Young Scot Says Who Results Preview
As facilitators in Scotland for the HUWY project Young Scot are keen to get as many views from young people as possible on all matters related to the internet. As such, as part of our efforts, we have created four separate consultations on www.youngscotsayswho.org with which to gather views. Says Who? is a fantastic tool for gathering the opinions of young people taking the concept of an online consultation onto the next level in terms of engagement, participation, and innovation with videos, external resources, comment boxes and more detailed surveys all in one place.
So far the responses paint a mixed picture of Scotland’s relationship with the internet, and how young people exist in this environment. To use the issue of Cyberbullying as an example, from our ongoing consultation on Says Who? (http://www.youngscotsayswho.org/consultation/HUWY-Cyberbullying) there have already been some valuable opinions expressed. In response to the question of how big a problem Cyberbullying is one young person wrote, “I think it is a massive problem, but because there are no 'witnesses' like there would be at school etc, people don't know how much goes on online,” whilst another said , “I believe that it is a huge problem. I believe it is a bigger problem than conventional bullying now because it is much harder to get caught and schools won't do anything about it because it doesn't happen on school grounds.”
Some young people have expressed frustration at a lack of support from moderators of social networks sites “My friend was being cyberbullied by her biological mum (she's in foster care right now). She would leave horrible messages on her FaceBook wall saying things like "you ruined my life", "I hate you" (and that's the 'nicest' comments). She has reported them to the moderators and she has yet to hear back from them.”
When asked what teachers and parents should do to help young people deal with cyberbullying one person wrote: “I think teachers should talk with pupils in class about the dangers of it. I think that some honestly believe that if they aren’t doing it in person then it isn’t a problem, this should be stopped with the same punishment being used for cyber to real bullies.” Others agreed saying “[Teachers should] take it just as seriously as physical bullying,” and “Encourage [young people] to speak up if they are cyberbullied and where they can go to tell someone.”
This is not a unified feeling amongst young people, however as some felt cyberbullying is “not as huge as the media makes out it is,” with others reiterating this point that the media’s input isn’t always helpful, “I hear about it on the news quite often, but I personally do not know of anyone who has been cyberbullied. Therefore I think it's a problem; but not a massive one.”
Of course there are no right or wrong answers with topics like this, all opinions are valid. As such we want to encourage as many young people as possible to head to www.youngscotsayswho.org and check out the consultations marked with the HUWY logo.
