, he was both predator and partner, the charming investigator and the arsonist hiding in plain sight. By the end, the armor he constructed—and the story he’s told so often he nearly believes it—has crumbled.
Read more: Smoke Goes Inside the Mind of a Real-Life Serial Arsonist
Into the growing inferno
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The finale opens in the aftermath of Michelle’s darkest act. In the penultimate episode, “Mercy,” she accidentally wounded Captain Burke (Rafe Spall)—her colleague and former lover—then let him die, torching his home to eliminate the evidence. Before fleeing, she planted a glove bearing Gudsen’s DNA, crafting a false trail. Now, in “Mirror Mirror,” she struggles to steady herself, continuing to investigate alongside Gudsen while her composure falters beneath the surface.
Her act of arson ignites something far more catastrophic: an uncontained wildfire rising from Burke’s ruins, flames roaring as windborne embers spiral into the dark. She and Gudsen drive headlong toward the blaze, racing through the woods while heat presses in and smoke thickens the air—until the path reveals itself to be a trap. Gudsen, unmasked earlier as one of the two serial arsonists she’s been hunting, unbuckles her seat belt and wrenches the wheel, sending them into a crash designed to kill her.
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Harry Nilsson’s “Jump Into the Fire” pulses as Michelle—not dead—ties back her hair, preparing for battle. Gudsen crawls from the wreckage; she kicks him, slams him against the car, and presses the barrel of a gun into his mouth. She doesn’t pull the trigger. Instead, a storm breaks—rain cascading in a moment of symbolic and literal cleansing. “[It’s] as clean as Michelle’s gonna get in that moment,” Lehane says. “She’s pushed this all the way, and there’s nothing left to do. Because if it didn’t rain at that moment, something bad could have happened to Dave.” The downpour pulls her back from crossing an irreversible line. As rain drenches them both, she reads him his rights.
For Lehane, the scene’s tension lies partly in its soundtrack. Many of the show’s song selections were his. (“That’s where I really do feel a bit like an auteur,” he adds.) He crafted the entire sequence around Nilsson’s drum solo, playing it endlessly in the writers room. “When I shot that, I said to the creative team, ‘Look, guys, we are doing this to Harry Nilsson’s ‘Jump Into the Fire,’” Lehane recalls. When the initial cut used different music, he personally recut the scene to match Nilsson’s rhythm, and the editor ultimately agreed it was the right move. “We worked that to the bone to get it exactly where I wanted it.”
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It’s a primal, visual crescendo he conceived during what he calls a “mad scientist” burst in the Los Angeles writers’ room, scribbling notes while listening to the Oppenheimer soundtrack. “I love ‘Go Big or Go Home’ moments,” he says. “I don’t do them much… I like to twist, twist, and twist. But this was a big moment.”
Read more: The Best New TV Shows of July 2025
A battle of damaged wills
After their confrontation in the woods, Michelle delivers Gudsen to a waiting Jeep, where Esposito (John Leguizamo) greets her with an air of triumph. Back at Columbia Metro Police Headquarters, the station falls silent as officers watch Gudsen enter, their contempt palpable. In the station bathroom, Michelle catches her reflection, and then sees him—Burke—not in the mirror, but in her mind, planting a warning that if anyone discovers their affair, the truth could unravel everything she’s accomplished.
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In the interrogation room, things shift to psychological warfare. Gudsen weaves stories, reframes evidence, accuses Michelle of bias, and dismisses the glove bearing his DNA as circumstantial. He maintains he was merely investigating, but Michelle counters with his manuscript, cross-referencing it with actual unsolved arson cases and highlighting details only the perpetrator, or someone with access to classified files, could possess.
Still, he deflects. Perhaps a lawyer leaked the report. Maybe a private investigator shared too much. Then Esposito sends Michelle a photograph: the disguise Gudsen wore during the hardware store attack, discovered in a hidden compartment of his impounded car. Even confronted with this evidence, he refuses to confess.
