{"id":5761,"date":"2017-08-01T11:18:13","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T01:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taramoss.com\/?p=5761"},"modified":"2017-08-05T19:47:49","modified_gmt":"2017-08-05T09:47:49","slug":"cyberhate-tara-moss-coming-soon-abc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taramoss.com\/cyberhate-tara-moss-coming-soon-abc\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyberhate with Tara Moss"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Tara will give an address on the topic of\u00a0Cyberhate and Beyond at the National Press Club<\/a>, August 9. The address will be televised on the ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Watch Cyberhate on ABC iView now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I have been a tad quiet on my blog lately as I’ve spent much of my time in the past 10 months or so helping to get the show Cyberhate<\/a> off the ground, co-writing it, and working on the filming and editing with our team. I’m proud to be co-executive producer and co-writer of this series, as well as host, produced in partnership with The Full Box<\/a> Productions and the ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When I was approached by the Full Box, who I worked with on Tough Nuts: Australia’s Hardest Criminals<\/a> for CI, to see what kind of show I wanted to make, it was Cyberhate<\/a>. I’ve spoken out about the issue of online abuse, written about it in my handbook Speaking Out<\/em><\/a>, and spoken at schools about cyberbullying over the past few years, and during that time I’ve become familiar with many of the shocking stories as well as the many of the unhelpful myths around the subject – online abuse is ‘not real life’, ‘it’s just some bad words’, etc. I wanted a program that examined the different kinds of abuse experienced today and the impacts it has our lives, our mental health and democracy itself. I wanted to look at the subject from multiple angles, from legal and scientific perspectives, and from the viewpoints of people of different backgrounds, genders, ages and political views, hopefully encouraging a more nuanced, evidence-based public discussion about an issue that tends to garner a lot of automatic, knee-jerk reactions.<\/p>\n

This issue is relatively new. It’s easy to forget that Facebook didn’t even exist until 2004, and Twitter was created in 2006. Many of us grew up in a time before mobile phones, let alone Snapchat. A lot of common ideas about what’s happening online haven’t caught up with the lived realities.<\/p>\n

While perpetrators abuse others, often in targeted attacks, we’re still told to ‘just switch off’, as if our lives aren’t totally integrated with digital technology today. As if our workplaces don’t use technology. As if we can somehow avoid text messages, or email. Or having a public presence online. As if those being abused have less of a right to participate in public life than their abusers.<\/p>\n