My Personal Reasons For Launching Parents Against Trolls With Lighthouse Global
Written by Vivienne Juan, Associate Elect Partner
Growing up in ‘90s suburban Melbourne, Australia, there were few people of colour at my primary school. I remember one sunny day, walking home from school, and two white boys sneering at me and calling me “gook”. I didn’t understand what was happening, let alone the racial slur with which I was being labeled.
Bullying continued to be a mainstay of high school as well. For being clever, I was a square. For wearing glasses, I was four-eyes. For being a flat-chested 13 year old, I was a surfboard. And I mean, if this is what was being said to my face by my so-called friends, what did everyone else think of me?
For impressionable young minds, it’s a minefield out there, and navigating the emotions that come up can be positively overwhelming. Imagine how it must feel growing up today! With endless portals of connectivity, social media, online gaming and the like, there are so many ways for “friends” to continue enacting their dark pathology outside of the classroom.
The consequences of trolling for today’s children will echo throughout the rest of their lives. When I was a teenager, my experiences led to suicidal thoughts and self-harm. It has taken many years and much effort to come to terms with this, and I continue to be supported to work through it and find healing.
Other children aren’t so lucky. 60% of young people have witnessed online bullying, and victims of trolling are nearly twice as likely to commit suicide after being bullied online.
What if we could help? What if we could educate ourselves better, educate our children better? Our new initiative is about individuals taking responsibility to act together as a community, and be part of the solution.
Lighthouse Global Head Mentor, Paul S. Waugh explains his personal and heartfelt reasons as to why we have launched Parents Against Trolls & Trolling in the video below.
You can also discover how mentorship can empower you to stand up to the bullies in your life, whilst helping children do the same, on our Mentoring & Coaching page.
Have a question? To send me feedback or share your thoughts,
please do get in touch and drop me an email — I’ll be happy to hear from you.
Thank you for sharing such a powerful experience.
I can confirm after being on both sides of the coin that being a bully does not make you feel better about your own situation specially if you are a caring person with a conscience and the drive to do what is write.
Being a bully has massive consequences, people who have been friends with you all your life and who think a lot of you can fall out with you, the act of bullying can actually feel worse than the bullying that was inflicted on you. This was my experience as due to the bullying and controlling I was put through this caused me to do the same to…
Bullying in schools can and is extremely cruel, and the worst part is that these children most likely learnt if from their parents. But some bullies are being bullied themselves and by bullying another it makes their bullying feel less painful. I was bullied for being fat. I was quiet and usually kept to myself, but I would latch on to people when they asked to walk with me or eat with me, shows me some attention, but it was because their friend was off and when they returned, I was once again alone. I accepted it all because at least some attention was better than none. But these days bullying has escalated and now the bullying is all over…
I'm really sorry that that happened to you Viv and thank you for sharing it and making a case for why we need to be stepping up to supporting our children better. To me, bullying isn't just about "growing thicker skin" or "getting over it", it's about helping children and supporting them to feel confident in themselves whether they choose to stand up to it or ignore it, and that will vary depending on the situation. Thank you so much for this call to action!
This is such a personal and honest article thank you Viv for sharing your experiences. Children can be cruel in those situations and why we need parents against trolls more than ever!
Bless you Viv - thanks for your vulnerability and sharing so personally so others can learn from your pain and understand they are not alone. As you said, the scars from verbals can impact a life time and cause more damage than physical violence. Bullying has too many eyes turning away and pretending it hasn't been seen particularly by so called bystanders as well as the parents of the perpetrators, who even justify it.