It’s a standoff Lehane and Smollett dissected at length during filming. “I call [Jurnee] my thespian queen,” he says. “At this point, Michelle is desperate. Let’s call a spade a spade—she started the incident that caused all this. Her morality is compromised by the end. She’s interrogating Dave for a murder she committed and destruction she caused. Yet she’s pursuing justice, which we all want. We all want Dave brought to justice.”
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Gudsen’s strategy remains unchanged. “He will deny, deny, deny, and attack, attack, attack,” Lehane explains. “He refuses to let truth penetrate, but when it slips through, when she extracts it from him, he glimpses himself. Then he turns away.” During their final exchange in the interrogation room, Gudsen stares at Michelle. “I know who I am,” he declares. She meets his gaze, responding simply, “So do I.”
The shape of denial
The closing montage delivers quiet devastation. Gudsen’s ex-wife and son pack away photographs, including one showing a heavier, balder version of the man—a face both foreign and unmistakably his. In a single frame, the myth of the chiseled, commanding investigator collapses, revealing the ordinary figure he’s spent years trying to erase. Over Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” the moment turns contemplative—Lehane’s final musical choice, selected to underscore the magnetic pull between Michelle and Gudsen, two people unable to fully break free from each other. Whether he’ll ever be convicted remains uncertain, the unanswered question hanging over the finale, which ends before a trial.
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Gudsen’s fractured identity—swaggering machismo versus devoted family man—might suggest dissociative identity disorder, but Lehane resists reducing him to a clinical label. For him, Dave represents a broader cultural pathology. “I think of it the same way I think of all these performative males in our culture right now: macho dweebs hiding behind their keyboards,” he explains. “If you saw them in person, you’d see some little 5’-6″ guy who lives with his mom.”
Dave’s psychology, Lehane argues, stems from denial, particularly regarding his desires and the transgressive aspects of his personal life. The writers explored how his relationships diverge from those of what Lehane calls a “healthy heterosexual American male,” suggesting truths Dave cannot acknowledge. “We’re all constructing these personas, and it’s damaging the world,” he observes.
That critique carries personal weight. Like Egerton’s character Jimmy Keene in Lehane’s previous Apple TV+ series Black Bird, Gudsen functions as a cultural stand-in. Lehane was raised in what he describes as an “extremely masculine culture”; his immigrant father and uncles worked with their hands. But authenticity, not posturing, defined their masculinity. “My father had nothing but contempt for posing,” Lehane recalls. “If my brothers got a weight set, he’d say, ‘Why do you need to push a bar up and down? You can just do hard work.'”
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Lehane often considers how that generation would view today’s performative masculinity. “I think he would be befuddled and appalled,” he says. “A lot of the great-grandfathers and grandfathers of the men polluting our culture right now would be appalled.” In that sense, Dave is his embodiment of “toxic masculinity,” a man whose identity rests on performance and concealment, whose carefully crafted armor masks profound emptiness.
Living with the aftermath
Lehane never set out to create a simple morality tale with clear heroes and villains. The ambiguity is deliberate, with Gudsen and Michelle shaped by their compromises, each capable of inflicting harm. Gudsen’s intelligence and charm form part of his protective façade, a narrative he’s repeated until it feels almost genuine. In his final moments, he approaches self-recognition before retreating, leaving both audience and characters suspended in uncertainty. Michelle, meanwhile, is steadied by duty and singed by guilt, hunting the truth even as the secret she carries could undo her.
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That deliberate inconclusiveness places Smoke alongside other works that resist easy answers. Lehane draws parallels to The Sopranos’ contentious finale. “Whether you liked it or not, you’re still talking about it,” he notes. He’s witnessed similar reactions to the conclusion of Shutter Island, the 2010 Martin Scorsese psychological thriller he wrote. “It’s the question I get more than any other. I got it from my 16-year-old daughter yesterday. She said, ‘Dad, my friends really want to know.’ I was like, ‘Honey, I’m not telling you.'”
