IN the wake of a spate of teenage suicides associated with the phenomenon of cyber bullying, one father is determined to play his part in trying prevent any more tragedies
Garry Kousoulou, who runs social media consultancy Loving Social Media, was horrified by the death of 14-year-old Hannah Smith, from Leicestershire, earlier this week after she was hounded by anonymous bullies.
As a father-of-three, he wanted to come up with a way to protect vulnerable young people from the cruelty of internet trolls.
However, rather than trying to change social media sites, he wants to educate parents about the risks their children face every time they log on.
“Education is the way forward,” Garry told the Gazette. “I was speaking recently to a teacher, who said, ‘I am not on it and I don’t agree with it.’
“But what use is that to completely ignore something that is so dominant in our society?
“We had a black president elected because of Twitter, we had a riot in Enfield that people followed on Twitter. Social media is powerful and it’s not going away.”
Garry is determined that parents and teachers should engage with and understand social media so they can protect their children.
To this end he is organising a workshop in the Dugdale Centre, London Road, Enfield Town, on Friday, August 30, targeted specifically at parents struggling to get to grips with what their children do when they spend hours glued to computer screens.
And Garry’s big plan for how the borough can clamp down on cyber bullies and trolls does not stop at holding workshops.
He also wants to establish a free helpline that children and young people can contact if they are being bullied.
Garry added: “If the council were to back it, we could have the first such helpline in the country and then maybe we could stop tragedies like this from happening ever again.”
Tickets to Garry’s workshop, in which he will be teaching parents and teachers how to spot and then stamp out cyber bullying, can be bought online at www.lovingsocialmedia.co.uk or by ringing him directly on 020 8364 4444
Tickets cost £20 but he is offering a 50 per cent concession for anyone in receipt of benefits.
