“YOUNG PEOPLE need to be trained to be good digital citizens to help combat cyberbullying,” Justice Frank Seepersad told students, parents and teachers at Canaan Presbyterian Primary School on February 21 to end its anti-bullying week.
Describing the internet as a new frontier for bullying, Seepersad said the practice of online taunting is now pervasive and prevalent.
"Unlike traditional bullying which often, in a school setting, when the dismissal bell rang cyberbullying is continuous and the anonymity provided by the internet often emboldens cyberbullies to mount severe and persistent attacks.
"This desire is often fuelled by likes and views which make the content creators feel validated, relevant, powerful and important. Cruel comments, ill-advised photographs, or harmful rumours, now spread like wildfire on the world wide web and the permanence of this type of digital content occasions long-lasting consequences which can ultimately affect mental health, academic performance and even future job prospects."
Seepersad admitted online posts are still an issue being deliberated by the courts and require "a lot of legislative interventions."
In August 2022, Seepersad delivered a landmark ruling which allowed messages on WhatsApp to be used as evidence of defamation. It resulted in a police officer having to pay some $100,000 to a woman police officer for comments he made about her in a WhatsApp group chat full of other officers.
Seepersad said he managed to find a way to ensure that social media posts could count as defamation because there are very real consequences for victims.
"A cellphone could actually be a weapon. You can destroy someone else’s life by simply forwarding a message which someone sent to you and that's a real game changer and poses a significant responsibility on our collective shoulders."
He advised parents to monitor their children's devices and limit their access to social media. He said there must be open communication within homes about online activities and the guidelines for internet use has to be clear.
This was echoed to parents by the Ministry of Education behavioural psychologist within its Student Support Services Division Sean Nicholson.
"We must know what our students, our children are doing online."
He suggested using shared devices with children who are younger than ten or 11 years old.
"I have 16, 13, 14 and my youngest is four. I know the password for everybody's phone. If not, you have no phone. Simply because my money spend for it and I want to know what you using it for."
He recalled having to report half a class to the school principal after going through his eldest child's phone.
Seepersad said there also needs to be an institutional change to engrain responsible online use in the youth.
"Our educational system must be modernised, as our young people must be trained to be digital citizens who are taught to approach their online interactions with mindfulness and respect."
He said everyone must understand they too play a role in the problem wh
