Mother of three, Rachel Hambleton speaks out against this new social media game-craze.
You might be thinking that Mrs. Hambelton is overreacting, like any concerned parent would, but when you start reading recent stories of online bullying that end in suicide, such as the tragic case of Megan Evans, then she has every right to be concerned.
She discovered the game through her 12-year old daughter Betsy who told her about the new game that’s going around on Snapchat. According to her, the game involves users picking an individual and then coming up with the most personal insults in regards to their “appearance, weight or personality”.
Rachel, who is also a blogger under the name Part-Time Working Mummy, took to her Facebook page to bring to light this sick and cruel game.
In her post she wrote that daughter was “left you upset and confused” when she showed her the ‘game’. Rachel herself had “not been able to stop thinking about it all day”.
In her long Facebook post, she stressed that:
“Too many children have committed suicide over the world due to bullying. Too many children have chosen to put ropes round their necks or swallowed too many pills because they feel the only way out is to kill themselves than continue to cope with the sheer devastation that bullying brings into their worlds”
However she was quick to praise her daughter for not following the disturbing trend, for going against the grain and taking a stand against online and social media bullying. Betsy took to Snapchat to call out those taking part and refused to participate.
Rachel, who also has two steps sons, commended her daughter’s bravery saying:
I am so proud of you, you have the same fight I was born with. It’s a fight that sits inside you, a fight that you can feel that makes you want to protect others, to care & to look out for those who need it… I see that fight in you, it’s as fierce as fire and I’m left astounded that you’ve found it early enough to make a difference to people’s lives right now,
You could be cynical about this and say that the victims who are getting bullied should grow a backbone, but with distributing online games such as Blue Whale, which has been linked to 130 youths suicides already, subjects like this need to be addressed and tackled head on.
According to Alarms.org; more than half of young people they surveyed say that they never confide in their parents when cyber bullying happens to them.
