“I am scared for my life. I was slapped in my face on the bus last week by a girl I don’t know and it is not fair. It is not me sending these nasty messages and it really hurts to see them tagging nasty comments underneath my photos,” the girl from a Christ Church secondary school said.
This story is scary. It instantly brought to mind Megan Meier, the 13 year old girl who committed suicide after being taunted online.
Two of my cousins, one a boy and one a girl, are in the age range of the kids in the Nation story. The girl isn’t active online, thankfully, but the boy is on Facebook, and he puts so much of himself out there sometimes, it makes me anxious. I remember from my own adolescence how cruel girls (and I specify girls only because I went to an all-girls school) can be in person; I hate to think how much worse it must be when they are shielded by the anonymity of the internet. I hope the police are taking this situation seriously.
Related/resources: Cyberbully411. The UK government anti-cyberbullying site for young people. Advice for kids on staying safe online. And an info/guidance sheet for adults.