The final flash card in her You Tube video read, ‘I have nobody. I need someone’. Ten days later, Amanda Todd, a 15-year old Canadian girl, had taken her own life. Cyberbullying is the repetitive and intentional hurting of a person/group that happens online. It takes many forms: abusive texts, anonymous messaging, sexualised bullying, spreading rumours, trolling (sending menacing or upsetting messages), developing hate sites to name just a new.
Cyberbullying can have lang-lasting emotional consequences. Amanda had been blackmailed into exposing her breasts on a live stream. Her image was circulated over the internet and in spite of moving schools and homes, the blackmailer would reappear in her life creating a Facebook profile that used the topless photo as its profile image and contacting classmates at her new school.
Cyberbullying is a growing threat to our young people’s mental health and well-being. According to a 2022 Ofcom report, four in ten children (39%) said they had experienced some form of bullying, whether online or offline. Among them, being bullied online was far more common than face to face ((86% v 61%). I know there are many reasons why children bully others and I also know that our young people do not always understand or appreciate that what they say or share can impact on others.
All Rise Workshops have launched a new workshop for this academic year, the Law and Cyberbullying. The workshops outlines the different forms of cyberbullying and what the law has to say. Young People need to understand that whilst there are no specific laws that prevent bullying, cyberbullying or not, there are laws which govern the sending of communications which are:
-Indecent
-offensive
-false
-threatening
-obscene.
By adopting a legal approach, I am able to address subjects that can feel challenging, sensitive or taboo. I want to challenge students’ misconceptions and empower them to identify their boundaries and respect the boundaries of others.
Everyone (educators, parents, peers) can play a part in creating safer, kinder online spaces where young people are aware of the dangers of cyberbullying and the potential legal consequences.
Our young people’s wellbeing is under serious stress. The Good Childhood report 2024- wellbeing of children/young people in the UK makes for sobering reading. It found that the UK was at the bottom of the European table for children’s life satisfaction. The decline in the life satisfaction of UK girls is particularly marked. We need to understand and address the worrying levels of unhappiness in girls. In my view, the reason why the prevalence of online bullying behaviour is significantly higher for girls is a significant contributory factor.
Cyberbullying is here to stay and its threat to our young people’s mental health and well-being is all to real. We need to do more to protect vulnerable individuals and ensure that tragedies like Amanda Todd’s are never repeated.