Putting an End to Cyberbullying and Cyber Extortion

El Watan, Egypt, June 8

We recently learned of a tragic incident in which a 16-year-old student from Alexandria committed suicide after she had been blackmailed by someone who used a nude picture attributed to her. This comes just a few months after another incident in which a teenage girl killed herself after a man she refused to date blackmailed her family with digitally altered images of her. Unfortunately, these incidents are more common than we’d like to think. And even more alarming is the fact that they aren’t likely to stop until the social and technological environment that allows these heinous crimes to happen radically changes. Some believe that these kinds of incidents only take place in conservative circles or among those who are less educated. But that’s incorrect: These crimes occur even in the most liberal and educated environments with victims who come from wealthy and noble families. Studies show that the susceptibility of male and female adolescents to cyberbullying exceeds that of older groups and that the effect of electronic blackmail is more severe on victims of that category compared to other crimes. For example, in 2011, a 17-year-old Canadian girl was subjected to an assault by a group of men. Despite the deeply traumatizing effects of the incident, the girl was able to recover and restore normalcy to her life. However, two years later, when a video depicting the incident was used to blackmail her, the girl ended her life. Commenting on the condition of his daughter, the father of that girl famously said, “She was able to endure the tragedy of sexual assault, but she failed to bear blackmail and bullying.” The magnitude and extent of the pressure that a child or adolescent is subjected to because of cyberbullying is simply unfathomable. It is so unimaginable, that some victims believe their only resort is suicide. These tragic events happen in the heart of the Egyptian Delta, in the outskirts of Alexandria, as well as in the provinces of Canada and the suburbs of Paris. In the United States, the government recently cited an “alarming” rise in suicide rates among girls aged 10 to 14 years, from 0.5 incidents per 100,000 people to 1.5 incidents per 100,000 — an increase of 200%. Adolescent suicide incidents occur in Egypt as well as in many countries in the East and West, but these incidents have witnessed a steady increase over the past two decades, which are the two decades that coincide with the rise of social media platforms. These platforms have given us many advantages, and have helped young people enhance their skills, engage in economic and creative activities, and pursue social integration. However, they’ve also served as hotbeds for criminal activity, including blackmail and bullying. We need to strengthen the legislative environment related to handling cases of electronic extortion, facilitate mechanisms and procedures for reporting and prosecuting extortionists, and provide the necessary level of confidentiality for victims during investigations and trials. We also need to pay close attention to civil society organizations that can provide protection and assistance to victims of cyber extortion and bullying. –Yasser Abd Al-Aziz (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)