Slow Death: Cyberbullying Pushes Teens to Commit Suicide

Instead of celebrating her birthday, Dina, an Arab Muslim girl, who lived in the city of Mulhouse in France, was ready to put an end to her life.

Exhausted from cyberbullying, her 15th birthday turned out to be her last day when she decided to kill herself on October 4, 2021, in her bedroom. In fact, Dina was subjected to bullying for two years because of her Arab origins.

Nowadays, many teenagers like Dina are forced to handle much pressure from bullies at any given hour of the day, often without even knowing their identities. A pressing health problem for the world’s youth is not limited only to school grounds, social media also has become a way to hurt, insult and push so many teens to suicide.

 

Second Attempt

According to her mother, Dina was harassed and insulted by her colleagues every day, in addition to text messages from bullies that the family found on Dina's phone. Being called “disgusting Arab,” the teen suffered from a difficult psychological situation, and nobody was there for her.

In March 2020, Dina made her first attempt to commit suicide in her middle school. Her family moved her to another school thinking of that as the best solution to save their daughter.

Dina also thought that she would never meet her harassers again until she was brought together by a canteen shared between the two schools and she was subjected again to insults and abuse, so she decided another time to end her life, and she succeeded.

The family condemned school bullying and social media also. In an interview with France Bleu, her brother said that everyone described her as a dirty and disgusting Arab and she received messages in which bullies said: “in the second attempt, you will not fail, try again, we hope you will die.”

The Public Prosecutor's Office in Mulhouse opened an investigation after the family filed a complaint, linking the cyberbullying to the harassment that Dina was subjected to and her suicide.

 

A Real Threat

Social media has a pivotal role in today’s digital society. However, as it disseminates a part of information and events, it also helps to spread all  kinds of harassment, hate, and bullies in  the wireless  community.

If you feel hurt when texting or think others are commenting to laugh at you instead of with you, then the joke has gone too far and you are under a real threat, cyberbullying.

In past decades, bullying was restricted to school hours. Today, the problem persists both on and off school grounds, especially through cell phones to help hide the bullies’ identities.

A pressing health problem for the world’s youth has been shown up due to the prevalence of these cell phones and digital devices that helped in creating online harassment and abuse. Indeed, teenagers are the most to be harmed by anonymous cyberbullies who, under many fake accounts, have the total freedom to attack them often without barriers.

In fact, cyberbullying leads to psychological, emotional and behavioral problems in the long term, such as depression, loneliness, introversion anxiety and even suicide. The victim, especially the teenager, resorts to aggressive behavior as a result of cyberbullying, and he himself may turn with time into a bully or into a violent person. On the other hand, contrary to violence as a result, remaining silent and passive is the other dark side of cyberbullying. The teen’s withdrawal from social activities in the family or school may increase, until he or she becomes an isolated person, before the last step, which is committing suicide, as studies have shown that victims of suicide due to bullying are on the increase, especially after the emergence of cyberbullying.

Many boys and girls like Dina had suffered in silence then they died peacefully in their bedrooms. Their voices of seeking help had not been heard so they left the world losing faith in families and societies.

 

Statistics

The number of cases of cyberbullying varies from one country to another, but what is certain is that it's a problem everywhere in the world. Again,

Social media gives the opportunity to communicate to different people  regardless of place and time. Participating in conversations and online dialogue without being face-to-face with others is helping bullies to harass and abuse people especially teenagers behind screens as it is difficult to figure out their identities.

According to the Panda Security website, about 37% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 have been bullied online with 30% having had it happen more than once.

According to the same website, 23% of students reported that they have said or done something mean or cruel to another person online and 27% reported that they’ve experienced the same from someone else. To have it more detailed, 42% of adolescents have experienced cyberbullying on Instagram, and 37 % of them have experienced this on Facebook. Indeed, 25% of students who are cyberbullied turn to self-harm to cope.

The European Parliament claimed that teenagers are the most at risk for online sexual exploitation and harmful material in European countries including Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Norway.

Recently, many campaigns have sought to raise awareness about cyberbullying to inform parents how to protect their children.

 

 

UNICEF in their report on cyberbullying reported: “Such a campaign could include expert advice for parents on how to constructively monitor their children's online behavior, how to support their children if they become a victim of cyberbullying, and how to manage the situation if their child commits cyberbullying.” It is very important to educate children at schools regularly in order to highlight the consequences of bullying and cyberbullying.