While social media has so many positives – like bringing together a community of people – it can also have negative consequences – such as a higher risk of cyberbullying. Bullying in school (or college) is another travail for Generation Z. However, two young sisters who have fallen prey to different forms of bullying in the past, decided to tackle the menace and reach out to others with an inclusive movement they are calling StoptheB.
Switzerland-based Vasundhara and Riddhi Oswal (22 and 16 years respectively), daughters of industrialist Pankaj Oswal from the Oswal business family, turned the pain of being bullied into a positive movement that is proactively involving youngsters like them. Their campaign StoptheB has found supporters like football star Ronaldinho and US-based academician Dr Hinduja.
Kids and teens are spending more time online than ever before, since online classes and social media use have increased with the pandemic. A recent report by UNESCO found that in the last month, one in three young people have been bullied. In an exclusive interview with The CSR Journal from their home in Switzerland, the Oswal sisters spoke candidly about their personal experiences with bullying, and what Generation Z and parents can do about it.
1. When did your family move to Switzerland from Australia?
Riddhi and Vasundhara: Our family has been living and travelling between many countries, but both of us have been studying in Switzerland since 2013. Since Australia, we have spent increasingly more time in Switzerland and are building a beautiful home here.
2. How did your personal experiences with bullying lead to StopTheB?
Riddhi: A few years ago, I was bullied at school by other students in my batch. The incidents, which started as in-person mocking and taunting then escalated into cyberbullying (including racist comments about my Indian ethnicity and background), eventually followed by physical threats by the harassers.
During this time, I noticed that other students would see what was happening at school and online, but would not step in to help or take action. This could have been because they were scared that they also might become the target or because teachers or parents would not take them seriously.
Vasundhara: Most young people are scared to step in when they see bullying because they think it may make them a target or teachers and parents may also blame them. But academics have said that when someone else steps in and says something, 57% of the time the bullying stops within ten seconds. Because of this, we decided to start a movement to encourage other young people to become what we call ‘active bystanders’ to change the mindset of our generation and remove the stigma of intervening.
“An active bystander is basically someone who steps up, intervenes or even reports bullying rather than watching it and ‘letting it happen’.”
Riddhi: The other thing I realised when I was bullied, is that there was no common place for people who have experienced similar things to come forward and share their story. It’s like you should sit in silence and just accept the situation.
3. How did bullying negatively impact you?
Riddhi: Being bullied was a horrible experience and something no one should have to go through. To begin with, the bullying was mainly in-person – this included other students mocking and taunting me about things like mine and my family’s d background, my ethnicity and personal beliefs, which is actually considered a hate crime in some countries. This made me upset and anxious. My parents and I approached many teachers and school management, but they did not do anything to help.
4. Riddhi, you were also the victim of cyberbullying…
Riddhi: Ultimately the school even lowered my evaluation grades and cancelled my re-enrollment without proper justification – essentially expelling me. This made it even worse as the bullies then began to believe they were right and share mean posts about me on social media and online group chats. This was upsetting and the fact that it was all online meant it was hard for me to ignore. Eventually, I had to even leave these group chats to try and get away from it all.
After that, the harassers found out the new school I was joining and made it their agenda to find the kids who would be my new classmates. They started spreading rumours about me even before I joined the new school. No one there wanted to talk to me, because of all the hate and rumours they had spread.
This was hard as it felt like it was impossible to get away from the bullies, even when I was alone and in the comfort of my own home as I would be reminded of it every time I logged into my social media accounts. Eventually, the harassers went so far as to make physical threats towards me. This experience had a huge impact on my mental wellbeing. I was living under constant anxiety because of which I had started suffering panic attacks and developed trouble sleeping.
5. How did you cope with all the negativity?
Riddhi: My sister and I were determined to turn this negative experience into a positive one and create an inclusive platform to help people overcome bullying. Sometimes the best way to fight your fears is to help others with theirs. I wanted StoptheB to be a platform to bring awareness and empower other children who have been bullied.
There are so many children and teens in the world who do not even understand what they are going through and are unable to justify the way they are feeling because of the lack of awareness on bullying. Many of them don’t know when they are being passive bystanders to a bullying situation and that the fact that they are potentially doing something wrong.
6. In what ways are you reaching out to Generation Z?
Vasundhara: As proud members of Generation Z, we wanted to make sure that StoptheB was made specifically for young people and teens. Because of that, we have tried to make StopTheB as interactive as possible. This includes running competitions such as the #activebystander challenge on our online page that encourages correct behaviour amongst our generation and featuring other children’s stories on our online page to encourage other young people from across the world to tell their story with our community with the aim of removing the negative stigma attached to speaking about bullying.
7. You have also created a short film about bullying.
Riddhi and Vasundhara: We wanted to create a video which drew attention to the issue of bullying and the negative impact it can have on young people. As many victims will know, bullying is way too common. For example, according to Dr Sameer Hinduja – a supporter of StopTheB and Co-director of the Cyberbullying Research centre in the USA – out of a sample of 5,000 US students, 52% had been bullied in the last 30 days before they were surveyed.
The video was made to draw attention to this issue. We also wanted to share a message that sometimes the impact of bullying is not visible to outsiders. A lot of people who are bullied suffer from low-self-confidence, anxiety or even depression.
8. What is the incentive for winners?
Vasundhara: We wanted to create a movement that was as inclusive and as fun as possible to reach the wider Gen Z population internationally. We want to help raise awareness of bullying and highlight ways in which we can all play a part in stopping it. That’s one of the reasons why we have started online competitions and giveaways.
The Make Good challenge is the latest part of StoptheB. It asks people to look back on a situation in which a classmate or a friend was being bullied, and they – as passive bystanders – didn’t do or say the right thing, and in retrospect, wished they had acted differently.
Anyone can join in, simply by filling out one of our Make Good notes on the StopTheB website and writing a message to the person they want to make things right with.
The winners will be the two most genuine and courageous apologies we find. The incentive to participate is the chance to win a prize worth up to 50% of their tuition fees. We believe this is a great way to help spread StopTheB’s positive message. We want to encourage people to reflect on their previous actions or inactions, as well as support access to education, and make a change in their action when in a similar situation in the future.
9. How can one become an active bystander?
Riddhi: In order to be an active bystander, it is important that we are all aware of social situations which don’t feel quite right – like seeing someone posting nasty or inappropriate comments on social media or to someone’s face – and then speak up against those situations.
“One can be an active bystander by speaking out against the bullying – even if the bully is one of your friends. If you don’t feel comfortable doing so, tell a parent or a teacher.”
We encourage our followers to speak about their experiences and stories. This will help them feel supported, and help bystanders develop empathy towards people being bullied, and therefore encourage them to speak up. People can also follow StopTheB’s social media pages where they can learn other useful tips for being an active bystander.
