Kids driven to edge by cyberbullies

Reports of increasing depression

AFTER three years of being bullied and harassed, Nicole Fox Fenlon had enough.

She texted her mother Jackie one last time. “I love you, with all my heart. I’m doing all this for Nicole, so others don’t suffer the way I did.”

The 21-year-old from Ireland then took an overdose of pills.

“She was rushed to hospital and spent several days on life support before she was pronounced dead.

Fenlon was physically and mentally bullied for three years.

“They never gave her a minute’s peace,” her mother Jackie told the Irish Sunday Mirror. “They stubbed cigarettes out on her, they pulled her down the stairs by her hair when she was in a nightclub. They punched her and kicked her in the face.”

This week, South Africans were confronted with a local case: a 13-yearold girl from Pretoria North who committed suicide after she was bullied on WhatsApp for more than a week.

It is alleged a Grade 7 pupil threatened to distribute a “naughty video” of the deceased Grade 6 pupil online. The traumatised girl reported the alleged bullying to her teachers but on Monday, she hung herself.

Her mother, Lina Thibane, discovered her daughter’s lifeless body near the kitchen in their home.

“I’m in pain. She was my best friend,” she said.

“We’ve been getting more and more calls about cyberbullying, and it has been a contributing factor to children’s or teens’ depression and suicide,” said Cassey Chambers, the operations director of the SA Depression and Anxiety Group.

“With the boom in social media, technology, internet, access to smartphones – and the movement of ‘online’ – more teens are online. Unfortunately, the downside is that more and more teens (and even children) are becoming victims of cyberbullying.”

Sarah Hoffman, director at the Digital Law Company, said her firm was inundated with requests for help from children. It recently dealt with a case involving an 11-year-old Joburg girl who attempted suicide after her nude pictures were posted on social media.

The girl met a boy at a party. Two days later he started begging her for nude pictures. He asked 57 times, promising he would never show them to anyone. Eventually, she relented.

He shared her naked photo with all his friends on social media.

“When it comes to asking for or distributing nudes where the subject is under 18, there are also criminal offences relating to child pornography, which apply. If you know the identity of the bully and the bullying is sufficiently severe to the extent that it can be said to cause you mental, emotional or psychological harm, one mechanism is to apply for a protection order under the Protection from Harassment Act.”

Liane Lurie, a clinical psychologist, said one of the worrying factors about cyberbullying and bullying was that many teens were afraid to speak out about it.

“The lies, rumours and sensationalist ideas created around the individual have the potential to destroy not only their sense of self but also their reputation,” Laurie said.