Bullying. It's not new and whether it is more prevalent now than in the past is up for debate.
However, it is definitely more pervasive than it once was thanks in part to social media, which not only makes it easy to bully but also helps normalize the behaviour.
Considering internet and social media has become prevalent in both personal and business life and no farther away than a smartphone, it's easy to see why more resources and laws are being put toward combating cyberbullying.
Youth feel the affects of this new era of social conduct more than anyone else, not surprising considering how connected they are. According to Statistics Canada, nearly 96 per cent of Canadian youth between the ages 14 and 25 are connected and using social media.
Of those youth, one-fifth reported having been cyberbullied or cyberstalked and the numbers are more severe among LGBTQ youth - one-third reported being bullied online. Girls too are more at risk compared to boys.
It's easy for people to say toughen up or unplug when the talk shifts to cyberbullying, but there are serious health ramifications.
Forty-one per cent of young Internet users who experienced both cyberbullying and cyberstalking reported an emotional, psychological or mental health condition, whereas 14 per cent of those who had not been cyberbullied or cyberstalked reported such a condition. While that does not necessarily reflect a causation, there is evidence to associate higher degrees of mental health problems with cyberbullying.
As a result, youth who have been cyberbullied or bullied in the traditional sense report higher incidences of thoughts of suicide or self-harm.
It's not just Canada and it's not just those being bullied who are at risk.
A study from Swansea University Medical School in collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham looked at more than 150,000 children and young people across 30 countries, over a 21-year period. The research, which was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, showed children and young people under 25 who are victims of cyberbullying are more than twice as likely to self-harm and enact suicidal behaviour.
The research goes on to suggests all the usual solutions from more education and anti-bullying programs to better laws to protect people online where anarchy continues to reign. One interesting and often forgotten message in the study was also help for the perpetrator, who the research suggests were often victims themselves and suffering similar mental health impacts.
Education, intervention, legal protection, these are all needed and have been implemented in some form in schools and society as a whole, but perhaps we should all consider better modelling as well.
There are no discussions on social media - mostly. Primarily it is insults and threats and much of that behaviour by adults. If we want to be role models to our youth, we have to do it online as much as we do it in our homes and on the street.
This Feb. 27 on Pink Shirt Day, when you log on and want to bully someone for whatever view it is you don't agree with, remember our youth are watching - all of them.
