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This story is from May 13, 2020

Teens & social media: Use, abuse and a thin line that separates them

Teens & social media: Use, abuse and a thin line that separates them
“Social media made my brother a rapist overnight...” said a post on Instagram written by a person who identified himself as the brother of the 17-year-old boy who committed suicide in Gurgaon last week.
The Class XII student jumped to death from the balcony of his DLF 5 flat after a girl accused him of sexually assaulting her two years ago, when they were both classmates and in the 10th standard.
The boy was brutally trolled after that.
His ‘brother’ said the threats that followed the girl’s post gave him a panic attack. “He told his friends he was innocent but he couldn’t handle the constant threats and believed his side of the story will not be heard,” the ‘brother’ posted. The teen’s father later filed a police complaint seeking legal changes on use of social media by teenagers.
Cybercrime investigator Ritesh Bhatia told TOI, “Social media platforms have become courts and the public has become the judge.” He added in the 24 hours after news about the Gurgaon teen committing suicide broke, he received 15 emails and calls related to incidents of cyber-bullying.
Bhatia also received a case two weeks earlier about a group of Mumbai school students who were teasing and insulting a classmate on a WhatsApp group. “When the boy found the chats, he named the bullies on social media. I am not condoning what the four boys did but is it right for them to be trolled by 4,000 people online and receive death threats? It is dangerous because these could translate from online internet to physical harm,” he said.

A recent study by Child Rights and You (CRY) said nearly one in 10 adolescents in Delhi had experienced cyberbullying and half of them had not reported it to teachers, guardians or social media companies. Vulnerability rose with increased internet use -- 22.4% of respondents aged 13-18 years who used the internet for longer than three hours a day were vulnerable to online bullying, rising to 28% for those who used the internet for more than four hours a day, the study found.
Mumbai-based psychotherapist and counsellor Minnu Bhonsle said there could be multiple reasons for young people looking at social media to resolve their issues. Besides easy access to the platform, Bhonsle said it appears to be an easier way to tackle an issue rather than use legal processes. “When you see people talking about abuse with hashtags like #MeToo and #antibullying, there is a feeling you will be heard with empathy and believed. Many people might feel that they would not have to go through the process of proving their case and they will be protected by the crowd,” she said.
Bhatia advised students to take up problems with their teachers, parents and counsellors rather than make social media the first option.
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