adminCool Lifestyle Writer
NYARAI (not her real name) is an average teenager.
She likes watching “Trace” and follow her favourite celebs to check out the latest trends. At one point she even had a crush on Justin Bieber. She liked to hang out with her friends in all the cool spots in town. She used to drive her mom up the wall with they way she would chat to them on Facebook and WhatsApp.
But not anymore. A few months ago Nyarai closed her Facebook page, threw away her mobile SIM card and got a new number which she has given out to very few people.
She has no friends left and sticks with her siblings all the time.
Her mom is glad that Nyarai is no longer addicted to the social networking platforms, but little does she know the full story.
Nyarai made the mistake of telling a secret to someone that she believed was her friend. That person then publicly shared the information with a few additions and everyone started saying horrible things about Nyarai.
Whenever she went on Facebook or WhatsApp, Nyarai would find terrible things written about her as people ridiculed her over what she thought was a secret.
Do you make it a habit of saying horrible stuff to people you do not like on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter or any other social networking platform?
Do you carry on vicious attacks that leave your haters in tears or totally gone off the network as in Nyarai’s case?
If the answer is yes, read on. You just may be a cyber bully. And if the answer is no, you have not done any of the above yourself, but it has been done to you, then read on as well, for you have been victimised.
As the use of mobile phones increases in teens, the problem of cyber bullying is also on the rise.
Wikipedia defines bullying as the use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others and Cyber bullying as the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people, in a deliberate, repeated and hostile manner. Most teen cyber bullying comes in the form of nasty comments about how someone looks, the way the dress or their love life or lack of it.
Another common form of cyber bullying among teens is the sending of threats usually implying that physical violence will be used.
The worst part is that most often people do not realise just how hurtful their comments are. And they are just doing it a sick joke.
There are no statistics on cyber bullying in Zimbabwe because most cases go unreported. But in other countries like in the USA there are documented cases of teens committing suicide after particularly bad cyber attacks.
In Zimbabwe it is illegal to send obscene and threatening messages using any form of communication.
That means you cannot text, email, speak over the phone, use snail mail to send any offensive messages. You can be arrested and taken to court for such behaviour.
If you have been guilty of cyber bullying before, now is a good time to stop it. Remember that bullies are just big losers who always pick on people who are weaker than themselves.
So what do you do if you are a victim of cyber bullying?
1. Be positive about it and tell yourself that this is a chance to see who your real friends are as versus the hypocrites.
2. Download and save all the offensive messages clearly showing the sender and date.
3. Make a report to the police.
You will need to talk to your parents or guardians first as their consent may be required for the police to act.
4. Un-friend or bar all the nasty people
5. In future avoid over-sharing.
Online Reporter