The Westeros Wing

Every year or so a new story of kids misusing technology grips the news cycle: children addicted to video games, teens texting and driving, and an epidemic of dangerous sexting have all caused alarm in the recent past. New technology can be frightening, particularly when parents see that their children have a much stronger grasp on it than themselves.

The most recent panic has revolved around the problem of cyberbullying. Several high profile teen suicides this year have led to a media narrative that suggests that youth are attacking, tormenting and even driving their peers to suicide. But the cyberbullying panic is hype; paranoia created by a few shocking, tragic stories that are not indicative of a general trend.

Several high profile teen suicides this year resulted in Justice Minister Peter MacKay announcing this week that the federal government would introduce new legislation to combat cyberbullying this fall. The federal government’s move follows the introduction of Nova Scotia’s Cyber Safety Act, which imposes some of the strictest laws against cyberbullying anywhere. The Cyber Safety Act stemmed from the suicide of Rehteah Parsons, a Halifax teen who took her life after being sexually assaulted and bullied, both online and in person. While Rehteah’s story is heartbreaking, her death is not evidence that cyberbullying is an epidemic that threatens teens across Canada.

BC Coroners Service released a review of teen suicide this week and found that of all the children who committed suicide in BC between 2008 and 2012, only 12, or around 13% were known to have been bullied. (The report does not specify whether this bullying was cyberbullying or old fashioned offline bullying) Two other recent reports on teen suicide, mental health, and self harm fail to mention bullying at all. Did these experts really fail to identify a serious cause, or is it possible that the cyberbullying threat has been overhyped?

Cyberbullying is an attractive cause. It is attractive to white middle and upper class individuals who see their children’s unprecedented use of technology and feel concerned. They do not feel threatened by risk factors such as aboriginal identity, addiction, homelessness, and state care, because these rarely apply to their children. Cyberbullying is attractive to media because the story of a young girl with a bright future who took her own life after online torment by her peers is much more shocking and sellable than an Aboriginal child in foster care who did the same.

It seems harsh to shrug our shoulders at a problem that has claimed lives and tell the survivors that the problem is not the epidemic they believed. But it is worse to spend extensive time and resources combatting cyberbullying at the expense of other, more pressing risk factors for suicide. In his announcement, MacKay suggested that the federal government planned to take a “holistic” approach to combatting cyberbullying, attacking the problem through multiple venues. But resources would be better spent addressing serious risk factors. Aboriginal youth and children who have spent time in the care of the state (suggesting abuse or neglect) represent an intensely disproportionate amount of youth suicides. The federal government would save more lives by putting money, time, and effort into revamping the mental health or foster care system than they would by prosecuting cyberbullying.

Bullying is not a small problem, but its risk has been amplified to the public. Combined with numerous social media platforms and the almost inescapable reach of online life today, cyberbullying seems like a threat worthy of government interference. But the majority of teens use social media to interact with friends, acquaintances, and strangers with similar interests. Where occasionally anonymous cruelty shows up, teens with a strong support system and good mental health will be able to cope. Teen suicide results when those factors are not in place, and resources should be spent installing them there. Chasing down the IP addresses of kids who likely have serious issues themselves is not the answer.