Cyberbullying: First Lady To Meet With Tech Companies

WASHINGTON, DC — First Lady Melania Trump is expected to meet with representatives of technology and social media companies at the White House Tuesday as part of her signature cause to combat cyberbullying — relentless online torture that in a worrisome number of instances has ended with a child’s suicide.

Mrs. Trump plans to meet with leaders from social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Snap, as well as technology companies Google and Amazon. The agenda includes strategies to reduce online harassment and promote internet safety, according to reports.

Mrs. Trump said on Nov. 3, 2016, that she would make fighting cyberbullying her key initiative, and Tuesday’s meeting appears to be the first major policy push on the issue. It can take some time for a first lady to work out the details of her personal projects. For example, Michelle Obama didn’t launch her “Let’s Move” initiative until about a year into her husband’s first term.

Patch did not immediately hear back from Mrs. Trump’s senior adviser, Stephanie Grisham, on details about the summit. The first lady is expected to ask internet company representatives how they’re addressing increasing cyberbullying, the growth of online trolls and the spread of malicious content, The Washington Post reported.

In a statement, Grisham said the first lady "has simply asked for a meeting to discuss one of the many things that impacts children — as she has done many times in the past, on several different topics."

In an address before the United Nations last year — the first lady’s first public remarks — Mrs. Trump told world leaders that children are “watching and listening, so we must never miss an opportunity to teach life’s many ethical lessons along the way.”

Mrs. Trump announced cyberbullying as her signature cause days before her husband’s election, saying at the time that “we must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children, especially in social media.”

Mrs. Trump isn’t expected to unveil any policy proposals, four people familiar with the summit told The Washington Post. Rather than the term “cyberbullying,” the first lady is expected to focus her efforts on the need for more online kindness, the four sources told The Post.

Cyberbullying has ended in suicide in a disturbing number of cases as the age-old torrent of childhood meanness moves to digital platforms. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a study published late last year that the more exposure adolescents have had to electronic devices and social media, the more likely they were to suffer serious depression, attempt suicide or actually take their lives.

The CDC ranked suicide as the second-leading cause of death among kids and adults ages 10-24 in 2015. Teen suicides shot up more than 30 percent overall from 2010 to 2015, the CDC said. For girls, the increase was even steeper, up 65 percent.

THE MENACE OF BULLIES: PATCH SERIES

Over the coming year, Patch will look at the roles society plays in a child’s unthinkable decision to end their own life in hopes that we might offer solutions that save lives. Do you have a story to tell? Email us at bullies@patch.com.

• Bullied To Death: When Kids Kill With Words
• The Bully Menace: What Patch Readers Said

President Trump has been criticized for bellicose social media posts that anti-bullying expert Nicholas Carlisle, the founder and director of NoBully.Org, told Patch is representative of political rhetoric that has set back important national conversations on cyberbullying.

A 2016 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine called on health officials to treat bullying as a major public health issue. Dr. Frederick Rivara, one of the authors of the study, said elected officials have a responsibility to tone down their rhetoric because children take their cues from adult role models.

Social media companies have come under fire for supercharging bullying and not doing enough to keep it in check. A recent Safety Net report from The Children’s Society in London found that 83 percent of 1,089 people surveyed think social media companies should do more to tackle the problem of cyberbullying.

This story includes reporting from The Associated Press.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images