Cyberbullying
About half of the young people in the European Union are exposed to online abuse
Luiza Moldovan, 11.12.2024, 12:38
Cyberbullying. It’s when a person or a group of people receive intimidating or threatening online messages from other people. About half of the young people in the European Union are exposed to online abuse. It is the result of a 2023 Eurostat report which shows that 49% of young Europeans between the ages of 16 and 29 have encountered online messages considered hostile to certain groups or individuals.
It is an extremely vulnerable period of life, marked by the formation of identity, the strengthening of self-esteem and the development of social relationships, which makes negative experiences have a more intense psychological impact.
At the top, according to this report, is Estonia with 69% of young people in this age group having been exposed to such messages online. It is followed by Denmark – 69%, Finland – 68%, France – 65% and Slovakia – 65%. According to Eurostat, 12 of the 23 countries for which data are available had rates above 50%. At the bottom of this list are: Croatia – 24%, Romania – 27% and Bulgaria – 31%.
In most cases, the hate speech was linked to political or social opinions, with an average of 35% in the EU, points out Euronews, which presented this Eurostat report. This category was the biggest in Estonia (60%), followed by Finland (56%) and Denmark (49%).
Hostile messages targeting the LGBTQ+ community affected an average of 32% of young adults in the EU. The highest percentages were recorded in Estonia (46%), Slovakia and Portugal (44%). In addition, 30% of young adults in the EU have been exposed to racially hateful messages, the most affected countries being Netherlands and Portugal, with 45% each.
Nora Enache is a psychologist and has worked, over time, with different age groups on the topic of emotional abuse, whether online or not. In general, cyberbullying causes a wide range of emotional problems.
We asked Nora Enache how online abuse affects young people’s self-esteem and mental health:
“Self-esteem is the overall evaluation of one’s worth. Self-esteem influences our attitude towards ourselves. If we look at ourselves through the online lens, our friends there will act as a social mirror that we look into to get an idea of how others see us. The risk that arises is that not everyone we interact with knows us, not everyone wants us well, not everyone evaluates us correctly. There are so many variables in online interactions that it is difficult to estimate what exactly makes this environment not conducive to development.”
We are talking, therefore, of an online mirror made up of many shards, each of them representing a different person, with a unique character and personality, which is reflected in us. We are talking about an imaginary world that obstinately wants to pass into the reality of a confused, searching young person. It is an extremely dangerous game that the online world offers us, an unknown war and which translates, says Nora Enache, into various signs:
“Signs that indicate that a person is the victim of the online environment are withdrawal, isolation, lack of focus on what they have to do. Most of the time, following these changes in attitude and behavior, it is the family that asks for help and not the victim”.
As it becomes more and more difficult as adults to limit our children’s screen time, the harm caused by online abuse may no longer be avoidable, but it can be treatable. Often a single negative comment is enough for a young person’s inner world to collapse. Psychologically, there is, however, a solution, Nora Enache says:
“Trauma caused by negative experiences in the online environment can trigger, for example, social phobia. Counseling sessions include interventions aimed at cognitive restructuring, mental relaxation training, self-monitoring, exposure to develop social skills or developmental analysis”.
And, yes, psychotherapy is good, but healthy interaction in the real world seems to be better! (MI)
