I am a youth mental health advocate, and I try to make my change in mental health through the tech system.
I want to tell you my story. As a young kid, after I tried to take my own life, I received the majority of my support online. I didn't have trusted adults in my community who I felt I could talk to. I'm not alone. Kids Help Phone did a study that said 55% of suicidal young people are reaching out for support online and through social media.
When you consider that many of the evidence-based online services have really restricted hours or are not connecting to peer support, and young people are usually in unrestricted, unsupportive environments, you can see where cyber-violence might come into this.
As a young person, I have experienced cyber-violence myself. In one case, a single tweet led to 1,000 angry responses, including 100 death threats and three attempts to “dox” me. Doxing is the practice of releasing online the personal information on someone, including pictures, social insurance number, and home address, because you don't like what the person said. The attacks are commonly used online against women for opposing sexism, for turning down sexual advances, or for simply being women. In one case, a man used this information to drive to my friend's house with guns in the back of his car. He crashed his car and was stopped. Even after this, the best advice the police could give to this woman was to get off the Internet.
For many, living a life without social media would isolate them and affect their business and job prospects. Suggesting to someone that they should leave the Internet is punishing the victim and rewarding the perpetrator. Young women do not find the current laws and police helpful in these cases. The only suggestion was for them to leave the Internet, so they've been advocating directly with social media sites and have created their own protection networks and peer support groups for those who've been attacked online.
Many women experience cyber-violence beyond sexual violence, including the loss of their jobs as their attackers are relentless in calling their workplaces, tweeting, and showing up to get the person fired. In my case, my whole online history of posts was mailed to my employer, because I rejected someone's advances.
Cyber-violence prevention programs and education are often focused on what women and girls can do to protect themselves. This is not enough. We need to educate the boys and men to stop thinking that this kind of violence is just a funny joke. This is not a game. We need programs and campaigns aimed at men and boys instead of at women.
As in my case, when you're able to sit down with someone who is trying to troll you online and show them that you're a person, it can make a world of difference.