Prevention works best as a combination of personal habits and community norms. On a personal level, it helps to keep social accounts private or limited to people you actually know, think before posting anything that could embarrass or target someone else, and avoid engaging with or forwarding content designed to mock or exclude another person.
If you see cyberbullying happening, you have more power than it might feel like. Reporting the content or account to the platform, saving evidence (screenshots with dates), and privately checking in with the person being targeted are all meaningful actions. Publicly arguing with a bully often escalates the situation, while quietly supporting the target and reporting the behavior tends to be more effective.
Communities — schools, gaming groups, family group chats — reduce cyberbullying when they have clear, consistently enforced expectations about respectful behavior, and when bystanders are encouraged to speak up rather than stay silent. Silence from bystanders is often read as agreement by the person doing the bullying.
Finally, prevention includes looking after your own online habits: pausing before you post something in anger, and remembering that a comment which feels small to you might not feel small to the person receiving it.
VIBE's Interactive Scenarios are built around exactly these situations, so you can practice the right response before you need it in real life.