Cyberbullying | Violence does not end with the final blow

Cyber ​​violence against children continues to increase. Photo: dpa/Philip Dulian In the spring of this year, numerous videos of brutal fights between underage girls circulated on social media. In one video, a group of teenagers set up an improvised ring on the outskirts of the city and two girls entered into a fight as cell phone cameras watched. In another video, several girls brutally attacked a classmate and left her lying on the ground. Here, too, children stood nearby with their cell phones in their hands.

Fights among minors are nothing new. What is new, however, is an audience that fits in your pocket. A fight no longer has to end with the last blow or leaving the schoolyard. It can live on as content: shared, commented on, rated and revisited at any time. Violence becomes a spectacle and the smartphone becomes a tool that multiplies its reach and its consequences.

Violence among children does not have a uniform face. It begins with insults, humiliation, exclusion from the group or threats. It can continue with property damage, blackmail, sexual assault or physical violence. Online, this often involves the publication of degrading photos and videos, the creation of fake profiles, mass attacks in chats or the repeated distribution of footage of the attack.

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Furthermore, the shapes overlap. The teasing in class continues in the evening in a group chat, the physical attack is recorded, and the recording in turn triggers a new round of teasing. What may seem like isolated incidents to an adult represents a single, sustained attack to a child.

In addition, violence is increasing, the immediate target of which is not the wallet or a personal confrontation, but the spectacle itself. An attack can serve as a ticket to a party, a test of loyalty or a means of gaining attention. The perpetrator has an audience on site and thousands more online. The camera not only becomes a witness, but also part of the event.

When a video of a brutal child fight is released, adults wonder what happened to today's children. That's convenient. However, it is much less comfortable to ask what kind of world we let them grow up in.

Social media did not “invent” aggression among children. Children argued, humiliated and competed long before the internet. But the digital world has given violence something it didn't have before: an almost unlimited audience, instant attention, and the ability to leave a mark that can outlive the attack itself for years.

This world was not created by children. It was created by adults and is based on a competition for attention. The most effective content is often not the most sensible content, but rather the content that evokes the strongest emotions. Indignation, fear, humiliation and aggression are powerful weapons in such a system. Children simply learned his rules - sometimes shockingly quickly.

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However, this does not relieve the attackers of their responsibility. But network operators also bear responsibility. They cannot pretend that they are empty channels through which human behavior just flows. Your systems decide which content has the greatest reach and how easily degrading content can be removed.

Cyber ​​violence against children cannot be prevented by individual measures. But we can change society's assessment of it. As long as an attack elicits laughter and admiration, raises status, and generates thousands of clicks, it serves as a shortcut to recognition. If we want to reduce violence among children, it is not enough to be outraged about the latest video. We have to change the rules of the world in which it is worthwhile to produce something like this. Because children are, above all, a reflection of society.

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