An all-female team hopes to empower today’s young females when it comes to managing cyberbullying, sexting and online conduct.
They’ve launched Webbing With Wisdom, an anti-cyberbullying website designed to protect women and restore their online autonomy.
As reported by the CBC, some of the women behind the new project – including 25-year-old Tara Farahani – know the world of cyberstalking all too well, having been victims of it personally.
“No matter how many times you block them, they would create a new account. Then, when you delete your account, they message you on another platform,” Farahani told CBC. “It doesn’t matter what type of content you’re posting. Just by virtue of being a woman online, that kind of stuff just follows you.”
So, she decided to take action against it.
Farahani was part of a research team that engaged in a dialogue with more than 300 young women in Toronto over a two-year time period. The team drew upon the insights and experiences of these women to create Webbing With Wisdom – a resource they found overdue.
Their research revealed that most help resources were out of touch in both content and the language used, as the CBC reports. “Most of what was out there was geared toward parents,” said Farahani.
The new site – the brainchild of three Toronto-based youth and anti-violence agencies, St. Stephen’s Community House, METRAC and East Metro Youth Services –in contrast, speaks in dialogue and slang that today’s teen can relate to.
This means subheadings like, “Bae wants to text, what should I do?” and “Leave me the frig alone, cyberbullying isn’t funny business.”
Karen Arthurton, professor of social work at Ryerson University told the CBC that they started with the basics: “How do I stop somebody? How do I report them? Somebody’s stalking me, what to I do? How do I safely ‘sext’ with somebody?”
She highlights that cyberbullying among young people has amplified with the appeal of selfie-driven social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram.
That’s why a relevant, relatable platform like Webbing With Wisdom is so important.
“There was one woman had shared with me that she told a police officer that someone tweeted her a death threat and the police officer said, ‘What’s a tweet?'” revealed Farahani.
Yikes.
Up next, Webbing With Wisdom is considering adopting a live-chat feature where young women can ask questions and get immediate insight from trained social service workers.
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