Young experts help young cyberbullying victims. Online, fast. With a nationwide new platform. Adapted to the reality of life of the students. Initiator is a remarkable 16-Year-old.
At 12, he helps a threatened classmate and thus becomes a target himself. At 13, Lukas Pohland founds an initiative against cyberbullying, advising victims by telephone from his nursery.
At 14, the student founds the association Cyberbullying-Hilfe, becomes chairman, clarifies, trains, shoots video spots. The youth from Schwerte is heard as an expert in the Düsseldorf State Parliament, invited to talk shows, participates in prevention campaigns in schools. And now, at the age of 16, he is launching an online counselling platform for children and young people that is arguably unique in Germany.
“Children and young people don’t actually call like that anymore, they rather want online advice,” Lukas explains. “We want to offer help at eye level. We are all digital natives, grown up with Internet and smartphone. We can empathize better than adults.”Ten consultants between the ages of 15 and 21 are available. They want to give support, provide first aid, listen, encourage, convey concrete help when pupils are bullied, beaten – anonymously, mercilessly, systematically, publicly.
Bullying mainly takes place via social networks such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, but also still happens via Facebook and Whatsapp or online games. Videos and photos from changing rooms or toilets are posted or naked bodies are mirrored on personal pictures. “That’s very violent. You can see how vicious children and young people can be, ” reports the student, who looks confident and unexcited – and in addition to all the preparations for the launch of the free platform this Wednesday, still writes his final exams.
Everyone in the young team is “perfectly trained”, Lukas emphasizes. For months, they were trained in workshops by the Voluntary Self-monitoring Multimedia Service Provider (FSM). The help seekers should always be looked after by a permanent contact person, who is then well in the picture. Six female and four male consultants from several federal states participate. It is Germany’s first Internet consulting center specialized solely in cyberbullying, says the initiator.
“It is easier for affected children and young people to contact people of the same age. You are not ashamed as you are towards adults.”On the website of the cyberbullying help a button leads to the consulting page, the registration can be done anonymously. Most of those seeking help who have contacted his association by telephone so far give their first name and age.
Three adult supervisors-media educators and psychologists – stand by the young helpers. “If we ourselves reach our limits mentally or if cases are so serious that you may need support as a young consultant.”The consequences of persistent bullying are often emotional and psychological problems, withdrawal, fears, unhealthy self-criticism, depression, but also suicidal thoughts.
This coincides with the latest study “Cyberlife III” , for which the Alliance against Cyberbullying surveyed 6,000 students, parents and teachers nationwide in 2020. About one in six people between the ages of 8 and 21 will be affected by cyberbullying – almost two million children and young people. Last December, Chairman Uwe Leest emphasised a significant increase. And: “It is very clear that today bullying is more targeted and harsher.”One in four sufferers expressed suicidal thoughts. The pandemic with homeschooling and more time on the Internet has exacerbated the problem, the alliance observes – as does Lukas, whose association records significantly more requests.
Lukas Pohland had played a supporting role as a victim of bullying in the award-winning short film “Es wird besser” (2018) and co – founded the “Initiative Digitale Empathie” (Digital Empathy Initiative) at the end of 2020 under the patronage of Minister of State Dorothee Bär (CSU). The fact that he has become an active, committed and sought-after expert is also due to the fact that he knows the role of the victim.
When a classmate was bullied and marginalized in class four years ago, he defended her. “That’s when they targeted me. We were insulted on the net, threatened, we were really scared. It was so hopeless and we wondered why no one was helping us.”Whatsapp posted photos of them with smears and pictures of knives, combined with the question: “How do we best cut them off?”Although it was clear who was behind the aggression, the school referred to the police, the police to the school. The bullied girl gave up, left school, Lukas followed. What he considers completely unacceptable: “The perpetrators were all allowed to stay in school. That is quite remarkable.»
www.cybermobbing-hilfe.de
