‘Cyber-bullying on the rise in Britain’
A big new survey into internet abuse has found that over one million young Britons are suffering from extreme online bullying every day.
According to the survey commissioned by the national anti-bullying charity Ditch The Label, seven out of 10 13-22 year-olds have experienced cyber-bullying amid a huge expansion of social networking sites.
The survey singles out Facebook as the most common place for bullying, which affects an estimated 5.43 million youths across the country.
It says that more than half of Facebook users have reported to being bullied online, as compared to 28 percent of Twitter users and 26 percent of those on Ask.fm.
The anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label was set up by Liam Hackett, who, himself, is a victim of bullying.
œHistorically bullying went on in the classroom and it stopped when you got home, but now there™s no escape for young people”, he said.
œCyber-bullying is seriously damaging the self-esteem and the future prospects of young people and is an issue we cannot afford to overlook. Social networks have a moral obligation and a duty of care to their users to implement tight mechanisms of flagging and reporting systems for cyber bullying, although we all have a responsibility and an opportunity to help fix this”, added Hackett.
Two teenagers committed suicide over the summer in the UK after being subjected to bullying over the internet.
Hannah Smith, a 14-year-old schoolgirl hanged herself at her home in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, after apparently suffering months of internet abuse on social network Ask.fm.
Daniel Perry, 17, from Dunfermline, Fife, killed himself after footage recorded on Skype was used to blackmail him.
œCyber-bullying is a horrible new problem facing some of our teenagers. It is vital that adults, including companies and the government, take responsibility for making sites safe”, said Helen Goodman, shadow minister for Culture, Media and Sport, with a responsibility for media reform.
œWe have repeatedly called on the government to introduce legislation to deal with this epidemic of cyber-bullying, but [Prime Minister] David Cameron is failing to stand up to the internet giants. Over a million young people in the UK face extreme cyber-bullying each day and in recent weeks we have seen the tragic deaths of two young people as a result. How can there be a stronger call to action than that?”, she added.
Ditch The Label has proposed that the government introduce tighter rules for social networks in order to protect young people from further abuse.
MOL/HE
Copyright: Press TV
Source: http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/cyber-bullying-on-the-rise-in-britain/75333/
