On Monday, two girls from Lakeland, Florida-ages 12 and 14 were arrested for aggravated stalking after the death of 12 year old Rebecca Sedwick, a girl who committed suicide last month.
Officials say that the two girls had repeatedly cyber bullied Rebecca. After her suicide, one of the girls even wrote this on Facebook: “Yes IK I bullied REBECCA nd she killed her self but IDGAF.”
Although these incidents – suicide because of cyber bullying – are rare, they are incidents that prevention experts have been worried about as the suicide rates for teens have inched up. From 2007 to 2010 the suicide rates for teens went from 9.7% to 10.5% in 2010, the highest rate seen in more than a decade.
For 15 to 24 year olds, suicide is the third leading cause of death. According to a study by the Yale School of Medicine, there is a link between suicide and bullying, and bullying victims are two to nine times likely to report having thoughts of suicide.
Many states have instituted anti-bullying programs in response to this increasingly prevalent phenomenon. In Arizona, thirty public schools have a pilot program in which they focus on character building within the classroom. In Wisconsin, there is a statewide effort to help teachers by providing resources on avoiding conflicts in school.
Recently, Governor Rick Scott of Florida has taken action by putting a new law into place. This law gives schools authority in cases of cyber bullying that occurs outside of schools. However, schools alone can’t handle it all alone. Parents need to be involved in a teen’s daily online interactions.
Our technology is vastly expanding and increasing usage of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allows teenagers to become targets for bullying. Some apps, such as Ask.fm, Kik, and Voxer, allow people to be even more anonymous and hateful.
“Social media has allowed for mean girls to be meaner, more vicious, and more hateful, because the anonymity gives them a sense of power,” says Ruth Reyes, a student at Miami Lakes Educational Center. “But the truth is: it’s not okay. Cyber bullying needs to be stopped.”
Social media is a very powerful tool for bringing people together and meeting new people. However, it can also be very dangerous, especially when with teenagers who haven’t developed empathy. Maybe if, as a community, we were to place more value on daily interactions as opposed to online interactions then maybe many of those teens would be tucked into bed tonight.
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