New statistics have revealed cyber bullying is a lot more prolific in regional areas than it is in the cities.
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A Sensis report states 23 per cent of regional citizens have witnessed online harassment and bullying, compared to just 15 per cent in metro areas. Nine per cent have experienced online bullying – more than double their city counterparts at four per cent.
Sensis Digital spokesman Rob Tolliday said “more than eight in 10 people in regional areas are now using social media, driven by people’s obsessions with their smartphones”.
Clinical psychologist Jamie Marshall said cyber bullying was “definitely” a problem in Inverell, and that he believed it often went underreported.
“I think some people can feel embarrassed or ashamed by being involved in it,” he said.
“A lot of the cyber bullying can be of a sexual nature. People, especially girls, can be the victims of that sort of cyber bullying and they feel embarrassed by it. So they don’t want to go to their parents or anyone because of that.”
Co-ordinator for Inverell Family and Youth Support Service Steph Mouthaan has done her best to face the problem, through a cyber bullying program with local school students.
Ms Mouthaan said many primary-aged students were not aware of how many personal details they could give away online or how that information could be used against them.
“I think children are online a lot more than we think they are,” Ms Mouthaan said, adding that many had no problem circumventing Facebook’s 13-years age limit.
“I think parents need to start being very vigilant.”
Tamworth Centacare principal psychologist Josefina Hofman said the internet was a double-edged sword for regional people, particularly those in remote areas.
“It can be a great tool to connect people, but it can also be really isolating,” she said.
Cyber bullying and the proliferation of social media use is an issue that previous generations have not had to deal with, and the local psychologist said the fall-out has been hard to miss.
“Physical abuse is still extremely harmful and I would never want to dismiss that at all, but psychological abuse is the most damaging because those words, comments, messages and thoughts constantly rotate in a victim’s mind,” Mrs Hofman said.
“Since [the rise in] social media we would have seen, at minimum, a 20 per cent increase in referrals for depression, anxiety, feelings of isolation and neglect, poor self esteem and worst of all, suicidal ideation.”
“Social media is now part of people’s identities, so it is a genuine attack on who they are, especially for younger people who have grown up with it.”
Professor of Psychological Medicine at Sydney Medical School said “excessive social media use is re-wiring people’s brains, with every like or retweet acting as a reward and releasing small doses of dopamine that leave us happy, but we feel craving like symptoms and anxiety when we don’t get it”.
“A recent study in the US found that narcissism is on the rise in young people, as is anxiety and stress. No doubt social media is having a significant impact,” he said.
Mrs Hofman believes that it is up to parents to monitor their children, while she also believes people need to use filters, block and unfriend people, and report inappropriate behavior.
“We need to take the stigma away from cyber bullying, educate people about social media and have the conversation and set-up boundaries. Take notice of depressive anxious symptoms and encourage help seeking behavior – there are many local services that can help,” Mrs Hofman said.
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