ReThink – Before the damage is done!

After another incredible year filled with hopes, dreams and the fruitful realities of immense hard work to stop cyberbullying before it happens, I’m more excited than ever to see what the future holds. My name is Trisha Prabhu; I’m 15 years old, and the founder of ReThink, anti-cyberbullying software. ReThink proactively stops hurtful messages before they are posted and provides a second chance for the cyberbully to stop, review and ReThink before sending a hurtful message, before the damage is done!

When I was invited to be a part of Coca Cola’s #makeithappy campaign to speak about ReThink for the Super Bowl 2015 earlier this year, I shared the stage with victims of cyberbullying that suffer everyday, silently, because they are too afraid to speak out. The statistics didn’t lie, and neither did these heartbreaking stories. It was clear – cyberbullying was a silent pandemic affecting millions around the globe, and I had to continue on my journey to eradicate it forever.

There are so many solutions out there to stop cyber bullying after the damage is done. Blocking the bully or reporting the abuse to adults or school authorities/law enforcement are important steps that victims are encouraged to take to help end the cyberbullying. Unfortunately, these solutions often do not work, due to the fact that nine out of ten cyberbullied teens do not tell anyone that they are suffering. When victims receive those hurtful messages, the damage is done, and suffering begins. Sadly, this is not short-term pain. Recent research from UK found out that the scars of repeated bullying and cyberbullying lasts well into victims’ 50s and 60s.

Why is that adolescents choose to post these detrimental, demeaning messages? Why don’t we recognize the consequences of our actions? The question has baffled parents and researchers alike. The answer, though, is linked to the brain. The adolescent brain is likened to a car with no brakes. No pausing. No thinking about consequences of an action. In the heat of the moment, at a point of peer-pressure, with a sense of urgency and desire to “fit in”, teens often say or do things they later regret.

Consider the Consequences Before Posting

ReThink helps adolescents consider the possible consequences of posting a hurtful message before posting that message. With a simple, non-intrusive alert, adolescents have an opportunity to pause, review, and rethink what it means to post that message, before they make their final decision. My internationally acclaimed, award-winning study presented at the Google Global Science Fair proved that with ReThink, over 93% of the time, adolescents changed their minds and decided not to post a hurtful message. The overall willingness to post hurtful messages dropped from 71% to just 4%.

Earlier this year, in the spring of 2015, when I was at the White House Science Fair, presenting ReThink to several dignitaries, businessmen and women, and law-makers, I realized that this was just start – there is still so much work to do to stop cyberbullying. I had the opportunity to have several conversations with lawmakers about importance of making legislative changes to consider cyberbullying front-and-center for schools and communities. As a We are Family Foundation Global Teen Leader for the Just Peace Summit this past spring, I had the opportunity to interact with some amazing mentors and turn some of my dreams into realities this summer.

ReThink as a Movement

ReThink is now available for both Android and iOS phones and tablets on the Google Play Store and on the App Store, respectively. It was an unforgettable moment when ReThink was officially launched, for free, and became available to millions around the world. Interest from communities, parents, law enforcement officials, teachers, principals, school psychologists, guidance counselors, and so many more has been overwhelming and humbling. ReThink has already been downloaded on thousands of devices and will soon be released in multiple languages.

ReThink is more than just a software solution – it is a mind-set, a movement, a call to action to help end a social issues plaguing so many of our young people everywhere. My goal is to have schools around the globe adopt the ReThink slogan as their campaign to combat cyberbullying and to have ReThink rolled out to schools communities around the world. I invite parents, teachers and school administrators to please help this cause by nominating student ambassadors from schools. These ambassadors will be trained to help influence their peers to “ReThink” before sending hurtful messages, before saying hurtful words.

The internet of things has changed our idea of communication and made it so much easier “to become friends” with anyone, anywhere. It’s given us a huge amount of power – and with great power comes immense responsibility. With ReThink we can stop cyberbullying- at the source, before the damage is done - and take a new step forward to a new beginning on social media.

Choose to Rethink. Rethink– before the damage is done.