Ruby Rose and Australia’s Got Talent star Cody Bell have stood up against cyber bullying as ambassadors for the BackMeUp campaign that launched earlier this month.
Targeting bystanders to bullying, the campaign encourages youth to actively stop bullying when they witness it.
Research shows that 87% of circumstances where someone is getting bullied there is someone that knows about it, 20-30% join in the bullying, whilst 20-30% stand back and don’t do anything.
Spokesperson Dr Helen Szoke emphasised that if youth aren’t encouraged to help their friends out, cyber bullying will become more acceptable
‘We need to get the word out about this campaign because if it is allowed to go on for long it becomes normalised behaviour. It’s happening in the gay community and it has got to be stopped’, she said.
The BackMeUp campaign launched officially on June 19. Ruby Rose, Cody Bell, West Australian of the year Professor Cross as well as Dr Szoke met with 100’s of youth at Sydney Secondary College to highlight the importance of cyber bullying prevention.
BackMeUp also launched an online competition, encouraging teens to post videos about how to prevent cyber bullying. Winners receive one of ten spots on an all expenses trip to Sydney, where they will shoot a short film with NIDA.
Rose spoke candidly about her experiences.
‘I ended up being hospitalised, if it wasn’t for the fact that a few pupils actually went to some teachers to alert them to my situation then I may not be here today’.
