Tragedy from social networks

Lee MacMillan, the star on Instagram, recently ended his life in tragedy. She is one of the victims of online bullying.

Lee MacMillan, the star on the social network Instagram, recently ended his life in tragedy. She is one of the victims of online bullying, an extremely dangerous flip side from social networks.

Lee MacMillan is a blogger with 74,000 followers on Instagram. The 28-year-old girl, famous for her van adventures with ex-boyfriend Max Bidstrup. Both have traveled from Canada to the Americas, South Africa … with the shepherd dog. At the end of January 2020, the couple announced the way everyone went, making many fans feel regretful.

At that time, in addition to words of comfort and encouragement, Lee also became the subject of some fans blaming and stoning. Gradually, the young girl fell into a state of depression before taking her own life. According to Lee’s family, the people who are always trying to bully Lee online are a small group of 74,000 fanpage followers.

They let go of her disparaging words for a long time. “Unfortunately, Lee has faced some sort of criticism and they have deeply influenced her. Our help was not enough for her to overcome the negative emotions they caused“The father of the Instagram social network star,” said Wil, sadly.

According to Daily Mail Australia, the Lee family hopes their daughter’s story can shed light on the devastating effects of cyberbullying can have on a person’s psychological health.

A global issue

Ipsos survey of cyberbullying in several countries. Photo: Statista

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) defines “cyber bullying” as bullying using digital technology. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms, and mobile phones. It is repetitive behavior, intended to frighten, anger, or embarrass the targeted people.

There are various forms of bullying on the Internet, such as the spread of lies, malicious rumors, and offensive comments; Post embarrassing photos of someone on social media; Sending harassing or threatening messages through messaging platforms; Impersonating someone online to send malicious messages to others …

In fact, bullying has always been a headache for many people and society for a long time. Now, with the use of social media becoming ubiquitous around the world, bullies are taking advantage of the “high-tech path” to commit these evils. There are no age or gender restrictions on victims of cyberbullying.

In September 2020, Microsoft released the results of an online bullying study, which found that 38% of people in 32 countries said they had been involved in a bullying case, as victim, bully or bystander.

In Vietnam, 51% of internet users, including 48% of adults and 54% of teenagers, said they had been involved in a “bullying case”, 21% said they had been a victim and 38 % are bystanders or witnesses bullying or harassment.

Rates of online bullying among Vietnamese students through studies from 2015 to 2017. Photo: UED Media

The study also surveyed adults about bullying, also known as “harassment”, both inside and outside the workplace. In Vietnam, 15% reported seeing bullying at their workplace and 44% reported having experienced bullying outside of their workplace.

According to another survey by Unicef ​​and the special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children, published in September 2019, one-third of teenagers in 30 countries said they were once victims of cyberbullying, of which one in five said they had dropped out of school because of cyberbullying and violence.

Surveys via anonymous messages are conducted through U-Report. More than 170,000 U-Report users aged 13-24 participated in this survey, including teenagers from Albania, Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, France, Gambia, Ghana , India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jamaica, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam …

“Today, the classroom space connecting with the outside world also means that school hours no longer end by the time students leave the classroom, and sadly, bullying doesn’t stop there.“, Ms. Henrietta Fore, CEO of Unicef ​​organization said.

With the Covid-19 epidemic still going unpredictable, when measures are taken, children and adolescents have used online platforms more often as they have to learn from far. And as a result, the number of online bullying cases is certainly increasing.

The level of bullying among high school students, according to a 2018 survey of the Department of Psychology – Education, Da Nang Pedagogical University on cyberbullying, with the participation of more than 500 high school students. In the city.

Virtual bullying, real impact

Mr. Pham The Truong, General Director of Microsoft Vietnam, commented: “Cyberbullying has real-world consequences. In the case of cyberbullying, victims can be harmed at any time of the day by anonymous sources, and it is likely that the incident will be spread to a large number of people. People of all ages can be affected by online abuse, cruelty and abuse“.

Globally, when asked about the effects of workplace bullying, survey participants reported feeling humiliated (58%) globally, according to a Microsoft survey. ), followed by mental loss (52%) and loss of confidence (51%).

The effects also vary between generations. 53% of respondents aged 18-24 reported feeling isolated and depressed, while Gen X generation (those born between the 1960s and early 1980s) were underperforming. more fruit (58%). People who experience online bullying or harassment at work also reported feeling “unbearable or severe” pain.

When it comes to online bullying or harassment, Microsoft says, most people in Vietnam block bullies (63%) or share with friends about what happened (58%). , the rest ignored the bully (43%). 50% of survey respondents said that they reported behavior to social media companies or other providers.

Rate of bullying online in the world from 2008 to 2018. Photo: UED Media

In its report, Microsoft encourages people of all ages to report any online threats or harassment to the relevant online service provider. User reports play a key role in providing everyone with a safe and reliable online experience.

In the third quarter of 2020, the artificial intelligence (AI) system of Facebook discovered and removed 94.7% of the 22.1 million content that provoked hate on social pages; increased from 80.5% out of 6.9 million content over the same period of the previous year. Facebook is taking steps to use AI to remove these content from its platform.

“Online bullying is out of control in the world, and it needs to be stopped. People involved in this behavior must understand that their actions have real consequences. We need to find a way to stop them and the platforms for this to happen accountable“Lee MacMillan’s father said.

According to Mr. Luu Dinh Phuc, Director of the Department of Information and Communications (Ministry of Information and Communications), Vietnam has specific regulations on behavior on domestic websites. For overseas social networking platforms, offended persons can immediately report such platforms so that they can take measures to remove them, or send information to regulatory agencies such as the Department of Information and Communications, media information and local authorities.

The Department of Information and Communications has now established channels to request cross-border platforms to remove bad and malicious information. The Department has also set up a center to receive and process fake news at the address tingia.gov.vn and the introduction of prefix reception reflecting fake news 18008108. This center has the role of receiving, assessing and publishing fake news about information that may cause negative effects on the community, and offend the honor and dignity of individuals.

Information given by the fake news processing center will be shared on social networking sites, forums and newspapers for the community to understand, thereby reducing the disadvantages. In addition, when the center has announced fake news, the functional forces will base on that to investigate whether the objects spread inside or outside the country to handle. Mr. Phuc also added that in the coming time, the department will set up a specialized room dealing with fake news.

Le Minh

Lee MacMillan is a star on the social network Instagram. Photo: People