Put yourself in their shoes, develop communication skills so that the online world is not too cruel.

Bullying is a behavior that seems to have been familiar for a long time in society. Many people may have experienced bullying from people around them, whether verbally, such as cursing, taunting, ridiculing, threatening, or physically, such as secretly damaging property, pretending to be hurt. The impact of bullying that used to occur face-to-face will only be there. But the phenomenon of bullying that has a wider impact and is occurring more and more today is online bullying behavior or cyberbullying, which may come from intentional or unintentional excitement, through the use of messages, comments, images, sounds, using hate speech, to impersonation, modifying information. Information on the online world can be spread, repeated, and is difficult to eliminate without leaving a trace. Therefore, such actions can create wounds for the victim, whether it is fear, shock, embarrassment, feeling bad, worthless, depressed, not wanting to see anyone, and the worst is not wanting to live anymore, as often seen in the news. Cyberbullying can happen to anyone, whether it is the general public, artists, celebrities, famous people in society, including children and youth, who are groups that must be given great attention.

A 2021 UK Cyberbullying Survey1 found that 70% of cyberbullying occurred on social media. In addition, research from the Journal of Health Economics indicated that cyberbullying increased the number of victims who considered suicide by 14.5% and attempted suicide by 8.7%. In Thailand, statistics from the National Institute for Child and Family Development, Mahidol University, 20192 found that 80% of Thai children and youth encounter threats, harassment and bullying at school and on the internet, ranked among the top in Asia. 28% of Thai children see cyberbullying as normal, 39% of Thai children see cyberbullying as fun, and 59% of Thai children say that they have "been part of cyberbullying". There are many factors that cause cyberbullying3,4 such as the structure of society that has not evolved enough to understand cyberbullying, the lack of awareness of online media, conflicts, dislike, fun and excitement between friends, etc. From the causes of cyberbullying mentioned above, it can be seen that part of it comes from a lack of awareness of the impact of such behaviors. Plus, the characteristics of online communication where communicators can hide their identities, without using real images or real names, make it easier to show aggressive behavior, use harsh words, and show more contempt and hatred than open communication. The lack of face-to-face communication also reduces anxiety about bullying others and reduces self-responsibility, ultimately leading to easy online bullying without empathy for others. The concept of digital ethics therefore comes as a guideline that ensures that the behavior of the user's online identity will not have negative effects on the user's mental and physical health, including fraud against property and other benefits of others. Users must be aware of the consequences of their actions and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, respect other users, and be able to determine their own minds during communication so as not to cause any impact to anyone. Nowadays, when the online and offline worlds are increasingly connected, online actions can affect the real lives of others, such as online bullying leading to further bullying in society, physical harm in real life, or suicide, etc.

From the causes of cyberbullying mentioned above, it can be seen that part of it comes from a lack of awareness of the impact of such behaviors, coupled with the characteristics of online communication where communicators can hide their identities, not using real pictures or real names, which makes it easier to show aggressive behavior, use harsh words, and show more contempt and hatred than open communication. The lack of face-to-face communication also reduces anxiety about bullying others and reduces self-responsibility, ultimately leading to easy online bullying without empathy for others. The concept of digital ethics therefore comes as a guideline that ensures that the behavior of the user's online identity will not have negative effects on the mental and physical state, including cheating on the property and other benefits of others. Users must be aware of the consequences of their actions and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, respect other users, and be able to determine their own minds during communication so as not to cause any impact to anyone. Nowadays, when the online and offline worlds are increasingly interconnected, online actions can affect the real lives of others, such as online bullying leading to further bullying in society. Physical harm in the real world or leading to suicide, etc.

Digital ethics is in line with Digital Empathy or putting yourself in someone else's shoes digitally, one of the eight skills of digital intelligence (DQ: Digital Intelligence Quotient) that will enable a person to face challenges on the path of life in the digital age and be able to adapt to digital life. The eight skills of digital intelligence include maintaining a good identity, protecting personal information, thinking critically and analytically, managing screen time, dealing with cyberbullying, managing information that users leave online, maintaining personal safety online, and using technology ethically and empathizing with others.

Digital empathy means being in the feelings of others when communicating online, especially those who are different from us, including being aware of our own emotions in responding, expressing appropriate opinions, and using positive messages or media that do not cause damage and affect others' minds. When publishing any media or content, we should always think carefully and ask ourselves, "How will others feel when they see or read it?" as a tool to check the appropriateness of responding, expressing opinions, or interacting with others in the digital world, not being indifferent when seeing others being treated incorrectly in society, and participating in creating a better society. This is a characteristic of democratic citizens.

Digital empathy skills can be developed and practiced. We must always think about how we want others to treat us, and we should treat others the same way. If we do not like how others are treated, we should not treat others either. Many times, we may communicate by thinking that it is a joke, said because of intimacy, it should not be a big deal. But the content of that message is driving a nail into the heart of that person, a wound that even if the nail is removed, will leave a wound. If everyone always considers this, knows how to sit in other people's feelings, it will lead to a reduction in the problems of bullying, hatred, threats, and online fraud, and create a good atmosphere for living online so that living online is not too scary and cruel.

Source of information: 1) NordVPN-https://nordvpn.com/blog/cyberbullying-statistics/

2) Isranews Agency - https://www.isranews.org/article/isranews-article/105059-isranews-bullying.html

3) Pinwa Saenmai (2020) Cyberbullying via online media: Causes and solutions. Master's thesis, Faculty of Communication Arts and Management Innovation, National Institute of Development Administration

4) Pongkamol Surat (2018) Causes and effects related to cyberbullying: A case study of Thai youth who were bullied. Suvarnabhumi Institute of Technology Academic Journal, 260-273.

By..Asst. Prof. Dr. Sasithorn Yuwakosol
Professor, Communication for Innovation Management Program
College of Social Communication Innovation, SWU