Dave and Michelle constructed identities around control and performance, and now both stand exposed: raw, unstable, unmoored. “What do they have in their lives, really, without each other?” Lehane asks. “They let their ids run so completely amok that there is no way to get half the horses back in the barn. So that is the big final dramatic question: Where are these people going to go now?”Smoke concludes without resolution, offering only consequence. The greatest damage isn’t physical destruction but exposure itself: the compromises and deceptions that prove too painful to confront. What lingers isn’t closure, but the mental heft of choices that cannot be undone—and the knowledge that carrying them is the only path forward.
Is Your TV Spying on You? Here’s How to Check
Your internet-connected TV has Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) features that track what you watch. Here’s how to disable it, along with smart privacy advice from security experts.
Updated August 14, 2025
(Credit: rootstock / Shutterstock)
Smart televisions offer internet access, streaming apps, and sometimes even built-in cameras and microphones. They’re also collecting loads of personal data in order to sell it and serve up targeted ads. And because these TVs are always connected to the internet, bad actors can potentially hack your television to change channels, adjust volume levels, show inappropriate content to children, or use the camera and microphone to spy on you or listen to your conversations. At worst, they could even use this access to find a backdoor into your router and hack your connected smart home.
FBI’s Best Practices
A few years back, the FBI issued a warning about the risks of smart TVs to your privacy, and offered several recommendations. The agency also noted that TV manufacturers and app developers have the ability to listen to and watch you. This all sounds like the worst type of nightmare scenario, but it shouldn’t make you afraid to use your smart TV. The FBI offers a few guidelines and best practices to better ensure your security and privacy:
- Know exactly what features your TV has and how to control them. Do a basic internet search with your model number and the words “microphone,” “camera,” and “privacy.”
- Don’t depend on default security settings. Change passwords if you can—and know how to turn off the microphones, cameras, and collection of personal information, if possible. If you can’t turn them off, consider whether you’re willing to take the risk of buying that model or using that service.
- If you can’t turn off a camera but still want to disable it, a simple piece of black tape over the camera eye is a back-to-basics option.
- Check the manufacturer’s ability to update your device with security patches. Can it do this? Has it done it in the past?
- Check the privacy policy for the TV manufacturer and the streaming services you use. Confirm what data they collect, how they store that data, and what they do with it.
What the Experts Say
Besides the FBI’s advice, we had industry experts weigh in on the issue. Toby Lewis, Global Head of Threat Analysis at cybersecurity firm Darktrace; Burton Kelso, Chief Technology Expert at IT support services company Integral; and Rowenna Fielding of Miss IG Geek shed some light on TV hacking.
What are the potential risks for smart TV owners from hackers taking advantage of vulnerabilities?
Lewis: Data misuse is the most significant potential risk for smart TV owners posed by hackers. Smart TVs and the apps used within, such as Netflix, YouTube, or web browsers, harvest an enormous amount of data from the user. It’s not only the data collected at the TVs that is at risk but when it is sent back to the TV company and stored in a giant database, which could be a valuable target for an attacker.
Kelso: We’re in an age where social engineering is the norm when it comes to cybercrime, so the chances of a hacker getting access to your devices are slim to none. Years ago, criminals did target devices, and your smart TV is essentially a computer. With most tech companies installing safeguards on tech devices, this is no longer the case.
However, cyber crooks can get access to your personal information if the manufacturer of your smart TV suffers a data breach. When data breaches occur, your information could wind up on the dark web where criminals can trade or purchase your personal data. As a smart TV owner, you always have to keep aware of malicious applications that could potentially take control of your TV.
Fielding: A smart TV, like any other “smart” device is a computer, and any computer connected to the Internet may become a target for intrusion. Malicious software is the most likely security threat to a smart TV, unless it is protected by anti-malware software and firewalls. Owners of smart TVs should check to see whether their device comes with malware protection installed and enable it if so – or put it on themselves if possible.
