Juvenile Cyber Bullying
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I can’t stop thinking about an article by Megan Lehmann in The Weekend Australian Magazine (14-15 July 2018, pp 14-18). It is titled, ‘Just Go KJS xo’. It is a powerful, particularly well written, comprehensive, thoughtful, informative, no holds barred, and in-your face articles on cyber bullying of and by young people.
Our society appears to remain uncertain about how to respond to a phenomenon that is irreparably damaging lives or causing many young people to end their lives.
We appear to have left behind the traditional approach of expecting kids to toughen up and learn how to deal with bullies. This was intended to prepare kids for life in a dog eat dog world, run by bullies. Such an attitude appears to still be voiced with respect to sexual assault of women, suggesting that the incidence of assaults would be reduced if women were more discerning about what they wore, where they went and if they put up more of a fight.
Our current approach is to draw attention to the many victims of cyber bullying but remain uncertain about how to tackle cyber bullies.
That teenage brains are not yet fully formed is clearly relevant to what we should do about teenage cyber bullies. This biological fact, should not, however, hamper our thinking on preventing the harm caused by any form of bullying and particularly, cyber bullying. Nor should young bullies be left alone to ‘grow out of’ their bullying behaviour as many won’t. Even those who do will still ruin or end other lives before they do.
A rarely mentioned problem with not simply stopping cyber bullying irrespective of the level of legal liability that may be attributed to the bully is that in so doing, we allow bullies, who, in many cases lack any sense of regret or empathy for the pain, suffering and suicides they cause, as studies reveal, to become adults whose lack of empathy for others will make them well suited to either lives of crime, or as is increasingly being recognised to ‘successful’ lives in areas of the corporate or legal world due to their ability to be ruthless and not be hamstrung by emotions such as sympathy, empathy and guilt.
Our quaint and antiquated legal system is poorly equipped to deal with juvenile cyber bullying. Our criminal law has developed a process for dealing with perpetrators of crimes where the perpetrators have full capacity and therefore bear full responsibility. The law’s only deterrent is through conviction. However, the effect of this is lessened in the case of young people as we protect juvenile offenders by not publishing their names and by treating them more leniently than their adult equivalents.
We need to think outside of the box. Schools and employers of young people should be required to have no tolerance policies regarding bullying. Let’s stop lamenting the impact expulsion from school or loss of a job will have on a bully. Let’s instead focus on the damage to lives that will be prevented and the lives that will be saved. Fellow students or workmates should also be encouraged or required to assume some responsibility by exposing (anonymously, where appropriate) the bullying of their peers.
In determining what we do about those found to have committed acts of bullying, the primary and overriding factor should be the protection of others. Just as anger control issues of an abuse husband should not justify ongoing risk of the battered wife being subjected to domestic violence, so the behavioural or psychiatric issues of a bully should not leave others vulnerable to further bullying.
It’s only through first hand experience of juvenile bullying or when we read about the nature, prevalence and dire effects of cyber bullying in articles, such as Megan Lehmann’s, that we realise that juvenile cyber bullying is not about naughty children misbehaving but rather a prevalent crime destroying many young lives and a major cause of youth suicide.
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