Charli D’Amelio needs no introduction and in this video she talks about a huge issue of concern to everyone, cyberbullying.  We are online more now than ever.  And with new social media apps and games, comes more and more opportunity to comment on strangers videos and posts and even send them DMs.  Opening up our ability to communicate with new people around the world brings with it a lot of responsibility.  The types of comments we are posting online say much more about us than they do about the person we are commenting on.  

Cyberbullying can take many forms.  A few of them are;

• Trolling – The kind of bullying Charli and Dixie talk about in the video is getting hateful comments.  This is called trolling.  Trolls often target the same people over and over.  It is important to report and block trolls when you notice them becoming a problem.
• Masquerading – Someone sets up a fake profile just so that they can bully others anonymously.  This is an extremely cowardly kind of bullying that makes the bully harder to catch and report.
• Outing or doxing – sharing private or personal information about someone else without that person’s permission and usually to cause humiliation and shame.  This can include information about or private photos and videos of that person.
• Exclusion – leaving a person out of online groups or hangouts, or intentionally posting comments or photos in which a friend is excluded.  This can seem like a passive form of bullying but has serious consequences on self-esteem.
• Dissing – Everyone now knows about the popularity of diss tracks.  But by supporting diss tracks and other forms of dissing, you are supporting bullying and spreading hate.  Dissing is an attempt to ruin another person’s reputation and is often founded on false information or deliberate lies about a person.

Cyberbullying is a difficult and mostly unavoidable aspect of living a good part of our lives online.  Building resilience (or a thick skin) is one way of coping with this problem.  Knowing that it isn’t about YOU, it is about the person trying to hurt you.  They can be feeling jealous, they may have a bad home life, they may be trying to win followers through meanness, they might be insecure.  It is not that there is something wrong with you personally.  And always talk about this issue with a trusted relative or teacher if things are bad.  They can help you figure out some next steps.

Watch this video and post in the comments if you’ve used any of these ways to stop a cyberbully before.