A recent poll of 1,355 young people in Ireland found that the most prevalent types of harm experienced online are racism, bullying, and body shaming, reports RTE.
The study, which was carried out by the youth charity Spunout, reveals that among the most prevalent types of online abuse were misogyny or sexism, homophobia, and transphobia.
More than four out of ten poll participants stated that they would not step in when they saw harmful behaviour occurring online because they were unsure of how to react, and another 42 percent expressed concern that confronting those who do harm online may make them a target, reports RTE.
The purpose of the research was to guide the creation of “Empathy Online,” a brand-new, free online learning program that aims to support bystander intervention and equip youth with a toolkit of empathy-based skills to help them fight online harm.
“We believe young people have the solutions to the problems they face and in developing ‘Empathy Online’ we wanted to hear their experiences of online harm and what young people believed we should do to tackle it,” said Ian Power, CEO of Spunout, reports RTE.
“We heard young people struggled with how best to intervene where harm is witnessed online, and crucially heard from those who had perpetrated harm online previously that they felt it came from a lack of self-esteem and empathy,” Mr Power said, reports RTE.
Spunout created “Empathy Online” with financial support from Google.org, the company’s charitable division.
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