Brighton Beach police tackles cyberbullying

BRIGHTON Beach police recently cast the spotlight on the issue of cyberbullying at their latest child protection programme initiatives on Friday, 7 June.

Brighton Beach spokesperson, Captain Louise Le Roux said that cyberbullying prevention was a focus area during child protection week for the station, which was observed from 28 May to 6 June. “Brighton Beach embarked on a brochure distribution campaign to help bring about awareness on the use of social media by youngsters, who intentionally or unintentionally create opportunities that threaten their safety online,” she said.

During foot beat operations held on the day, a total of 1 000 educational brochures, researched and developed by Capt. Le Roux, were distributed at major malls, situated within the Brighton Beach Policing area. She further added, “We all have a social responsibility to ensure that our children are responsible social media users, and to act if our children are victims of cyberbullying.  We urge those affected to report cyberbullying to online service providers, as it often violates the terms of service established by social media sites and internet service providers.”

Le Roux together with Brighton Beach police further provided warning signs of cyberbullying that are generally evident in young children and teenagers.

Cyberbullies tend to:

• Intentionally exclude others from an online group.
• Harass others by constantly sending emails, messages, or tagging others in posts they don’t want to be tagged in.
• Post or send cruel messages that damage another’s reputation, relationships, or confidence.
• Trick another teen into revealing secrets or embarrassing information which the cyberbully will then share online.
• Post or send offensive, insulting, and mean messages repeatedly.
• Create fake accounts to exploit another teen’s trust or hack into an account and post or send messages that are damaging to a person’s reputation or relationships.
• Threaten or imply violent behaviour toward others to make them feel uncomfortable.

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