ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a new approach to teaching children and adolescents how to cope with cyberbullying based on the trial of the virtual learning intervention FearNot!, which was designed to address traditional forms of bullying. It highlights some important challenges that intervention designers might face in trying to develop virtual learning interventions for cyberybullying. The chapter suggests that avoiding the negative implications of role-play as an educational tool by transferring it to a safe virtual environment in which students interact and get immediate feedback from cartoon characters. It outlines some of the elements of FearNot! that made it successful and should be replicated in future uses to reduce cyberybullying. Believability of the story and the characters are very important considerations when designing a virtual role-play intervention similar to the one described here to ensure that the students can develop an empathic relationship with the game characters.
