Did you know that cyberbullying affects 1 in 5 people aged 15 to 29? Did you know that 17% of people confessed to talking badly about somebody else on the Internet? Now you do.
Cyberbullying is a very serious issue worldwide and in Canada. You probably know some victims of cyberbullying such as Amanda Todd, Tyler Clementi, Phoebe Prince or Ryan Halligan. This is only the beginning of the list, and even today the list of victims continues to grow actively. Victims of cyberbullying or cyberstalking are usually teenagers and young adults, though definitely there are exceptions. Many young people are bullied on the Internet because of their sexual orientation - people on the Internet can be very homophobic. Tyler Clementi was the victim of online homophobia and was only 18 years old when he committed suicide by jumping from the bridge.
In other cases, cyberbullying or cyberstalking can occur because of one’s body. Body-shaming is not a rare thing online and overall, 60% of girls in Canada experienced bullying online at least once in their lives for that. Quite close to this category we can also bring men threatening to post explicit pictures of kids. Amanda Todd, a Canadian girl who once flashed her parts, has suffered consequences of this particular event for the rest of her short life. The man (he was called Aydin) who made her do it, proceeded to stalk Amanda online. It was terrifying, because whenever Amanda moved to a new school, Aydin made friends with her future classmates and posted her naked image as his profile picture. This is awful because the worst thing is that she couldn't even move - Aydin somehow knew where Todd was all the time! Of course, he is now serving his 10 year sentence for charges like child pornography, extortion, internet luring, criminal harassment and distribution of child pornography.
Cyberbullying can take one of the following forms:
1. Sending mean, threatening emails and/or text messages.
2. Spreading gossip/rumours about another person that will damage their reputation.
3. Breaking into an account and sending offensive/explicit materials to others under another person's identity (felony: identity theft, could result in 1 or more years in prison).
4. Creating blogs or websites that ridicule others and/or ruin their reputation.
5. Creating websites where visitors are asked to rate individuals' attributes in a negative way.
6. Taking an embarrassing photo of someone with a camera and emailing that photo to others.
7. Engaging someone in communicating, tricking them into revealing personal information and then resending that information to others.
8. Using someone else's password in order to change their profile to reflect sexual, racist and other content that may offend others (felony: hacking, could result with up to 15 years in prison).
9. Posting false and/or hurtful messages on online bulletin boards or in chat rooms.
10. Deliberately excluding others from instant messaging, contact lists and social media group chats.
There are ways of preventing the problem. For example, if you create a social media account, make it private. Have a firewall on your mail. If you talk to strangers online, ensure that you have a VPN installed, so that these people cannot know your location. Do not do anything that you are not comfortable with.
But what should you do if the problem still appears? First, and probably the most important, talk to your parents, adults that you trust, psychologists, teachers... People who care about you. If the situation is really serious (death threats, encouraging of suicide, stalking), you should contact the local authorities, the police. By doing that, you could even save you own or somebody else’s life. Also, do not be afraid of a blackmailer - if the material is already in his hands, he will share it no matter what you do. Contact the police, of course.
I hope nobody ever gets cyberbullied. Contact people that care about you, tell them! And remember, you are not alone
Please spread the message. Let's stop bullying together!