A hacked smart TV might simply not function at all or might have malware intended to capture passwords or personal data on it. If the TV is equipped with a webcam and/or mic, it’s possible that samples of recorded footage and sound could also be extracted and exploited for criminal purposes.
What are the potential privacy threats and infringements from the smart TV manufacturers themselves?
Kelso: This depends on the manufacturer of the TV. In order to increase profits, smart TV manufacturers could install software that is designed to snoop on your TV viewing habits to sell that information to third-party vendors. Also, you have to worry about your popular streaming services like HBO GO, Netflix, and Hulu. These services aren’t preinstalled on your TV, but streaming services do collect your data and track your streaming habits. Whenever this happens, there’s no telling where your data will wind up and this puts you at risk.
Lewis: Due to an industry-wide lack of transparency, the sheer amount of data collected by smart TV manufacturers, and the high-fetching price of data today, the potential for privacy threats and infringement are massive. Manufacturers claim that harvested data is mainly used to personalize and curate quality content for users. However, this data is often sold as a commodity to second, third, fourth, or even fifth-hand parties from various industries for several purposes.
This data is so valuable it often provides a greater revenue stream than the selling point of the smart TV. Once in the hands of these parties, the potential for misuse, impacting a users’ privacy amplifies. Unfortunately, users won’t know who has their data or for what it’s being used.
Fielding: Smart TVs gather an enormous amount of data about their usage and their immediate environment (including other devices connected to them, such as speakers, consoles, and media storage), which is sent back to the manufacturer. Some of this data is used to troubleshoot and improve the device’s software or media services, but much of it is also used to profile the TV’s users – their viewing habits can be used to make inferences about their politics, professional and economic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic identity, social activity, purchasing potential, values and beliefs, all of which helps advertising networks know who to target with what.
Manufacturers are supposed to explain these uses of data to customers, and provide them with ways to either decline consent, or to opt-out of non-consensual data use. Unfortunately, these explanations are usually written in complex legal jargon making them difficult to understand, and often the only way to completely opt out is to return the device to where it was bought from.
Have there been real instances of TV manufacturers using smart TVs to snoop on users, either purposely or accidentally? For example, can they use and have they used the cameras and microphones to record users?
Lewis: While the concern is apparent, there currently isn’t a concrete example of a TV manufacturer snooping on its users. In 2015, Samsung landed in hot water regarding an unfortunately worded statement on monitoring living room conversations, stumbling into a communications crisis. Samsung acted quickly, cleaning up and rewording the statement. However, the immediate outcry was a solid indication of fears around public monitoring. Any proven example of Orwellian-esque monitoring would prove catastrophic for the manufacturer involved.
Kelso: A few years ago, according to the FBI, app developers Vizio, LG, and Samsung were caught snooping on viewers. The FTC had to step in and stop them. Also, the CIA and MI5 were able to access information on smart TVs and listen in on private conversations using the camera and microphones on these devices.
Fielding: Surveillance functions and equipment are built in to almost all “smart” devices and marketed as “features” to make the user’s life easier. Audio recordings generated from the TV listening for its “wake word” are sent back to manufacturers so they can train their speech recognition algorithms. That’s a deliberate design choice, but it can mean that people’s private conversations are revealed to the manufacturer’s employees as a result.
Some smart TVs (e.g., Samsung models) have cameras for accepting “gesture control” inputs, and/or for recording and analyzing the facial expressions of users to try and determine what they enjoy, or don’t enjoy, watching, so as to make recommendations accordingly.
We’ve been hearing a lot about automatic content recognition, or ACR, being used to monitor what people watch and do on their TVs for the purpose of sending them targeted ads. Is this a feature of concern? If so, how can a consumer disable or limit this feature?
