April Reimer fights back against cyberbullying with #tweetsweet

Nov. 19, 2015

 

Two years ago, Toronto Maple Leafs’ goalie James Reimer was having a losing streak. James doesn’t use social media but his wife April does – and she took the brunt of abusive postings about his goaltending.

April received more than 300 harassing messages, some of them death threats. But instead of letting this cyberbullying pull her down, April turned the situation into something positive – she created #tweetsweet, an initiative to reward kindness on social media.

On Wednesday, Nov. 18, April brought her campaign to the Barrie Campus of Georgian College as part of Mental Health and Wellness Week. The idea behind #tweetsweet is simple: She asks social media users to share positive messages online and she’ll reward them.

She regularly draws names from among all #tweetsweet hashtag users, with winners getting NHL game tickets.

April told her audience at Georgian that cyberbullying may be a fact of life, but everyone has the capacity to stop it. As many as 50 per cent of teens have been bullied online, and many adults have been as well, she said.

“It’s not just a school issue, it’s a life issue,” she said.

Bullies feel free to harass and threaten others online because they believe they are doing so anonymously, she said – but most forget that all online activity can eventually be traced back to the person sending the messages, and that much of the bullying crosses the line into criminal harassment and threats. She advises anyone being bullied online to save screen captures of the messages and to tell someone else about the situation – family, friends, teachers, Georgian counsellors or others.

Also consider Good2Talk, the free, confidential and anonymous helpline that provides professional counselling and information and referrals for mental health, addictions and well-being to postsecondary students in Ontario.