I'd like to start with a few facts:
- More than 1 in 3 young people have been threatened online.
- In excess of half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online, and about the same number have engaged in cyber bullying.
- 13% of teens who use social media (12-17) say they have had an experience on a social network that made them feel nervous about going to school the next day.
- Females are most likely to be the victims of cyber-bullying (as they spend more time on social networking sites)
Today it is a lot easier to be anonymous online. With a click of a button you can anonymous send messages to people on some sites and for others, setting up troll accounts to send hate fulled messages is as easy as typing in a username and password. But why? What satisfaction do people get from hiding behind a computer screen and exerting their own hatred onto some other innocent party. If you're having difficulties in your life, if you have a loss of self worth or if your just so cruel that you want/need to make someone miserable, talk to someone or get a hobby Being a bully and writing idiotically negative and hurtful things to another person to cause them harm is beyond stupid and only makes you the lesser person. Something you say to someone as a menacing comment or "joke" may not be funny to them. You don't know what mindset another person is in and your horrid comments could push them over the edge like so many cases we've read about these days. Do you really want someone's suicide on your conscience?
I have had personal experience of bullying in the physical, emotional and cyber sense. When you're told to go kill yourself in a Youtube video it really opens your eyes to the fact that the internet is not always a nice place. But we can't always look at the negative and people shouldn't be run off social networking sites just because of bullying. We should all be allowed enjoy the perks the internet has to offer without feeling threatened. No-one has claim over the internet, it's ours not any one individuals and so we all need to be a part of making it a safe place for everyone.
If you are being bulled, online, report it. You won't be thought any less of and no-one even has to know in most cases. Block the source of the bullying if you can, screen-cap the messages, contact the site administrator and get something done about it! If the bullying escalates and you don't know where to turn, contacting local authorities contact the local authorities. Did you know that Less than 1 in 5 cyber bullying incidents are reported to law enforcement? Speak up!Furthermore if you see someone receiving malicious messages online, take a stand. Send them a message, report it yourself if they won't.
No one is going to stand for idiots who think they have the right to talk to people in such degrading ways these days. The world's wide awake tot he problems facing teens online due to cyber bullying and we need to stick together to win the fight, to get legislation into our statutes that can prosecute bullies and show then=m up for what they really are - cowards. We need to stop these people from hiding and make them see that every single thing they say has an effect. We can't let the bullies win.
Stay Strong Folks and remember the words of Ruby Redfort - "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can also hurt me.Stones and sticks break only skin, while words are ghosts that haunt me"
Órla xo
Some useful links:
- Find a helpline near you with Befrienders
- Anti-Bullying Network resources
- How to help a Suicidal person
- International Suicide Prevention Wiki
- How to report Cyberbullying
- Sticks and Stones by Ruby Redfort
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