This month, along the theme of cyberbullying, the Digital Safety Service would like to highlight the specific impact of online abuse on LGBT+ students. While there are many things we can do to keep ourselves safe online, we are all responsible for creating safe digital spaces by being good digital citizens.

The University of Edinburgh is celebrating events with Edinburgh Pride throughout the month of June. As part of this, we’re also recognising and trying to redress historical and pervasive inequalities experienced by the LGBT+ community. This article explores the issue of cyberbullying and how we can connect and foster safe spaces online in a better way. and

The prevalence of cyberbullying among LGBT+ youth is high, with up to 70% of young people experiencing this type of online abuse – a much higher proportion compared to heterosexual young people. Reports suggest that victims of this abuse generally lack support and community to assist them after these online incidents, and that those belonging to marginalised communities such as ethnic minorities are subject to further negativity that is not commonly addressed.

Getting Support

For any student or staff member requiring support, the University Health and Wellbeing Services are detailed on the website.

Health and wellbeing | The University of Edinburgh

There are also a number of organisations in the UK specifically dedicated to supporting members of the LGBT+ community.

LGBT Health and Wellbeing

Get Support | Mind Out LGBTQ Mental Health Service

Understanding the issue

In 2021, 42% of LGBT+ students hid their identity at universities in the UK for fear of discrimination. Hate and discrimination among students is not a challenge that can be solved easily or quickly, but we can make a few changes and conscious actions to foster a better environment for our peers.

So, how can we support our peers in Edinburgh who experience this type of hate?

Central to this goal is the concept of empathy, which provides a basis for connection with people whose experiences you haven’t experienced, through the ability to understand and care for them.

Online spaces can be challenging to build empathy in – technically we are interacting with other accounts, personas and anonymous profiles – reducing our ability to see the human throughout an interaction. While sometimes we might be interacting or seeing content from a bot, more often there are people behind those accounts. It is easy to dehumanise and derail from the conventions of a normal interaction, where politeness, understanding and listening are socially acceptable markers.

How to be supportive online

When we see hate online, it is easy to respond ineffectively with the result being the interaction turns more negative or that you become the direct target of hate, with nobody feeling satisfied or understood.

Some actions to help orient the conversation to a more constructive direction include:

• Asking about people’s experiences and backgrounds. What led them to an opinion? Grounding conversations in sharing experiences rather than abstract debate can help foster understanding and reflection.
• Asking about people’s feelings. More often than not an angry comment on social media is underpinned by frustration without an outlet, which goes straight into a Facebook comment. Offer an outlet to the person and discuss their emotions in response to the issue.

Empathy, as central to connection, is important to explore when supporting peers experiencing LGBT+ hate online. Although you might never experience this issue, being aware of the forms and impact on your peers can be instrumental for providing some respite, even inadvertently, to victims.

Checking the privileges that exist in your life can be a starting point to better understanding what others go through, and the types of support they need from you as a friend or ally. This is more than acknowledging a private education or pale skin, but thinking through how support structures, information and all of the things which affect someone’s experience of abuse might differ among members of varying communities.

Listen and gain education through interaction – while an infographic online might appear to be a strong resource, it might be best to treat online resources as talking points or conversation starters to learn more about the experiences of your friends.

Challenge your biases. Unconscious bias exists within everyone, and being able to recognise it with an awareness of the impact on your interactions with people is a powerful skill to improve your inclusivity. As you scroll through hundreds of posts and videos every week, try to build consciousness of your automatic responses to them and challenge biases when you catch them.

Finally, your interactions – whether with the perpetrators or the victims of abuse – contribute to wider cultures. A culture of discrimination and harassment currently exists in UK Universities for LGBT+ students. This is evidenced by experiences of exclusion, fear of discrimination and negative comments that students have spoken about in various studies of higher education and LGBT+ communities.

The smallest actions can help build inclusive cultures. From adding pronouns to your Instagram bio, and not assuming everyone around you is heterosexual, to bigger actions like ensuring your student society group chats are moderated for anti-LGBT+ hate.

Regardless of the platform, method of communication or space in which the interaction is held, we should all lead with empathy, to build connection and create a community of students who can all be proud, openly.

-Aysha, Digital Safety Intern

Resources used in this blog (check them out for some further reading).

BBC Sounds – Pride & Joy – 10 Ways to Be An LGBTQ+ Ally

LGBTQ+ facts and figures | Stonewall

Cyberbullying and LGBTQ Youth: A Systematic Literature Review and Recommendations for Prevention and Intervention – PMC

Empathy in an Online World | Psychology Today United Kingdom

Iteracy : Building digital empathy

7 ways you can be a better LGBTQ+ ally | Students – UCL – University College London

Tackling hate against the LGBT+ community / Digital Skills, Design and Training by is licensed under a