Lewis: ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) uses different analytical techniques to identify what the television plays by matching running video and audio to an extensive content database. While usually an opt-in feature, statistics show that most users choose to use ACR. No matter what is playing on the TV, ACR can capture any input, whether gaming, DVDs, streaming, or custom camera feeds. It is currently used to curate hyper-personalized ads and track data usage.
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However, theoretically, ACR could play a far more sinister role. With its cutting-edge analytics, ACR can quickly create an up-to-date profile of a user. In the wrong hands, threat actors could leverage the profile for myriad functions, especially targeted phishing campaigns—one of the UK’s most significant cyber issues.
Fielding: ACR is another form of profiling, where the graphics, text and audio shown on the TV are analyzed by algorithms that attempt to interpret and classify the content, so that those classifications can be used to make inferences about the person watching them. This data is used to target advertising, make content recommendations and may also be traded or sold on via data brokers to other organizations seeking to profile their customers or prospective customers.
What should smart TV owners to do protect themselves and their privacy? Are there specific features that consumers can disable or reconfigure to improve their privacy?
Lewis: The only way for smart TV owners to fully protect themselves and their privacy is to disconnect their television from the internet. As soon as it’s connected, data harvesting from both the TV and apps within begins. Unfortunately, disconnecting from the internet drastically impacts the brilliant features that make a smart TV such an attractive tool, so it’s something few users will pursue. But users can attempt to limit the data taken by the manufacturer.
While no easy task, users can configure the privacy settings on their TV and apps. However, this is made extremely difficult by sub-menus, text, buttons, and jargon, built to make disabling data harvesting as tricky as possible. Unfortunately, even once a user thinks they’ve restricted a manufacturer’s harvesting ability, it’s almost impossible to determine.
While most won’t, users must take the time to read through the terms and conditions accompanying their television. It’s imperative to know, to the best of your ability, where and what your data is being used for and begin to form an idea of the potential risks to that data.
Kelso: There are several things you can do to protect your data. First, like your computer, your smart TV needs to be updated from time to time. On most smart TVs, you can go to the settings area to download updates. Next, you should make sure you’re only downloading apps from the official app store. Most manufacturers have an exclusive app store to download apps for their TV. Don’t be tempted to hack your TV or download apps to USB and Fire Sticks to stream or watch services for which you aren’t paying. Finally, strong passwords are a must, but you should really get into the habit of using passphrases. Passphrases are two unrelated words that create a strong password.
Fielding: Don’t buy a smart TV. If a smart TV is inevitable, consider whether having voice control, gesture control, auto-recommender and one-click-purchase features are worth the risks of allowing a device to capture and transmit recordings of you and data about your activities to the manufacturer and their hundreds of “trusted third parties.” If the answer is “No,” disable those features in the smart TV’s settings, if options are provided. Alternatively, you can put a piece of black tape over the camera and block up the mic.
Power off the smart TV completely (unplug from mains) when you’re not using it. Consider using a Pi-Hole on your network (a mini-computer that filters traffic to and from your network to prevent malicious traffic and avoid online surveillance). Understand your data protection rights and make complaints to (and about) device manufacturers that refuse them or make it difficult for you to assert them.
How to Disable (Automatic Content Recognition) ACR on Your TV
As stated above, ACR allows television manufacturers to track what content you watch on your TV. If you want to protect your privacy and limit the access third parties have to your personal data, you’ll need to turn off ACR features. Kelso provided the instructions below:
- Samsung: Go to Settings > Support and scroll down to Terms & Policies. This is where you can turn off Viewing Information Services (Samsung’s ACR technology), Internet-based advertising (for personalized ad tracking) and Voice Recognition Services.
- Vizio: Go to System > Reset & Admin > Viewing Data and toggle it to Off.
- Roku: Go to Settings. Scroll down and go to Privacy > Smart TV Experience. Next, uncheck Use Information for TV Inputs to disable ACR. Then uncheck Use Information for TV Inputs to further disable ACR.
