FLORENCE, ITALY – Cyberbullying is an increasing problem, in Italy and in the world. According to statistics released by the “We Are Social” report, it is mainly girls who are victims: 12.4% admitted to having suffered it. But the problem also concerns males who have been victims of it for 10.4%. This difference is particularly determined by the suffering caused by sexual images, videos and comments, suffered by 32% of girls and 6.7% of boys.
The dissemination of unauthorized videos is back in the news with a court case concerning four boys who have been accused by a young Italian-Swedish student for sexual violence after spending an evening at a disco on the Costa Smeralda. The girl, just 19 years old, accused them for gang rape in a villa on the night between 15 and 16 July 2019.
Last November the Public Prosecutor’s Office closed the investigation and made the documents available to the defense, who asked for a deadline to make counter arguments and carry out the defensive investigations. In recent days, the four suspects have been questioned, all who have rejected all the accusations, and spoke of “consenting group sex”. The deadline is about to expire and the Public Prosecutor’s Office is deciding in these hours whether to ask for indictment for a postponement. The magistrates await the procedural process to then make the decision.
In these hours, unfortunately, some videos taken on the night of the alleged rape that shows the suspects, are available on various chat channels.
The student’s parents communicate through their lawyer: «We have learned that parts of intimate videos are shared among friends, as if our daughter’s body was a trophy: something that takes us back to a difficult moment that we hoped to forget. We wish that all this darkness will go away by bringing out the truth. We have mandated our lawyer to take legal action against all those who participate in this event».
What is our responsibility in what is happening right now?
How is it possible, that such delicate investigation material is now in the hands of anyone who wants it. There, lies our responsibility, we must not make us complicit in a second, equally devastating violence against that girl, but since we cannot stop its spread, we can do nothing but our part. And our part is to do nothing, absolutely nothing. For two reasons. First: it is illegal. Spreading those videos, sending them to a friend even if you’re not the one who filmed it on the first place, is illegal. Second: it is violence, that thousands, maybe millions of strangers, could watch an intimate and painful moment of another person.
We have to do our part.
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