Bullies are taking their destructive behaviour out of the real world and into a virtual one. Child experts explain why emotional pain is just as damaging as physical harm, if not worse.
STICKS and stones may break some bones, but words can really kill you – the adulteration of that rhyme proves true for victims of cyberbullying who commit suicide. While adults grapple with understanding the impact of social media and the Internet, dismissing hurtful posts and taunts as harmless words, young victims struggle to cope.
On Nov 21, four 16-year-olds were arrested in Sarawak after a video of a bullying incident went viral on social media. In the video, which lasts for about three minutes, two female students are seen slapping the victim and slamming her head against a classroom wall while another girl and a boy taunt the victim who later falls to the ground as her hair is pulled. It’s the latest case of physical bullying that continued into the cyberworld.
Cyberbullying is common, according to Dr Mary J. Marret, an associate professor and consultant paediatrician at Universiti Malaya. While there’s no single, universally agreed definition, US researchers Dr Sameer Hinduja and Dr Justin W. Patchin have described cyberbullying as wilful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices, she says.
Quoting findings published last year in a paper titled “Use Of ICT By Minors”, she says the experience of being bullied or teased on the mobile phone is fairly common, especially among boys. This could include milder experiences that may be easily forgotten as well as severe harassment that can be deeply distressing for victims.
There’s a connection between being a bully and becoming a victim of bullying. Among those who admitted that they had bullied others using mobile phones, 70% said they had also been victims of bullying through this device. In contrast, only about 23% of those who did not engage in such bullying had been victims themselves.
“One possible explanation is that those who engage in bullying others may themselves become a target of bullying through their own behaviour. There is also the possibility that victims of such bullying may retaliate by doing the same to others,” explains Dr Marret.
These findings were based on a study funded by Universiti Malaya which she conducted together with her colleague, Assoc Prof Dr Choo Wan-Yuen from the department of social and preventive medicine. The survey sample consisted of 3,426 students of whom 97.7%, or 3,349, had used either the Internet or mobile phones before.
A quarter of these ICT users reported receiving frightening or threatening messages, Dr Marret says, adding that girls generally displayed defensive and protective responses such as ignoring such messages, informing parents, or asking not to be harassed. Some boys, on the other hand, had a tendency to aggravate the situation by responding to the sender, providing the requested information, and forwarding threatening messages to others. She explains that international research indicates that cyberbullying is the outcome of a variety of factors and cannot be simplistically attributed to a single reason. Unlike traditional bullying, the virtual version has some unique characteristics.
“In traditional bullying, physical proximity enables the bully to see the hurt of the victim and this may stop some bullies from going too far. In cyberbullying, the inability to see that the victim is badly affected may contribute to a lack of empathy and continuing harassment.
“Traditional bullying is limited to specific times and locations, witnessed by few. In the cyber world, bullying can take place 24/7 and be witnessed by a wider audience. Each time the related content is shared or forwarded, the bullying continues. Those who ‘like’ or share such content indirectly participate in and encourage the act of bullying, just like physically present bystanders in a traditional bullying scenario.”
Malaysians are the second highest Internet users in South-East Asia, second only to Singapore, Dr Choo observes, cautioning that while social media like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are important tools for learning and education, they can also be used as a means to vent.
“When it’s used to release frustration, this can lead to abusing others. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed had a mobile phone by the age of 12. And more than 90% are social network users – some as young as seven. Our study found that parental knowledge and supervision seems to be lagging behind their children’s adoption of ICT use,” she says.
Cyberbullying is bad, and it’s spreading fast, child therapist Priscilla Ho observes. Since January, she has conducted various anti-bullying campaigns involving almost 2,000 students in Penang and has published the Be A Buddy, Not A Bully guide for youngsters to beat bullying.
“In one school, over 40% of the students say they’ve been victims of cyberbullying. I have a 14-year-old victim who was bullied when she was 11. She held on to the pain until now and is suicidal. She refuses to go to school. I’m trying to teach her to cope, face the bullies, and go back to school,” Ho says.
Quoting a 2012 Microsoft study on global pervasiveness of online bullying among youths aged eight to 17, Ho says Malaysia is ranked 17th highest in online bullying among the 25 countries surveyed. The study covered negative online experiences like being called mean names and being teased.
Ho – who is also the co-founder of Creativity at Heart, a non-profit guidance centre for youngsters, and president of Child Rising, a non-governmental organisation – laments how the survey revealed that Malaysians took fewer steps to protect their children from online bullying compared with parents in most other countries.
It’s a fact confirmed by an international cybersecurity company recently. Over half of parents surveyed believe that online threats are rising but only 39% guide their kids on how to handle it, the ‘Consumer Security Risks Survey 2015’ reveals. Kaspersky Lab and B2B International’s survey found that 22% have seen their children encounter actual threats online and 53% fear that the Internet is affecting their kids’ health or well-being, yet nearly two-thirds of parents don’t bother to talk to their kids about it. And only a quarter have installed parental control software, says Kaspersky Lab principal security researcher David Emm. Kaspersky Lab is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for over 400 million users worldwide.
“A significant number of parents feel powerless. The important thing is to combine practical measures, such as installing parental control software and keeping computers in family areas, with talking to kids about potential threats and how to deal with them.” Some 12,355 people from 26 countries participated in the survey.
Prof Dr Michael P. Dunne from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology, however, thinks the number of cyberbullying victims in both Western and Asian countries have been overestimated, as recent studies show that it’s not as high as previously thought. He works with public health faculties in Vietnam to improve the skills of their public health graduates.
“Studies show that most of those bullied online were already victims of bullies in the real world. Social media is just an extension of the school yard.”
The focus should be on bullying as a whole, regardless of whether it’s physical or virtual, he feels, as both types of behaviour stem from a lack of respect for diversity.
“Don’t treat cyberbullying as a separate animal. It’s the same as traditional bullying, except that different means are used. Whether a threat is whispered or posted on social media, it’s still damaging.”
Malaysian Council for Child Welfare president Datuk Dr Raj Karim says cyberbullying takes many forms. What constitutes cyberbullying needs to be properly defined as different people may have different interpretations. What’s regarded as a joke by some may be taken as a form of bullying by others. She says bullying varies from teasing to tormenting, hassling, threatening and even exploitation. Calling for more research in law, privacy, and personal data protection, as well as systemic abuse and mitigation, she believes cyberbullying is more common than we realise. And it’s more serious than physical bullying as there’s no control over the spread of negative comments and the source is sometimes unknown. Most cases are not known as only serious ones are reported to the police or the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
“The magnitude of the issue can be inferred from the fast and ever-expanding forms of social media. These are all platforms for cyber disturbances. Hidden cameras are used for extortion. Social groups via mobile devices have accelerated cyberbullying. You don’t need a desktop or laptop to make embarrassing Photoshop images go viral,” says Dr Raj, who is also the Malaysian AIDS Council president and former regional director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (East and South-East Asia and Oceania Region) and a former member of the National Human Rights Commission. She was also the co-organiser of the 10th Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect held in Kuala Lumpur from Oct 24 to 28.
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