You’ve probably read about bullying and cyberbullying before
in the newspapers, or seen people talking about it on TV.It’s quite a hot topic, and rightly so!Media normally cover it when someone does
something that will help tackle the problem (like we’re doing with
CyberMentors), or when someone talks about what happened to them.Articles appear every week, in local press across the world, but here are some of the biggest ones we’ve come across.
Georgia's Story
One of our CyberMentors, Georgia, talks about her experiences of bullying before she worked
with Beatbullying and became a CyberMentor.
Probably
the most frightening example of cyberbullying.Megan was 13 in October 2006 when she took her own life after being
cyberbullied.She had been in contact
with a “Josh Evans” on MySpace.Josh
started being kind and flirty, but then turned mean and insulting.He wrote: “The world would be a better place
without you.”However, “Josh” never
existed.It was created by some adults
who lived on Megan’s street.Her story
was covered extensively by the media in the US and worldwide.
In June 2008, Sam Leeson, from Gloucestershire, England,
hanged himself after reportedly being bullied via social networking sites.Sam had personalised his profile pages to
reflect that he was fan of Emo culture, but bullies targeted him and posted
abuse and threats on his page.
In January 2008, a 16 year old boy from Brighton, England,
tried to commit suicide after being tricked into falling in love with a fake
internet boyfriend via Bebo.The
cyberbully was traced and prosecuted in one of the first cyberbullying court
cases in the UK.
An article from the USA reveals a typical cyberbullying
experience of a young girl targeted by vicious classmates.Hers is only one of many similar cases
worldwide.
