Cyberbullying, which came to the agenda with the suicide of Istanbul University student Sibel Ünli, is among the most common and important problems of today. Stating that cyberbullying has many methods, experts point out that families have important duties.
NPISTANBUL Hospital AMATEM Coordinator, Psychiatry Specialist Prof. Dr. Nesrin Dilbaz made important evaluations about cyberbullying, which has been on the agenda in recent days.
Stating that cyberbullying occurs in different ways, Prof. Dr. Nesrin Dilbaz said the following: "Bullying is in the subgroup of violence. When we say cyberbullying, it is a variety of virtual methods that are more common especially among young people through the internet, through e-mail or through the virtual world, making the person feel worse, making the person feel psychologically traumatized, feeling worthless and humiliated in front of others. Here, the person is psychologically victimized. They can do this in many ways.
Trying to make the person feel worthless
What can be done in a virtual environment; one of the most important ones is very common especially among young people. Making the young person feel that they are worthless or making them feel that they are worthless, that their life is not worth living by revealing a psychological or physical disability. Messages such as "Why don't you kill yourself, what place do you have in this world?" are examples of situations that lead to suicide.
Private information is taken to humiliate them
Another is to establish a friendship with a girl or a boy of the opposite sex under another identity, to obtain private information, and then to have it seen by others in the virtual environment, again humiliating and degrading the person.
It can be implemented through photographs
Again, when we look at another person, different pictures are taken and these may be nude pictures, and these can be spread in the virtual environment, and it is the feeling of being put in a bad situation by their peers, becoming ashamed and humiliated. As a result, there is a victimization and there is a victim situation, sometimes there is a bullying person who provides this victimization, sometimes they can both be the same person."
Too much time spent on the internet
Stating that cyberbullying is widespread all over the world, Nesrin Dilbaz said, "In studies conducted abroad, 50 percent of high school youth seem to have been cyberbullied at least once in their lives. There is a very serious risk in our country as well. The reason is this; because in the researches we conducted on our young people, especially in the studies conducted on 16-year-old high school students, we see that they spend more than three hours a day on the internet. As long as they are on the internet, their risk of facing cyberbullying is very high. Look, this can happen even during the game. There was a phenomenon; there is a situation where another young person who hates him/her when he/she makes a comment about a game he/she does not like, or who hates him/her because he/she hates the game, creates an enemy group for himself/herself by giving his/her address in many environments and may receive death threats about it. Can you imagine how much anxiety a young person experiences? Physically the young person feels a lot of things, but psychologically they withdraw themselves from society, they don't go to school with that sense of shame and they don't associate with their peers. They start not enjoying anything anymore and life becomes unlivable for them."
Duration and how they use it should be monitored
Prof. Dr. Nesrin Dilbaz stated that families have important duties regarding the measures to be taken against cyberbullying and said, "First of all, families should supervise their children while they are on the internet. Where do they go, who do they talk to, which sites do they visit? It is important that they prevent them from entering potentially harmful sites by controlling the internet from time to time with protection programs from time to time."
Dilbaz noted that awareness-raising activities should be carried out in schools,
"I know that there are many studies in this direction in National Education. This is to increase the awareness of young people about cyberbullying. In other words, it will be controlled in the virtual world, but on the other hand, when young people are confronted with this, they must inform their guidance counselors or parents and take precautions from the very beginning. Some young people are affected by these attacks more quickly, so there are two main methods. Increasing the awareness of young people about supervision and cyberbullying."
