Sophie, a 14-year-old British girl, suddenly changed her behavior in class. She lost interest in studies and would sit in the corner with her head mostly down.
Ethan Miller, one of Sophie's teachers, discovered the reason: she had been bullied(欺凌) online. Sophie was receiving abusive(辱骂) messages on her phone and on Facebook. Miller shared Sophie's story on the official website of The Children's Society, a children's charity in the UK. Sophie was not alone. One in three young people, in 30 countries, said they have experienced online bullying. Twenty percent of those bullied students were not willing to go to school because of it, according to a report in September. The study surveyed more than 170,000 young people aged 13-24 from countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Seventy-five percent of them said social media, like Facebook and Twitter, are the most common places for online bullying. The growth of social media has left many young people hurt by online bullying, including unfriendly and abusive messages, comments and pictures.
The Internet world makes it easier for people to communicate with each other, but there is more danger for young people as well — and it is surprising that online bullying troubles many young people more than anything else. What's more, online bullying could lead to serious results for young people. Such bullying makes young people more than twice as likely to hurt themselves or even kill themselves, according to a 2018 study by the university of Oxford, UK. The research also found that young people facing online bullying were not as likely to ask for help as those bullied by traditional ways.
To deal with the problem, UNICEF has called for national helplines to support people who are bullied, along with training for teachers and parents to prevent and deal with online bullying.
Here is some advice to keep yourself safe on the Internet:
⒈Make sure that you're careful and respectful to others, even if you don't share similar opinions, values or beliefs.
⒉If you experience online bullying, the best response to a bully is no response(回应) at all.
⒊Keep a record of anything that shows proof(证据) of online bullying, like screenshots. You can use this to report and stop them.