After sinking into deep depression, Bhavya (name changed) a 16 year old of Ranchi, was taken for therapy to Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry & Allied Sciences (RINPAS). As the doctors dug into her life and history, they found that the reason behind her depression was the online world.
Being continuously body shamed by her boyfriend, Bhavya became over conscious, stopped eating and was sleep deprived. When she stopped going to school her parents got concerned and took her to therapy.
In another case, a 14 year old boy stopped social interaction after being repeatedly trolled on social media and had to be admitted to Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) for recovery.
Cyber violence is gradually emerging as a major threat to the youngsters of the State with more and more children falling prey to this crime.
Senior consultant Neuro psychiatrist at RINPAS, Dr. Siddharth Sinha said, “Some of the major violence children are facing nowadays in the virtual world includes revenge porn, body shaming and trolling. When escalated, these forms of violence often lead to depression among the youngsters, sometimes instigating suicide.”
With relationships going online the youngsters have now moved on from sexting to sharing nudes and videos. However, when things go south in the relationship, there are often chances of these photos and videos being leaked as 'revenge porn'.
Dr. Sinha said, "When a person sees their image being tarnished after their private videos and photos being leaked online, this leaves huge negative impact on the mental health of the person. However, sometimes, even when the photos are not leaked, the fear of them being viral is enough to land someone in depression."
Body shaming is also emerging as a major form of cyber violence, especially among youngsters. When a teenager faces nasty comments of their social media profile, it gradually leads them into developing inferiority complex.
"People often comment such nasty things online which they would otherwise not tell anyone in person. Calling a person, fat, skinny, ugly, dark or body shaming them in any other way has become a very common phenomenon in the virtual world. With the advent of internet, people are not more respecting each other's boundary regarding such issues," Dr. Sinha said.
He added, “When the teenagers feel that they do not fit in the criteria of beauty set by the society, they often lose self esteem. This gradually leads them to face severe eating disorder, insomnia, social anxiety and depression which can also lead to self harm and suicidal tendencies.”
Cyber bullying or trolling has emerged as another very common type of cyber violence teenagers have to face. Often, youngsters are bashed on the online platform by unknown faces over some comment or idea they share on the social media. When these trolling and hate messages become regular, children often fall prey to depression.
In charge of child and adolescent department at CIP, Dr. Nishant Goel said, “We had to admit at least half a dozen such children in last six months who were facing cyber violence which led them to develop severe depression. Such cases are dealt like the cases of substance abuse where we have to completely disassociate the child from the online world in order to help them recover."
However, the doctors claim that the cases that come to them are not of cyber violence, but depression and anxiety. “The cases that reach us are such where the child stops going to school or interacting with people. Only then the parents realize that something is wrong and thy take cognizance in the matter. Once we dig into the case history we find that the reason behind most of such cases among teenagers is cyber violence,” Dr. Goel said.
Once diagnosed, the treatment starts with limiting the usage of internet or totally cutting it off, as required. "We treat them under the basic premises of substance abuse disorder. We provide them more creative and productive alternative to internet. At the same time we give them therapy to boost their self esteem," Dr. Goel said.
While going to a psychiatrist is the corrective measure, not much preventive measure is being taken in this regard. Dr. Goel said, "Children need to be informed about how to productively use social media and internet. We at times visit schools and organized workshops with students as well as teachers. Such workshops are needed to be organized more frequently so that more people get aware of the issue."
Giving tips to parents, Goel said that monitoring online activity and limiting time on social media might help prevent children from cyber violence. Introducing a chapter of cyber safety at school level can also prove to be helpful, he said.
(This report is a part of NFI Media Programme 2019)
