Bullying: Online And Offline

Bullying is one of the acts I detest with everything in me. Those who attended public schools in Nigeria can relate to this a lot.

Bullying down here is usually from cult members. These guys harass, torment, and inflict pain on their fellow students and those who show weakness.

I can still remember a time a cult boy wanted to beat hell out of me because I was friends with a lady he liked.

That same week, I heard the boy and his cult colleagues seized a student's phone for not greeting them while passing.

It was not funny those days, one would suffer from bullying in secondary school from seniors, and still suffer bullying in college from cult boys.

The case of bully whether it is physical or online, is supposed to be treated with an iron fist.

Left to me, both are equal and cause the same colossal damage to people; their punishment should be the same.

I have never been abused on social media, but I have heard a few cases of online bullying that even took the lives of the victims.

Last year, I watched a video of an online harassment that claimed the life of a teenager. It all began with a harmless interaction on Instagram.

The victim and the perpetrator got along so well and eventually fell in love. They chatted nicely and subsequently exchanged nudes; the naive teenager didn't realize that it was all a setup.

The person whom he thought was a lady and was in love with was actually a man.

After exchanging the nudes, the guy changed; he began threatening to share the teenager's nudes with his friends, schoolmates, and family if he didn't send him money.

The young teenager was devastated. He pleaded to no avail, and he even sent him some money, but he said it was not enough.

The threats continued until one fateful day, the perpetrator finally sent the pictures to the boy's girlfriend and some of his colleagues in school.

When the boy discovered what had happened, he committed suicide, but before he did, he called his mother and told her he was “sorry”.

According to people, the teenager was his parents' only child. Investigations went on, and the offenders were arrested and imprisoned, but will that bring back the dead?

I don't know how true that story is, but it was so heartbreaking. I was left devastated that day.

Bully is bully, it doesn't matter whether it is physical or not, it hurts people, it causes pain. If the offenders are caught, they should be dealt with accordingly.

I wonder what kind of courage some people have. Just because they perceive someone as weak, they see it as an opportunity to humiliate them.

For some, especially in cases of online bullying/harassment, the harassers often have their way as a result of trust.

They use the trust they earned through relationships and friendships to extract confidential/sensitive information from the victims and later use it to harass them.

It's such a pathetic situation; this is why we must be careful with the kind of things we share with people, whether offline or online. Not everyone has good intentions towards you.

Forget what's between you, forget your emotions and feelings; there are things we ought never to share with anyone.

How I wish parents would teach these things to their children, especially teenagers; it would help them a lot.

About two weeks ago, a young teenager shared certain crazy videos with her lover in the name of love, and the next day, it was all over Facebook.

If you are the lady, what will you do to such a person when you catch him? I know she also has a fault in what happened, but I bet you, unless God intervenes, she would hate that guy and also like to have him pay for his crime in jail.

But the sad thing is, no matter what she does to him, it won't undo what has happened, and her video will not be taken off the Internet.