- Amazon Fire TV: Go to your TV’s Settings and then Preferences. Scroll to the Right to Privacy Settings. Turn off the setting labeled Collect App and Over-the-Air Usage Data. You can also turn off Interest-based ads in this section.
- LG: Go to Settings > All Settings. Scroll down to General and then scroll to a setting called LivePlus. Toggle it to Off. You can also go to About This TV > User Agreements and disable Personalized Advertising.
- Sony: Open Settings > System Preferences and choose Interactive TV Settings or Samba Interactive TV (Sony’s ACR equivalent), then set it to Off.
Cyberbullying: What is it and how to stop it
What teens want to know about cyberbullying.
UNICEF
Looking for information and advice on ways to deal with online bullying? We answer some of the most common questions, bringing together tips from UNICEF experts and information from apps and games companies, including Facebook, Instagram, Roblox, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok and X.
What is cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms and mobile phones. It is repeated behaviour, aimed at scaring, angering or shaming those who are targeted. Examples include:
- spreading lies about or posting embarrassing photos or videos of someone on social media
- sending hurtful, abusive or threatening messages, images or videos via messaging platforms
- impersonating someone and sending mean messages to others on their behalf or through fake accounts
- engaging in sexual harassment or bullying using generative AI tools.
Face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying can often happen alongside each other. But cyberbullying leaves a digital footprint – a record that can prove useful and provide evidence to help stop the abuse.
If you are worried about your safety or something that has happened to you online, you can seek help by calling your national helpline. If your country does not have a helpline, please urgently speak to an adult you trust or seek professional support from trained and experienced carers.
The top questions on cyberbullying
- Am I being bullied online? How do you tell the difference between a joke and bullying?
- What are the effects of cyberbullying?
- How can cyberbullying affect my mental health?
- Who should I talk to if someone is bullying me online? Why is reporting important?
- I’m experiencing cyberbullying, but I’m afraid to talk to my parents about it. How can I approach them?
- How can I help my friends report a case of cyberbullying especially if they don’t want to do it?
- How do we stop cyberbullying without giving up access to the internet?
- How do I prevent my personal information from being used to manipulate or humiliate me on social media?
- Is there a punishment for cyberbullying?
- Technology companies don’t seem to care about online bullying and harassment. Are they being held responsible?
- Are there any online anti-bullying tools for children or young people?
Related
Digital education
How to talk to your child about cyberbullying
Adolescents
5 ways to support your mental health online
1. Am I being bullied online? How do you tell the difference between a joke and bullying?
UNICEF:
All friends joke around with each other, but sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone is just having fun or trying to hurt you, especially online. Sometimes they’ll laugh it off with a “just kidding,” or “don’t take it so seriously.”
But if you feel hurt or think others are laughing at you instead of with you, then the joke has gone too far. If it continues even after you’ve asked the person to stop and you are still feeling upset about it, then this could be bullying.
And when the bullying takes place online, it can result in unwanted attention from a wide range of people including strangers. Wherever it may happen, if you are not happy about it, you should not have to stand for it.
Call it what you will – if you feel bad and it doesn’t stop, then it’s worth getting help. Stopping cyberbullying is not just about calling out bullies, it’s also about recognizing that everyone deserves respect – online and in real life.
2. What are the effects of cyberbullying?
UNICEF:
When bullying happens online it can feel as if you’re being attacked everywhere, even inside your own home. It can seem like there’s no escape. The effects can last a long time and affect a person in many ways:
- Mentally – feeling upset, embarrassed, stupid, even afraid or angry
- Emotionally – feeling ashamed or losing interest in the things you love
- Physically – tired (loss of sleep), or experiencing symptoms like stomach aches and headaches
The feeling of being laughed at or harassed by others, can prevent people from speaking up or trying to deal with the problem. In extreme cases, cyberbullying can even lead to people taking their own lives.
