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Don't Be A Cyber Bully

2021-2-LV02-KA152-YOU-0000380092021Mobility of young peoplefinalized
Countries: LV|ES|RO|IT|CZ|TR · Grant: €45,222
Awareness about the European UnionDigital content, technologies and practicesEuropean identity and values

Objectives

Main Perspective and Focus of our Project Our project was carried out on 02-08 September 2022 in Riga with participants from Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Latvia and Turkey. Since our Romanian partner could not send participants to our project, missing participants were completed from other countries. Regarding this situation, an e-mail was sent to the national agency and approval was received about the number of participants. Our project was carried out by a total of 60 young people and some of these participants are young people with economic and social limitations. General information on the subject: The ever-changing and developing technology has provided us with many conveniences in our daily lives and has opened the doors of a new world to us. This world is neither completely negative, nor has it created a completely perfect and positive environment. In addition to the comfort provided by each innovation, there are also side effects. The phenomenon we call “Cyberbullying” is a type of violence that is a side effect of technology and occurs in our lives. According to 2015 data, 87.4% in North America, 73.5% in Europe, 59.6% in Latvia use the internet (Internet World Stats, 2015). In the Household Information Technologies Usage Survey of the Latvian Institute of Statistics, the rate of individuals using the internet is 55.9%. In April 2015, the rates of computer and internet usage in individuals aged 16-74 were 54.8% and 55.9%, respectively. While these rates were 64% and 65.8% for men, 45.6% and 46.1% for women. According to statistical data, we see that more than half of the society uses the internet. Young people's early adaptation to technological tools and the widespread use of the Internet on digital devices facilitate communication. Although this is seen as an advantage, it also brings many risks. Young people attack, threaten, harm and embarrass each other through the virtual environment. These attacks and acts of violence carried out through the virtual environment are called "Cyberbullying". Cyberbullying, which emerged as a new phenomenon, has become a serious problem by spreading and developing rapidly in societies. The term "Cyberbullying" was first used in the USA in 2000 and translated as "Cyber Bullying". It is also expressed with the words "virtual, digital, electronic". However, since the word "cyber" is more comprehensive, the word "cyber" is used in this type of bullying. Cyberbullying is different from bullying in a physical environment. It is the use of information and communication technologies such as telephones where virtual communication can take place. Despite this pace of development, public awareness of cyberbullying, which has expanded its scope and created many victims, is unfortunately low. Since many people are not aware that their behavior in the virtual world is bullying, victims are overwhelmed by bullying, which they cannot define as a form of violence, and do not know what to do. In Canada, 21 percent of internet users have experienced cyberbullying and 69 percent have witnessed cyberbullying. While this figure is recorded as 20 percent and above in Turkey, the rate of those who are exposed to cyberbullying in our country is 20 percent. One of the most interesting data is that 20 percent of those who have to struggle with cyberbullying in America consider suicide. In fact, these figures consist of people who have been exposed to cyberbullying. Considering those who do not disclose this, these rates are increasing. Our Objectives; * To help overcome prejudices and eliminate borders with the help of different cultures by disseminating the Erasmus Plus program. Another important objective is to draw attention to the anatomy of violence and cyberbullying reflected in the virtual world for a common cause with different cultures. * Directing young people to social responsibility projects, * To contribute to young people's foreign language development, * To explain to young people what the Youthpass certificate is, the purpose and importance of this certificate. In order to achieve these objectives, the violence factor that causes cyberbullying was examined and it was contributed to the target audience and young people to be aware of the bullying they are exposed to or apply in the virtual world and to gain awareness about combating it.

Project partners (6)