What is Online Harassment?
Online harassment refers to hostile, harmful, abusive, and bullying behavior towards vulnerable individuals on social media, phone calls, messaging apps, and public forums. Cyberbullies can target individuals for their personal characteristics, unique orientations, and opinion differences on the internet. To do so, they can deride, spread lies, and make hurtful comments on the posts of individuals for no valid reasons. Internet bullies try to demean and undermine the confidence of individuals on the internet to make them feel embarrassed, inferior, and discouraged.
Online harassment is a heinous act that negatively affects the individual who experiences it on the internet. You may come across wicked and vicious people everywhere, and the internet is not an exception. It can happen to you anywhere, whether in an office, school, university, or on digital platforms. It can be upsetting, but you need to keep in mind that it reflects the behavior of bullies’ actions, not your worth. People who bully you don’t deserve an explanation. You should take immediate action to report such an incident and protect your peace of mind.
How to deal with Online Harassment?
If you are going through an online harassment incident, then do not sit back and take it on yourself alone. Those who provoke you intentionally need to stop it and face the consequences. If it feels safe, you choose to speak up against it. If it is otherwise, then you should report the event to the concerned authorities. Here are some effective steps that you can take to deal with online harassment.
Don`t Respond
It can be tempting to clap back and offer some explanation, but it won’t help. Cyberbullies try to provoke you with mean comments and involve you in arguments. If you give any reaction, then they are successful, and things will become worse. The best thing you can do is not to give them the show they are seeking. You just remain indifferent. Trolls love the reactions, and if you stay silent and avoid responding to them, they feel ineffectual and discouraged.
If Need Speak Facts
It is better to avoid vexations at the very start, but if it is necessary, then you can respond to the attackers only using facts and figures. The aim is to correct them and make them realize that they are not right. If they persist, then you should avoid arguing with them. Keep your head up and ignore their nasty comments.
Request them to stop it
If it feels safe and appropriate, you may calmly tell the person their behavior is not right. If the person you are dealing with is not a jerk, he may take this seriously and refrain from behaving in a wicked and immoral way. Well, you can just give it a try to overcome the situation and avoid a wider confrontation. If it worked, then it may save you from bigger troubles down the line.
Block Them
If you are receiving cyber threats through social media or messaging apps, the first step you need to take is to block them at the very first chance to prevent them from further contact and messaging. Every messaging app and social media platform has a block button. You can use this button to stop annoying users from irritating you. They will no longer be able to reach you and harass you.
Take Screenshots
Collect as much information as possible about cyberbullies who are harassing you. Save all the messages, posts, and take screenshots of mean comments and derogatory remarks they make on your posts and stories. You can use these proofs to lodge a case against the harassers and teach them a lesson so that they don’t dare to do this with you or anyone else next time. Submit all the data along with the complaint to the concerned authority.
Speak to Someone You Trust
If you are having a hard time due to the harassment incident, you must seek help from your near and dear ones. You should share this with someone you trust and who cares about you. Whether it is your parents, teacher, best friend, or anyone who understands you. They will guide you, support you, or maybe handle the situation directly, meeting the person and reprimanding them. Blurting out your feelings of hatred also works like a therapy, which brings mental peace and clarity. You might get good guidance and solutions to deal with the problem.
Report the Incident
You must report the online harassment incident to the legal and cybercrime prevention authorities. Along with this, most social media apps, public forums, and messaging apps give you the option to report online harassment as inappropriate, bad behavior, or hurtful. You can mark the incident according to its characteristics. Upon this, the platform moderation team will assess the incident and take legal action accordingly.
How to Stay Ready to Deal with Online Harassment?
Online harassment is widespread in this digital age. Be it social media, a messaging app, or a public forum, it can come from any direction. It can happen unexpectedly, especially when your accounts are public and easily accessible. Attackers usually take advantage of such opportunities to take a toll on a user.
You have to stay mentally prepared to face these unpleasant interactions and prevent them by taking appropriate steps. For that, you need to secure your accounts and apps by making them secure and limiting access to outsiders. You must keep your accounts private and allow only trusted users. This way, only the right users will connect and communicate with you on the internet. Here are some effective steps you must take to deal with online harassment:
Secure Your Online Accounts
First and foremost, you need to use strong passwords and multifactor authentication services to protect your accounts from unauthorized access. Passwords are the first line of defense that protects your access points from unauthorized users. Now you have to remember one thing: never share your account credentials with anyone. Never open your critical accounts on unknown devices if you want to keep them safe. When your accounts are secure and safe, it prevents cybercriminals from exploiting your vulnerabilities via internet channels.
Contact Police If You Feel Threatened
If you are feeling threatened or afraid for your personal security, then you should approach police officials and report the incident. You can ask them to give you special cover and find the cyberbullies who are targeting you on the internet. Save all the chats, emails, and phone calls you are getting online and give them to the cybercrime prevention authorities. Cooperate with the concerned authorities, and you can bring the culprit to justice.
Special Case of Teens
If you are parents and it is your children who are going through the trouble, then they won’t speak of it due to various reasons. Sometimes they feel awkward, shy, or afraid that you will take away their devices and stop them from using the internet. However, you can recognize it by observing certain signs in them. Children who face online harassment look upset, show mood changes after browsing the internet. They feel disturbed at night, have headaches, become aloof, and brood in their solitude. If you see unusual patterns in their behavior, don’t neglect them. You should gently talk to them, support them emotionally, and try to get to the root cause of their strange behavior.
Final Words
If someone is being mean to you online, it’s not your fault. People who are trying to demean you in any way are already below you. Their way of behaving rudely reflects their mentality. They are desperate to get attention and show themselves above you because they won’t be able to do so in any other way. So don’t listen to their shit. Instead, take action against them! You need to set boundaries to keep your digital space secure. Stick with people who treat you right. Speak up if something feels wrong to you. Just as you cannot tolerate someone shouting at you in person, similarly, you don’t need to tolerate it on the internet.
