Would You Say It? Is the new campaign from TV broadcaster ITV and leading cyberbullying charity Cybersmile.
The new campaign aims to reduce incidents of trolling and raise awareness of the potential impact that our words can have when interacting online. Would You Say It?’s aim is to target people who make hurtful comments online but pass them off as ‘banter.’ This group of ‘casual critics’ are responsible for a majority of trolling-type behaviour and are often unaware of the impact that their words or comments can have.
A series of three advertisements will show unsuspecting social media users coming face-to-face with the real people at the receiving end of their hurtful comments. No longer able to hide behind the screen, the powerful adverts invite the viewer to think twice about what they post through the end line – “If you wouldn’t say it, don’t send it.”
The idea for Would You Say It? came from new research commissioned by ITV which one-third of people in the UK aged 16+ have experienced some form of negative comments.
It showed the 16-34-year-old demographic is around four times more likely to say that they have been trolled by someone they didn’t know online compared to those aged over 55, the research found.
While 93% of people aged 16+ said they found people were more likely to post things online that they would never say in person.
One of the most worrying statistics from the research was 51% of individuals over the age of 16 felt that if people “don’t want to receive negative comments, they shouldn’t post on social media.”*
For more on the wonderful cybersmile does, click here!
*You can find out more about the Would You Say It? campaign and the research, here!