Support and Resources for Victims of Online Harassment

The College offers support and resources to faculty, staff, and students who experience online harassment. 

Office of Civil Rights

Digital harassment that violates the College’s Policy on Civil Rights Protections and Anti-Bias Standards should be reported to the Office of Civil Rights. 

Counseling Support

Harassment can lead to intense and painful emotions, abrupt changes in relationships, and a distressing sense of uncertainty. Harassment can also negatively affect job satisfaction and performance. There is access to confidential services for all students and benefits-eligible employees. Students may connect with Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). Employees have access to support through AllOne Health. 

Ways to Protect Yourself After Experiencing Online Harassment 

Online harassment can be extremely stressful, confusing, and frightening. Haverford encourages individuals affected by online harassment to explore the options outlined above. In addition, consider taking these steps if you are being harassed. 

• Do not respond to any person who is unwilling to have a respectful dialogue.
• Create a Gmail rule to filter harassing messages into a new folder. Although deleting the offensive content may feel necessary, preserving the evidence can be useful for law enforcement officials. Most major email programs, including Gmail, have filtering/routing tools. 
• Hide, delete, and/or block. If the harasser comments on your posts or accounts, you may choose to hide or delete the comments, depending on the platform capabilities. Mute or block the harasser to avoid further agitation. On most platforms, this action will not be shared with the harasser; however, this is not always the case. Check platform guidelines closely. On some platforms, if you block the harasser, you may not see future content they post. 
• Report abuse. If the harasser uses threatening language or images, report their profile, following the platform’s guidelines for reporting. This provides a helpful trail to the platform administrators to show actions taken against the individual for unwanted, hateful, or harassing language. Consider asking others to report the harasser to garner more attention from the social media platform’s security team. If the harasser is another member of the Haverford community, see above for reporting paths through the Office of Civil Rights.  
• Make all of your social media profiles private, even on platforms where the harasser has not commented, to avoid attempts to engage you on another social media platform. 
• Use an unidentifiable public-facing profile picture to prevent future targeting.

If you are a member of the Haverford community, see also the IITS Knowledge Base article Protecting Yourself From Doxxing.