Defining the Lines with iMPACTS: A Multi-Sectored Partnership Policy Model to Rehumanize Children’s Online Communication (“iMPACTS Policy Model”)

Executive Summary

This essay, part of the Centre's Kids & Technology series, presents the iMPACTS policy model, a multi-sectored partnership approach to rehumanizing children's online communication. Drawing on two decades of research on youth and social media, the authors, Shariff and Stonebanks, review the trajectory of cyberbullying and online sexualized violence against teens, from the emergence of personal computers and Web 2.0 through the COVID-19 pandemic, and trace how dehumanization, ostracism, and scapegoating operate online and how legal responses to teen suicides have evolved in American and Canadian contexts.

Building on this research, the authors present concept maps and policy guidelines developed through their seven-year multi-partnered iMPACTS project on sexual violence and online sexual cyberbullying. The proposed model brings together academic, legal, educational, and industry partners in a three-pronged, multi-disciplinary approach that emphasizes student agency and mentorship rather than "cancel culture" or symptom-focused fixes. The authors argue that addressing cyberbullying requires confronting its roots in systemic discrimination, and that empowering children through creative, multi-disciplinary tools, art, drama, music, and critical engagement with civic issues, offers a more sustainable path than short-term interventions, positioning young people to help rebuild more inclusive and equitable democratic norms online.