Just for laughs? – Sri Lanka’s growing cyberbullying menace.

All of us can relate to seeing or being shown a comedic picture with a funny caption on a social media website such as Facebook and pressing the like button, as we chuckle to ourselves. But do we ever stop to think that this picture may be the cause of great mental distress to an individual? And that the action of us liking the picture supports their humiliation?

As technology becomes a major part of the lives of Sri Lankans and many of them begin to gain access to social media: the practice of using such social media platforms to display one’s personal life to the outside world has become increasingly common. These factors have led to the addition of another issue to our country’s growing list of burning issues; cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying is defined as the bullying of an individual over electronic media. This includes the harassment of a person using social media and similar means. There are a few Sri Lankan social media pages who are so called “comedy pages”, that use humiliation of innocent individuals as a form of comedy. These pages usually take pictures from private profiles of individuals; often non-consensually and combine these pictures with lewd captions that humiliate, and in the case of a female, sexualise the victim. These pictures are visible to anyone, and often these posts receive comments which only add to the humiliation of the individual. This may lead to the victim being subject to great mental distress as they watch themselves being mocked on a public platform.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the cyberbullying issues that plague our country. Another, more severe issue is the sharing of sensitive and intimate material publicly; colloquially known as ‘leaking’. Most victims of this unfortunate crime are young women, who trusted someone so much so that they exposed themselves to them, only to find their trust to have been broken and very sensitive pictures and other intimate material being shared around from person to person. The mental and emotional distress that can be caused by this to the victim is indescribable. To add to the immense distress that the victim suffers is the stigma that they are subject to. The victim might be looked down upon by society and even their closest friends and family members.  An example of this is a real-life incident that occurred in a leading school in the island. A few female students had been humiliated in such a way and their private pictures had been exposed to the public. The stigma that these students were subject to was so great that some of them were forced to leave school and give up their education. Being ostracised and shamed by society and having their life fall apart could push these victims, who are already suffering humiliation to the extent of depression or even suicide. Sri Lanka has a very high suicide rate; a considerable proportion of those who end their lives are young women. In a society where mistakes are not tolerated and are instead dealt with by shaming the individual: this fact comes as no surprise. It is time that we changed our attitude towards such things as a society; and treat such victims with the understanding they deserve.

Publicly humiliating and degrading individuals is an attack against that person and an assassination of their character. Such acts must be dealt with severely. Although Sri Lanka has laws in place to deal with cybercrime, stricter regulation is required. CERT is an agency in Sri Lanka that helps remove offensive content off the internet. However, this agency only has a force of 14 people which is not sufficient when considering that the agency receives thousands of complaints a year. The Sri Lanka police also has a Cyber Crimes division; but according to reports, 80% of the complaints received are not taken into consideration as they do not have any applicable laws.

As the world moves forward at a rapid pace, we find our country and ourselves also being pulled forward by the current of technological development, and as much good as this brings to our nation, it also brings along its fair share of issues. In light of such issues, individuals should take precaution about what they post and who they choose to show it to. It is important that people act intelligently and think carefully before sharing material that could harm them. If someone is a victim of cyberbullying, this should be reported to the relevant authorities. Doing nothing about an issue makes you a part of that issue. If you see something on the internet that you believe is harmful to another person: do something; at least report it. It is your moral obligation to do so. Let us join the global movement against cyberbullying and prevent such mischief from harming our world, our country and our society. Let us fight; let us all fight against the menace which is cyberbullying.