MU psychiatrist shares social media effect on bullying: “the bully is present all the time”
With just weeks until the start of the 2017-2018 school year, bullying, particularly through social media, is a major concern for officials at MU Health.
“Any kind of abuse or bullying is bad, but the social media plays a bigger impact because half of the time the bully is anonymous,” MU Health psychiatrist Garima Singh, M.D. told ABC 17 News Wednesday at the University of Missouri health care’s quarterly media breakfast.
According to Singh, statistics say 20 to 30 percent of kids are being bullied through social media. Over the past school year, there were at least three suicides across Mid-Missouri.
According to the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, suicide rates in Missouri have been higher than the national average for at least a decade. Suicide was also the second leading cause of death for youth in Missouri in 2013.
Singh told ABC 17 News that social media is only making the problem worse.
“The bully is present all the time, it’s 24/7, they have access to your personal information and then it’s anonymous,” she said.
In January, the Columbia Public School District approved a new bullying policy. Under the current rules, school employees must report any knowledge of bullying to the school’s principal within two days.
According to the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, suicides in Missouri outnumbered homicides by more than two to one in 2013.
