1st Cyberbullying Awareness Day on P.E.I. honours youth who died by suicide
'If they're experiencing it, there is help out there,' says Charlottetown police's community wellness lead
P.E.I. marked its first Cyberbullying Awareness Day on Thursday, a way to honour a teenager who died by suicide after he became the victim of sextortion.
April 25 marked the one-year anniversary of the death of 17-year-old Harry Burke, who was from the Souris area.
Robin Croucher, MLA for Souris-Elmira, proposed the awareness day through a private member's bill that passed unanimously in the P.E.I. Legislature in March.
"We need to bring the spotlight to [cyberbullying] so that we can hopefully prevent this from happening in the future," Croucher said Thursday.
Croucher is a good friend of Burke's family and said his death highlights the risks of cyberbullying and sextortion.
"Even though I have three children — [ages] 17, 19 and 21 — I didn't realize how serious an issue this was," Croucher said.
P.E.I. RCMP say they've already had a few cases of sextortion this year. In 2023, they reported eight luring incidents and 65 sextortion cases.
Charlottetown Police Services runs school programs focused on online safety and cyberbullying, and one of the goals is to teach students what they can do if it happens to them.
"If they're experiencing it … there is help out there," said Sgt. Melissa Craswell, who is in charge of community wellness with the Charlottetown police.
The sessions also include information on the consequences for students who may be bullying others online.
Craswell hopes talking to students will lead to more dialogue about these issues.
"After we have a conversation with them, they may go home and talk to their parents about it," she said.
Those conversations need to be more widespread, said Mani Moosavi, who is in Grade 12 at Colonel Gray High School in Charlottetown.
"There should be a lot more ... people trying to help teenagers and even children know about it because … it's a really big issue," he said.
"I wasn't even aware that there's a [Cyberbullying Awareness] Day."
Moosavi said he knows of people who have struggled with their mental health after falling victim to cyberbullying.
New cyberbullying strategy coming
The P.E.I. government is in the early stages of developing a provincial cyberbullying prevention strategy, a spokesperson with the Department of Justice and Public Safety said Thursday in a statement to CBC News.
The strategy will "equip youth with tools to protect themselves from the occurrence of, and the lasting effects of cyberbullying," the statement read.
The strategy will be the first of its kind on P.E.I., the spokesperson said.
The new awareness day is just one piece of the puzzle, said Croucher, and he sees it as a stepping stone for further initiatives and conversation on cyberbullying.
"If what we're doing here and this day helps one family from not having to endure this, it will have been so worth it," he said.
If you or someone you know is struggling, here's where to get help:
- Cypertip: a resource that covers sextortion and other online harms.
- Canada's Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988.
- Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868. Text 686868. Live-chat counselling on the website.
- Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a 24-hour crisis centre.
- This guide from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health outlines how to talk about suicide with someone you're worried about.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Laura Meader