Online abuse and cyberbullying are becoming more and more prevalent. The rise of technology and how integral it is becoming part of our lives is indisputable. In South Africa, we now have over 5.3 million Internet users and approximately 33 million cellphone users, of which over 9 million are mobile Internet users. Think about how many times you are having a conversation with someone, and their phone rings. They will most of the time stop talking to you to answer the phone. And the same goes for SMS messages being sent inside movie theatres or in meetings, or in the classroom.
Online harassment is on the increase. There are increasing amounts of cyber-bullying taking place where teenagers purposefully do or say nasty things, which are intended to hurt other children. Cyberbullying not only takes place in schools between children, but to some extent it is also becoming more commonplace in the workplace. Cyberbullying is also known as cyber harassment between adults.
Here are some resources:
- Working to Halt Online Abuse
- University of Albany – Avoiding Online Harassment
- Internet Watch Foundation in United Kingdom
- How To Report Online Abuse, Harassment and Defamation
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