Why I Am Ruth and Amy’s Storyline Are Necessary?

The Online Trolling Storylines ‘EastEnders’ Are a Reminder of The Dark Side of Social Media

For those who have been watching EastEnders lately will character of Amy Mitchell (played by Ellie Dadd) become the target of online trolling. So far, the storyline has seen her self-esteem diminish and, more shockingly, begin self-harming.

Upcoming Channel 4 series, I Am Ruth, which stars acting Legend Kate Winslet star alongside her daughter Mia. In the series she plays the mother of a teenage girl called Freya who is subjected to to the pressures of the dark side of social media. In the series the mother will witness as her own daughter will fall deeper and deeper to the pressures of Instagram.

Now for those of you asking why on earth such dramas would commission such dramas, and why they would be deemed as appropriate entertainment, let’s take a look back at the news within the last few months. A coroner has sent a request to both social media firms and the government in a bid to call for actions following the death of a British teenager.

Five years ago, in 2017 a teenage girl, around her early to mid teens committed suicide after witnessing harmful content on social media platforms online. At first after investigation it was ruled that the social media platforms haven’t actually broken any rules in regards to its content rules and regulations. The friends and family of the teenage girl thankfully didn’t accept this answer and instead chose to persevere in a bid to get some kind of change.

As someone who regularly uses social media myself, I was somewhat surprised at the attitudes of these online platforms, mainly being that the posting of harmful content that is intended to promote self-harm and a suicide was deemed unacceptable. If that was the case how come the platforms were cleared of any wrongdoing when this is quite clearly a breach of the rules and policies?

When this statement came out, I was absolutely gob smacked. Surely, one of the top social media formats out there today would have remembered that it had a duty to ensure that no content was promoted self-harm, bullying, inciting hatred and suicide was ever allowed to make it onto the platform itself let alone be shared with others.

I mean as a social media user myself even I deliberately check everything I posted to ensure that it doesn’t break any rules.

I even triple check

In 2017 a group known as Internet Matters released a cyber campaign about cyberbullying. The video begins with us hearing the voice of a little boy saying sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. The line gets repeated a few times but every time it does the boys voice changes from being confident and self-assured to sounding insecure, upset and broken. The campaign came with its own hashtag #Pledge2Talk

I have openly admitted that since the time I have first started using social media even I have faced nasty comments. Even some of these comments were threatening. Now no doubt how many of you reading this will just say “why don’t you just block them?” And yes, it does some that simple doesn’t it, just block them and they’ll never bother you again.

Unfortunately, and this is where reality really does bite, blocking isn’t that simple anymore or as a lot of trolls or maybe just set up a new account find the same targets and it’s back to square one again. Now I’m a supporter of freedom of speech expression opinion and action but even I strongly stand by the stands that this is not an excuse for the attitudes. Let me give you some examples, I’ve seen numerous posts on Twitter and Facebook and had very negative thoughts about them but at no point have I ever thought or decided to post something vile or threatening on there.

Instagram, Twitter and Facebook over the years seem to have allowed to become breeding grounds.

In 2017, The Saturday’s singer Frankie Bridge did a documentary for Channel 5 called Celeb Trolls: We’re Coming to Get You. In the documentary Frankie revealed how she’d been targeted by internet trolls and she spoke to other celebrities who had to endure similar experiences. In the episode she and a production team managed to track down and Trace one of the internet trolls full stop in the end they tracked him down to his residence and when confronted he gave up this sickening giggle and legged it. This man wasn’t the only internet role they track down, but what really surprised me was that one of these morons had children of their own.

I was surprised to say the least. A fully-grown adult man had a child of his own yet who he was trolling other people online, spewing out vile hatred which she wouldn’t probably never have the guts to do so no face to face. I mean what sort of example was he setting for his children? and more importantly what does children say when they found out what’s he doing?

As per usual when challenged his attitude was that is free speech. Now this is your attitude which I, and no doubt millions of others, will find absolutely disgusting. It’s in these situations I’ve always found myself thinking of the worst-case scenario; what will they do if someone they have been trolling ended up taking their own life as a result? Will there feel smug about it? More importantly how would the friends and families of both sides feel?

This is where we have to confront the elephant in the room and learning about how to tackle the dark side of social media. Because unfortunately it’s only going to get worse if left alone. If we were a look back at all the incidents of cyberbullying it’s basically become a playground and for bullies and cowards full stop and I say bullies and cowards because echoes the exact same behaviors and words heard in the playground and when confronted the bully is always look for excuses that justify their actions.

I don’t know about you but I’ve always thought that naming and shaming would work a treat. A few years ago, there was a incident in the news regarding to TV presenters. One of them was being controlled and after much investigation it was learnt that their co-star had been doing the trolling. The result; that co-star was sacked, named and shamed and jailed