Tarannum Sattar

Not everyone has been a bully or the victim of bullies, but everyone has seen bullying, and seeing it, has responded to it by joining in or objecting, by laughing or keeping silent, by feeling disgusted or feeling interested.

– Octavia E. Butler

The message read:
“Despite of being a feminist, how could you fall in a trap of a devil like him?”
The message came two days into a small prank played from my facebook by my junior colleagues who posted that I was flying to Paris.
My response was indirect and subtle:
“I’m not in Paris.
Neither am I flying anytime soon.
At least not in another three years.
That prank was just done by my comrades back at work.
And I know that it was done with absolute harmless intentions.”
Nonetheless, I have been receiving weird messages from unknown people that gathers in my filtered inbox (Thanks to Facebook).
A man and a woman sent me two warning messages within a span of one week warning me against someone in my friend list.

According to the mighty well wishers, the gentleman is an Australian who tries to lure girls into intimacy and later blackmails them with the footages.
However, the man claims to know me to the extent that he knows I’m a feminist. And the good woman ( who sent me a friend request earlier ) confirmed the perpetrator lives in Australia. Whatever the duo was trying to do didn’t work for me as I am not seeing anyone in Dhaka, let alone Australia. The person who dug up my feminism should have dug up my relationship status ( although that isn’t provided; single reads desperate ). Both their warnings were futile and made my stardom even more prominent to myself. I am relieved.
This was cyber bullying.
Internet bullying is a serious crime and leads many to horrendous trap. About one third of the girls try to commit suicide and many take refuge inside their houses and refrain from social life.
There are countless fake profiles that send messages and extend hand of friendship only to later take advantage of them.
In most cases, the target is human trafficking, pornography or simply ISIS.
Measures are taken to prevent these impostors from manipulation but the cases of cyber bullying keeps increasing on a daily basis.
There are many different websites where men ” actually ” talk dirty about girls as they will and not only that, they even share how disgusting the girl was (yes, I’m talking skin).
Online abuse and harassment is as serious a crime as physical and verbal abuse. Yet, there are no laws to prevent such crimes.
Safety should be the topmost priority. Use Internet safely. And do not trust anyone with minimal info or who tries to make baseless conversations. Hunters lure their target with a bait.
Let’s stop being one.
Bullying is a term that we are all aware of. We have all come across this expression and have heard stories of it if not seen. Bully is a phrase that is known to continue to engrave
its impact on the teens of the society. Bullying a weaker child in an old fashioned
American school is a story that make many headlines.
But bullying is not limited to American schools anymore. Nor is it a game for the mean seniors at school. It has spread. Bullying has broadened its area to a myriad of places. Bullying now prevails in workplaces, playgrounds, homes and internet.
Internet bullying, commonly known as cyber bullying, is no less harmful than bullying in person. In fact, it is more dangerous. Online bullying is more abusive and threatening as it can be done from anywhere in the world. And the target starts from school-goers to working men and women.
Cyber bullying is Asia is on the rise. And its impact on Bangladesh is rising at an alarming pace. According to a report published in sdasia.co, about 49% of school goers have faced or face bullying. Most of them refrain from going to the school as an act of escape.
Human Rights Organization have reported that in 2011, about 18 girls and women gave their lives and 7 others tried to commit suicide to escape the shaming and horror of cyber bullying.
Online abuse includes many activities like hacking and posting photoshopped photos. And most of the time, it becomes hard for the victim to put up with the shame, especially if they belong to a community.
In order to prevent cyber bullying, internet providers are trying to build a safer internet. In a bid to achieve that, ‘Safer Internet Day’ was observed throughout the world. This year, it was on February 9.
In the event, Telenor, a major telecom company has made it a point to ensure safe internet for the youth
Insight Bangladesh Foundation, a non profit organization based in Bangladesh, plans to do this by building a safer internet for everyone. They also want to teach the youth the proper use of internet and build a good base so that they don’t have to face the crimes anymore.