Online bullying is one of the risks accompanying children’s growth in the digital age, when anyone can publish and distribute content that reaches many people. This is one of the phenomena in the communication of teenagers, which can cause serious damage to victims both in its occurrence and in the long run.
Online harassment is the focus the first video in a special series created by a team from Teen Station and the Media Literacy Coalition as part of the Media Literacy Days 2020 campaign. The screenplay is by Paraskevi Konstantinu Karageorgu, who worked in the field of media literacy in England and Slovenia for 3 years before returning to Bulgaria, and the author of the comic is Dimitar Stafidov:
„Online harassment can be 24 hours a day and be watched by tens of thousands of people. It can take many different forms. In this video we talk about some of them. We chose it in comic format because it is popular among our younger siblings. Share it with them!
Nearly 30% of the children interviewed for the representative survey \“Online behavior of children in Bulgaria\“, part of the international research project Global Kids Online, say that they were treated in a negative way. Most often, the first such experience in children’s lives occurs around the age of 10-12, when they begin to actively communicate on the Internet using social networks. It is important for children to know in advance what to do if they become a victim or witness bullying, but no less important is the approach of the adults to whom the children share the problem. All these aspects are presented in an impactful and understandable way in \“What is online harassment\“.
In the coming days you will be able to see two more videos of Teen Station on the topics of sexting and personal data protection. The three films were made under a project of the Coalition for Media Literacy with the support of the Small Grants Program of the US Embassy. Partners of Media Literacy Days 2020 are the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, UNICEF and the Bureau of the European Parliament in Bulgaria and Teen Station.
The Internet Risks video series was produced with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria\’s Small Grants Program.