Cyberbullying can affect us in many ways. But these can be overcome and people can regain their confidence and health.
3. How can cyberbullying affect my mental health?
UNICEF:
When you experience cyberbullying you might start to feel ashamed, nervous, anxious and insecure about what people say or think about you. This can lead to withdrawing from friends and family, negative thoughts and self-talk, feeling guilty about things you did or did not do, or feeling that you are being judged negatively. Feeling lonely, overwhelmed, frequent headaches, nausea or stomachaches are also common.
You can lose your motivation to do the things that you usually enjoy doing and feel isolated from the people you love and trust. This can perpetuate negative feelings and thoughts which can adversely affect your mental health and well-being.
Skipping school is another common effect of cyberbullying and can affect the mental health of children and young people who turn to substances like alcohol and drugs or violent behaviour to deal with their psychological and physical pain. Talking to a friend, family member or school counsellor you trust can be a first step to getting help.
The effects of cyberbullying on mental health can vary depending on the medium through which it happens. For example, bullying via text messaging or through pictures or videos on social media platforms has proven to be very harmful for adolescents.
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Roblox
Snapchat
TikTok
4. Who should I talk to if someone is bullying me online? Why is reporting important?
UNICEF:
If you think you’re being bullied, the first step is to seek help from someone you trust such as your parents, a close family member or another trusted adult.
In your school you can reach out to a counsellor, the sports coach or your favourite teacher – either online or in person.
And if you are not comfortable talking to someone you know, search for a helpline in your country to talk to a professional counsellor.
If the bullying is happening on a social platform, consider blocking the bully and formally reporting their behaviour on the platform itself. Social media companies are obligated to keep their users safe.
For bullying to stop, it needs to be identified and reporting it is key.
It can be helpful to collect evidence – text messages and screen shots of social media posts – to show what’s been going on.
For bullying to stop, it needs to be identified and reporting it is key. It can also help to show the bully that their behaviour is unacceptable.
If you are in immediate danger, then you should contact the police or emergency services in your country.
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Facebook/Instagram/Threads
Roblox
Snapchat
TikTok
X
5. I’m experiencing cyberbullying, but I’m afraid to talk to my parents about it. How can I approach them?
UNICEF:
If you are experiencing cyberbullying, speaking to a trusted adult – someone you feel safe talking to – is one of the most important first steps you can take.
Talking to parents isn’t easy for everyone. But there are things you can do to help the conversation. Choose a time to talk when you know you have their full attention. Explain how serious the problem is for you. Remember, they might not be as familiar with technology as you are, so you might need to help them to understand what’s happening.
They might not have instant answers for you, but they are likely to want to help and together you can find a solution. Two heads are always better than one! If you are still unsure about what to do, consider reaching out to other trusted people. There are often more people who care about you and are willing to help than you might think!
6. How can I help my friends report a case of cyberbullying especially if they don’t want to do it?
UNICEF:
Anyone can become a victim of cyberbullying. If you see this happening to someone you know, try to offer support.
It is important to listen to your friend. Why don’t they want to report being cyberbullied? How are they feeling? Let them know that they don’t have to formally report anything, but it’s crucial to talk to someone who might be able to help.
Anyone can become a victim of cyberbullying.
Remember, your friend may be feeling fragile. Be kind to them. Help them think through what they might say and to whom. Offer to go with them if they decide to report. Most importantly, remind them that you’re there for them and you want to help.
If your friend still does not want to report the incident, then support them in finding a trusted adult who can help them deal with the situation. Remember that in certain situations the consequences of cyberbullying can be life threatening.
Doing nothing can leave the person feeling that everyone is against them or that nobody cares. Your words can make a difference.
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Facebook/Instagram/Threads
Roblox
Snapchat
TikTok
X
7. How do we stop cyberbullying without giving up access to the Internet?
UNICEF:
Being online has so many benefits. However, like many things in life, it comes with risks that you need to protect against.
