With the prevalence of social media and digital forums, comments, photos, posts, and content shared by individuals can often be viewed by strangers as well as acquaintances.
The content an individual shares online – both their personal content as well as any negative, mean, or hurtful content – creates a kind of permanent public record of their views, activities, and behavior. This public record can be thought of as an online reputation, which may be accessible to schools, employers, colleges, clubs, and others who may be researching an individual now or in the future.
Say No To CyberBulling
Cyberbullying can harm the online reputations of everyone involved – not just the person being bullied, but those doing the bullying or participating in it.
Cyberbullying refers to the use of digital technology to cause harm to other people. This typically involves the use of the Internet, but may also take place through mobile phones (e.g., text-based bullying).
Social media is one of the primary channels through which cyber bullying takes place, including Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat, and more.
According to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), our cyberbullying rate is 24 per cent which places us in the fourth position in the world regarding deaths among teenagers and adolescents. Suicide is currently the third largest cause of unnatural death in the country.
We are not psychologists but it is said that responding to cyber bullying in a positive way is healthy to you and is the best way to deal with cyber bullying.
The internet and mobile phones have such positive potential to transform people’s lives for the better. However, when they are misused, they can cause real pain. We hope this guidance and resources we have produced will be of practical use and help us all in fighting cyberbullying.
