Over the last two months Wicklow Comhairle na nÓg have been conducting consultations with young people on the topic of cyber bullying. The aim was to explore and unpack the issue and to delve deeper into what is happening with young people right now. Both surveys and workshops were used as methods for collecting this information. The topic of cyber bullying itself came out of the Great Wicklow Youth survey conducted by the Comhairle earlier this year, where over 1,000 young people had their say on what issues affect them most.
221 young people answered a questionnaire on cyber bullying online, and groups from Arklow, Wicklow and Bray took part in events where an exploration into the results of the surveys was facilitated. The main findings were fascinating. The main findings included:
- 60% of the young people consulted knew of someone who had been cyber bullied in the past two years
- Only 18 people, or 8% of young people said that they would not know what to do if a friend was being cyber bullied
- Over half (53%) of respondents said that they had at some point posted something online which they later regretted
- Ask.fm is the social media on which cyber bullying is most common, followed somewhat closely by Facebook
Young people also flagged several topics relating to the issue. They discussed the importance of the role of the ‘bystander’. “Every ‘like’ a cyber bully gets for a post can make it all hurt that little bit more, knowing that it’s not just their opinion, other people actually agree too.”
They also highlighted several new and interesting perspectives that deserve consideration. “I feel like when people tag others in someone’s profile picture on Facebook is a kind of cyberbullying. Every time one of the girls changes her profile picture to herself before a night out one of the lads would tag one or more of their lad friends.”
It was highlighted during the event consultations that young people agree that ‘bullying’ is on a spectrum that includes once off mean events and ‘banter’ (or things done for a laugh). There are lots of things that influence whether an action is bullying or not; whether it is repeated, whether the intention was to hurt, and what the person being targeted feels about the event.
One thing for sure is that young people care about cyber bullying and believe it is an important topic worth attention. Young people identified that they themselves have the pivotal role to play in tackling cyber bullying for themselves and their peers. Comhairle na nÓg plans to take a leading role in this, by acting on the topic of cyber bullying using the information that they have collected in this process. To stay up to date on this and the other work of Comhairle na nÓg follow them on Facebook.
