Louise Bradley: Alarming spike in cyberbullying during pandemic should give us all pause
Opinion: As a society that is relying on technology as a veritable lifeline, we can’t turn a blind eye to the risks lurking everywhere from school room chat boards to TikTok.
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I have a stack of journals in my home office. Since I began working at home, I’ve had to relocate them. It’s too disconcerting to be sitting at my desk next to ruled notebooks that hold so much emotion. As we marked Bullying Awareness Week this month, I can’t help but think how many young people may be filling journal pages like I once did.
My childhood was bumpy, and I was shunted around a lot. I didn’t have nice clothes. Often the ones I did have weren’t clean. I wasn’t readily accepted because I was obviously different from other kids. I was in foster care, I didn’t have a nuclear family to speak of, and I was poor.
Three strikes, you’re outcast.
During an especially rough patch in my early teens, I spent some time in hospital under the care of a psychiatrist. It’s all there in my journals.
Now, as I walk by the cupboard that contains years of memories, heartache and self-doubt, I worry about this next generation of children. Young people who are stuck at home with FaceTime for friends and a Google Meet for a classroom.
Cyberbullying was an exploding phenomenon before the advent of lockdown and shelter in place. The threat it poses now is even greater.
In 2016, Statistics Canada reported that just shy of 50 per cent of parents said their child was a victim of bullying. At least one in three adolescent students in Canada echo the same. Yet, our research at the Mental Health Commission of Canada reveals that 40 per cent of parents wouldn’t tell anyone, even their family doctor, if their child were experiencing a mental health problem.
Threatening or aggressive emails or instant messages are the most common forms of online bullying, but by no means does it end there. While Canadian stats on pandemic bullying are harder to find, according to L1ght, a U.S. organization that monitors online harassment and hate speech, there’s been a 70 per cent increase in cyberbullying in a matter of mere months. They also found a 40 per cent rise in toxicity on online gaming platforms, and a 900 per cent jump in hate speech on Twitter directed toward China and the Chinese.
This alarming spike in abusive behaviour online should give us all pause, given that any exposure to bullying increases risk of suicidal ideas in youth. The rate of discrimination experienced by 2SLGBTQ+ youth, for example, is three times higher than their heterosexual peers, and suicide attempts in that community are twice as high.
As a society that is relying on technology as a veritable lifeline, we can’t turn a blind eye to the risks lurking everywhere from school room chat boards to TikTok.
The good news is that bullying can be stopped. Too often, the bully himself is suffering, so we’ve got to equip parents, teachers and students to recognize the kinds of behaviours that can be precursors to actively targeting other kids.
For the children who themselves are picked on, we’ve got to shatter the stigma that may prevent them from reaching out. We’ve got to mount an effort to erase the scars of hurtful words and work to create positive, inclusive climates in schools — whether virtual or brick and mortar.
It’s not surprising that young people who receive greater levels of support from their family encounter fewer incidences of cyberbullying. Nor does it come as a shock that knitting together tighter emotional supports is doubly important for children from single-parent families, who are more likely to be targets of cybervictimization than their counterparts from intact families.
Social support from peers is also important. As someone who had to go out and find a chosen family, I can attest personally to the importance of strong friendship ties.
Bullying doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Our most powerful weapon against it is reinforcing the message that those who experience bullying are the exact opposite of the insults being hurled at them.
What I would tell any young person who is being targeted is the same thing I wish someone had told my younger self: you are smart, you are worthwhile, and you are and deserving of love.
My story doesn’t end with what’s written in those journals. And if you’re being bullied, or know someone who is, take heart that a brighter chapter is waiting for you.
Louise Bradley is president and CEO of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
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