Cyberbullying

James Oinam *

On her Facebook post dated 14 September 2017, Mrs Binalakshmi Nepram said, 'STRONGLY CONDEMN intimidation to me and family members again this time surprisingly by followers of a certain Manipur "God-man"...'. This is not the first time the well-known activist has complained of getting threats or being bullied on social networking site.

The BBC did a study on cyberbullying in school children, focusing mainly on a child Izzy Dix who committed suicide, apparently due to bullying. Made available as podcast series on the BBC website, the investigation made some unsettling discoveries.

There were threats on publicly accessible web page; some trolls blamed the parent, again in places where everyone could see. (The troll was said to be based somewhere in Southeast Asia.)

In the words of a school-going child, before the mobiles came, there were safe places where they could hide from the bully, but now there is no safe places—as if the bully can follow them everywhere.

Some time back, a Facebook user posted in jest she was going to play the Blue Whale video game. This was followed by various posts warning people the game was persuading the players to harm themselves. To this some users responded with laughing emoji figures. The world is big place and there are mentally sick people on the other end of the line.

In the study by the BBC, it was found that there are people who provide online guidance on committing suicides, options available and detailed step-by-step guidance. These people claim to be providing only consultancy services, but some doubt if they are at times encouraging the victim. There is report of victim being asked to kill themselves in front of the webcam so that they can watch the victims do it—live.

Children make friends at school. They also meet bullies there. Just because they might meet bullies at school, they can't be stopped from going to school. We make 'Friends' on social networking sites. We also meet bullies and even trolls there.

Obviously, banning from social networking sites cannot be the solution. But something has to be done. I feel awareness and strong culture of honest reviews of what we are consuming is important. In Manipur, while parents don't know how to make a phone call, the child may be on the Twitter.

The elders I think should connect with the youngsters as friends so that they will share them, and not as someone policing or censoring them. Censoring might lead to secrecy, while approaching as a friend might open them up. Some innocent-looking items out there on the internet may not be that innocent.

Take the well-known song 'You're Beautiful' by James Blunt. The song has made it to the list of creepy song with hidden message compiled by a YouTuber Matthew Santoro. The lyrics of this song are those of a stalker, he claims.

Some disconcerting word like 'aping' in the original version was replaced with harmless word 'flying' (I was 'flying' high) to create public-friendly version of the song.

Some parents have complained certain song drove their children to kill themselves. The rhythm of the song, they claimed, seemed to be saying things like 'bleed' and 'do it' again and again. Some songs have been convincingly proven to be invoking the Satan for fame and success.

One may not believe in magic and spells, but modern science has started putting faith in hypnotism. Can listening to them again and again make one do things that one would not do otherwise?

Some songs are known to have other unsettling messages relating to cannibalism and the like using a method called backmasking or backward masking. Can these messages influence us at subconscious level? Using hypnotism people are known to recall things they did not notice consciously.

The market will sell the healthy as well as the unhealthy, the onus is on us consumers to make the right choices to consume. Why not become an extra pairs of eyes for each other?

References

http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?filter=programmes&q=izzy+dix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Giabr1U00