There has been much debate whether the Maribor school incident included elements of invasion of privacy, and whether the perpetrators should be held accountable. There have also been warnings that too little has been done in the field of cyberbullying i.e. when an individual abuses the Internet in order to harm or harass other people. Cyberbullying is not rare among young people. Those well informed say one of the reasons for the occurrence of this kind of violence is the lack of media education in schools. The lack of an education which would explain the consequences of this kind of action to children and young people. "What is especially perfidious in cyberbullying, compared to the normal harassment among peers, is that the victims have no chance to escape. The perpetrators come into their bedrooms. As a consequence victims of cyberbullying have no chance to escape and search for help to no avail," is what the Inter-kulturo Maribor company says. The company is taking part in a European project called Plan C, which is financed by the European Commission. The project brings together eight partners from seven European countries.
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How do other countries deal with cyberbullying?
In Slovenia the police has a few programs dealing with sexual violence and paedophilia, but very little regarding violence among peers. Teachers also admit that they rarely report such cases to the police. At the same time in Austria and Germany they try eliminate such violence before it even sprouts. That means that whenever such incidents happen in a school, they always call the police. And regardless if was a serious incident or not, the police arrives and makes its presence felt, for example, by turning on its sirens or signal lights. Our children don't even realize that what they do is punishable by law. With cyberbullying the problem is even bigger. Bullies can start harassing you even when you're home and there's practically no safe place to run to.
What kind of punitive policies do other countries have regarding this kind of violence?
For the most part there are no special punitive policies particularly targeting peer violence. All countries already have legal provisions against the invasion of privacy. For example, individuals can only be filmed in public spaces, personal recordings are not allowed to be shared without permission… It's very difficult to explain to young people that these actions are punishable by law. And when teachers face young people with the facts, most of them make excuses, that it was all just a joke and that they didn't mean anything serious by it.
New technologies which enable this kind of abuse are all the more accessible, even to children.
The basic fact is that we have to work with young people to make them more responsible and teach them how to use the new technologies they encounter. In schools they mostly prevent potential abuse by banning the use of phones during classes. However, according to my opinion, banning technology is not the solution. Young people have to learn how to responsibly use it, not abuse it.
Experts also warn of a rising addiction to social networks. Some individuals go so far as to plan their activities so that they can show off on social networks. They post photos of themselves in delicate situations… All this can then lead to later problems.
Older people carry responsibility for their own actions. Young people have to be instructed. There is a big hole in Slovenia regarding media education. We need to explain what kind of consequences posting a photograph on the Internet can have. Whatever you put on the Internet, it stays there. And all the content you post can spread with such quickness, that it becomes impossible to remove it from the World Wide Web. While older people are able to inform themselves about such issues, young people have to be instructed about the effects and consequences of such action. However sadly enough, today we live in a society where showing off and promoting yourself are considered normal.