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“Let the police escort you home, because if they don’t I’m going to escort you to your grave.”
“Shame poor you, you don’t like me? You can just stand in line with the other bi**es waiting for me to care.”
These are just some of comments on a disturbing video that featured a teenager from Cape Town blurting out crude remarks and threatening commentary to another girl (14). The video went viral on social media sites earlier this week.
It first appeared on Facebook on Monday evening, where the girl (16) can be seen recording herself as a friend of hers laughs in the background.
City Press has not published the video because the girls are minors, but readers can listen to the audio from the video below:
Disturbing quotes include:
• “Shame poor you, you don’t like me? You can just stand in line with the other bi**es waiting for me to care.”
• “My eyebrows are on fleek, your face isn’t, fact not a statement.”
• “If you want to phone the police, my step-grandmother is a policewoman and she’s only 36.”
• “Let the police escort you home, because if they don’t I’m going to escort you to your grave.”
Aden Thomas, a radio DJ on the Breakfast Show on Heart FM in Cape Town, shared the video to his Facebook fan page on Tuesday morning, but subsequently removed it after speaking to the girl in the video.
Thomas released a statement saying that he was committed to helping her and as a result decided to remove the video.
“We have taken loads of reactions from listeners who have come to understand the destructive power of this phenomenon and the impact it could potentially have on their children,” Thomas told City Press.
He believed that society as a whole needed to explore every avenue regarding the scourge in order to raise awareness.
“As a radio station we have an obvious platform to do so, but there is a greater level of two-way engagement on social media. Given the prevalence of the problem it is a great idea to spearhead a multi-platform campaign to encourage victims to speak up, to make bullies understand that their behaviour is wrong and to arm parents with the necessary information to be able to understand if their children are affected by it in any way. Victims and perpetrators also need to be told where they are able to get help,” he said.
Thomas interviewed the aunt of the 14-year-old victim. The victim attends Groote Schuur High School and it is understood that the incident was a result of prior social media fighting on an Instagram account which had occurred between the two girls.
The Western Cape Education Department issued a statement saying the girls who appeared in the video were suspended, pending disciplinary action and counselling.
The girl has since apologised for her actions in the video.
How to make sure your kid isn’t at the mercy of someone like the girl on the viral video
With the proliferation of social media, and children spending increasing time online, is there any way to keep them safe?
City Press spoke to educational psychologist Merritt Watson on the dangers of cyber bullying. She says that the use of electronic communication to “bully” another person is no longer just face-to-face intimidation but has moved on to social media as well.
“‘Bullying’ is saying nasty or untoward things that belittle, humiliate and break down the other person’s self-esteem and self-image. These messages are often of a threatening and/or intimidating in nature,” she says.
Due to the youth spending an increasing amount of their time on social media, not much thought is given on the way in which social media is used to build or harm relationships.
“I have observed that there seems to be less bullying on Facebook, but an increase in the use of private messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram. In the past you could possibly seek out your ‘safe space’, which may have been your room, but now with the advancement of technology and social media, bullying is a 24-hour problem. Children have nowhere to hide,” she says.
Watson suggests the following tips to help parents and children cope with cyber bullies:
• Set very definite boundaries with technology. There is a time and a place for everything. Also negotiate that you have access to their profiles and groups. Teach your children about appropriate and inappropriate technology etiquette.
• Insist that when a social media account is created, the condition is that you will be a follower so as to monitor online activity;
• Talk to your children. Have interaction time;
• Encourage them to inform you of any mistreatment via social media, often the silent suffering of the bullied is of the greatest difficulty faced;
• Anything done via a technological platform now has a permanence and it is important for children to understand what it is said and done now is lasting;
• Observe your child for signs they might be being bullied;
• Teach your child skills to handle being bullied or encourage them to talk about as many different topics without fear or reservation; and
• Be knowledgeable and observant. Try to keep abreast with changing technology.
