Rowena Singh
Auckland, August 18, 2020
This story was updated on August 22, 2020 to offer the following link sent by Hansen Ross Media of the United Kingdom.
They recently published a guide called “Teen Body Image And Self-esteem – A Practical Guide For Parents” –
https://www.freederm.co.uk/body-image-and-self-esteem
Cyberbullying is becoming rampant in Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. The menace has witnessed an increase in suicides among youngsters and accelerated other social problems.
Glen Campbell, Founder of BillyGuard, an organisation that fights cyberbullies and trolls, attributes the reason for the increase of the problem during the Covid-19 to forced work from home and learning online.
Australia recorded and increase of 40% in cyberbullying, according to its E-Safety Commissioner.
Inciting tangential discussion
Trolls, an Internet slang for offenders who start flame wars, intentionally upset people by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages online (a newsgroup, forum, chat room or blog). The intention is to provoke readers to emotionally respond and normalising tangential discussion, either for the amusement of trolls or for a specific gain.
Field day for trolls
Both the noun and the verb forms of ‘troll’ are associated with Internet discourse.
However, the word has also been used more widely. Media attention in recent years has equated trolling with online harassment. For example, the mass media have used troll to mean “a person who defaces Internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families.”
Mr Campbell said that cyberbullying uses mobile phones, computers, tablets, laptops and other devises to send, post, or share negative, harmful, false, or mean things about people.
“It can include sharing personal or private information about someone that causes embarrassment or humiliation. Some of the common places where it happens are (a) social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok (b) Text messaging and messaging apps on mobile or tablets (c) Instant messaging, direct messaging, and online chatting over the internet (d) Online forums, chat rooms, and message boards, such as Reddit (e) Through e-mail and (f) Online gaming,” he said.
Experience in Australia
In its 2019 Report, the Australian Competition Consumer Commission said that cyberbullying recorded 32% increase over the past decade.
The Report, based on a Survey of 2360 Australian parents conducted by the Office of the E-safety Commissioner in 2016, found that 29% of youth had been bullied online; 36.5% of people felt that they were cyberbullied; 17.4% experienced it over the last 30 days.
“These figures have doubled since 2007. Both figures are larger than the figures reported in 2018-2019. In Australasia, 1 in 5 children report being cyberbullied in the past 12 months. The disturbing figure is that only 1 in 10 children tell their parents about it,” the Report said.
Mr Campbell outlined the impact of cyberbullying on children, citing it as the cause of at least three suicides per week in Australia, the highest among Australian youth between 5-17 years of age.
“There is possibly up to 10 suicide deaths per week in Australia across all ages due to cyberbullying. Under 25s who are cyberbullied are more than twice likely to self-harm and enact suicidal behaviour,” he said.
He said that LGBT teens are at five times higher risk of being abused on Facebook.
High incidence in New Zealand
“In New Zealand, women aged 18-19 are the most cyberbullied victims. About one in three children are affected by it. Older New Zealanders are also affected – 27% of 20-24 year old, 22% of 25-29 year old, 13% of 30-59 year old. 1 in 10 Kiwi adults are attacked online. 68% of educators believe that bullying begins very early (between pre-school and year 4),” Mr Campbell said.
Bullying in schools in New Zealand is one of the worst in the world and suicide rates are at their worst levels recorded, he said.
Mr Campbell said that there was evidence linking bullying and suicides and attempted suicides and that Maori and Pacifica are highly represented in suicide statistics.
According to him, there are a number of ways in which children kept be protected from cyberbullying. Since a lot of cyberbullies are also physical bullies, it is important to keep a distance from them, he said.
“Bullying is often antagonistic by nature; do not be tempted to reply or retaliate on the same forum. Tell the bullies that what they are doing is not ok, and that it hurts you. The victim needs to know that there are people who they can go to and report it. They need to tell someone else who they trust to help them, Mr Campbell said.
He said that services of professional organisations such as BillyGuard are central to limit the ability of bullies to offend.
“Unfortunately, cyberbullying will never be eradicated; however we can minimise it and have consequences in place for bad behaviour. Bullies should know that there will be a zero tolerance policy for cyberbullying. This is important because one of the consequences of cyberbullying is suicide,” Mr Campbell said.
About BillyGuard
He said BillyGuard fights bullies on behalf of victims.
“When you report bullying on our platform, we will start a process of stopping it at its source. We take a world-first approach to tackling cyberbullies and trolls because it makes it difficult or impossible for them to use social media and other technologies. While the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and Telcos allow users to report abusive behaviour, bullies typically create new email and social media accounts and simply continue the harassment almost immediately.”
The death of a teenager due to bullying encouraged Mr Campbell to establish the Company.
He is of Ngapuhi descent from Mt Maunganui. For the past 15 years he is based in Sydney where he has led multinational technology companies in the APAC region. The business now has 33 employees from 12 countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Macedonia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka, UAE, UK and USA.
The Company plans to become multilingual, using at least six languages in the near future.
BillyGuard helps people from all over the world everyday.
With experience and expertise in the technology sector and connections with significant technology skills Mr Campbell hope to ‘change the world.’
“It has been a hard and expensive journey but every cent invested is worthwhile,” he said.
Please visit www.billyguard.com for more details