If you experience cyberbullying, you may want to delete certain apps or stay offline for a while to give yourself time to recover. But getting off the Internet is not a long-term solution. You did nothing wrong, so why should you be disadvantaged? It may even send the bullies the wrong signal — encouraging their unacceptable behaviour.
We need to be thoughtful about what we share or say that may hurt others.
We all want cyberbullying to stop, which is one of the reasons reporting cyberbullying is so important. But creating the Internet we want goes beyond calling out bullying. We need to be thoughtful about what we share or say that may hurt others. We need to be kind to one another online and in real life. It’s up to all of us!
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Facebook/Instagram/Threads
Roblox
TikTok
X
8. How do I prevent my personal information from being used to manipulate or humiliate me on social media?
UNICEF:
Think twice before posting or sharing anything on digital platforms – it may be online forever and could be used to harm you later. Don’t give out personal details such as your address, telephone number or the name of your school.
Learn about the privacy settings of your favourite social media apps. Here are some actions you can take on many of them:
- You can decide who can see your profile, send you direct messages or comment on your posts by adjusting your account privacy settings.
- You can report hurtful comments, messages, photos and videos and request they be removed.
- Besides ‘unfriending’, you can completely block people to stop them from seeing your profile or contacting you.
- You can also choose to have comments by certain people to appear only to them without completely blocking them.
- You can delete posts on your profile or hide them from specific people.
On most of your favourite social media, people aren’t notified when you block, restrict or report them.
9. Is there a punishment for cyberbullying?
UNICEF:
Most schools take bullying seriously and will take action against it. If you are being cyberbullied by other students, report it to your school.
People who are victims of any form of violence, including bullying and cyberbullying, have a right to justice.
Laws against bullying, particularly on cyberbullying, are relatively new and still do not exist everywhere. This is why many countries rely on other relevant laws, such as ones against harassment, to punish serious forms of cyberbullying.
In countries that have specific laws on cyberbullying, online behaviour that deliberately causes serious emotional distress is seen as criminal activity. In some of these countries, victims of cyberbullying can seek protection, prohibit communication from a specified person and restrict the use of electronic devices used by that person for cyberbullying, temporarily or permanently.
However, it is important to remember that that criminalization is not always the most suitable response to cyberbullying. In some cases, where it is safe to do so, focusing on repairing the harm and mending the relationship may be better.
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10. Technology companies don’t seem to care about online bullying and harassment. Are they being held responsible?
UNICEF:
Technology companies are increasingly paying attention to the issue of online bullying.
Many of them are introducing ways to address it and better protect their users with new tools, guidance and ways to report online abuse.
But it is true that more is needed. Many children and young people experience cyberbullying every day. Some face extreme forms of online abuse. Some have taken their own lives as a result.
Technology companies have a responsibility to protect their users especially children and young people.
It is up to all of us to hold them accountable when they’re not living up to these responsibilities.
11. Are there any online anti-bullying tools for children or young people?
UNICEF:
Each social platform offers different tools (see available ones below) that allow you to restrict who can comment on or view your posts or who can connect automatically as a friend, and to report cases of bullying. Many of them involve simple steps to block, mute or report cyberbullying. We encourage you to explore them and give your feedback where you think they could be improved.
Social media companies also provide educational tools and guidance for children, parents and teachers to learn about risks and ways to stay safe online.
Also, the first line of defense against cyberbullying could be you. Think about where cyberbullying happens in your community and ways you can help – by raising your voice, calling out inappropriate and harmful behaviour, reaching out to trusted adults or by creating awareness of the issue. Even a simple act of kindness can go a long way.
The first line of defense against cyberbullying could be you.
If you are worried about your safety or something that has happened to you online, urgently speak to an adult you trust. Many countries have a special helpline you can call for free and talk to someone anonymously. Visit United for Global Mental Health to find help in your country.
