We live in a digital age full of noise, and the current generation of children who were born to screens are not only experiencing collective attention deficit disorder in the age of crazy abundance, but are also exposed to online violence - the kind that occurs every day in the spaces of Instagram, WhatsApp, Tiktok, Facebook, and Snapchat and any other social network in which they are spend a significant part of the day.
The data show that every third child in Israel is exposed to threats or violence online and every fifth child is exposed to sexual harassment.
One out of five teenagers knew a child in the last year who wanted to commit suicide due to severe harm experienced online, such as boycott, shaming, humiliation or sexual abuse.
At the Elad Theater (Eilat-Ilot) they decided to place the issue at the center of the stage as part of the "True Story" festival, a cyber violence festival that will open today under the production and artistic direction of the Elad Theater, and at the initiative of the Deputy Minister of Education, MK Meir Yitzhak Halevi. The festival will last for five days in the old terminal in Eilat with the aim of raising the issue of online violence on the public agenda in Israel, as part of which new original productions and shows for adults and teenagers will be presented - all of them will touch on one of the most explosive issues in the lives of all of us.
Among the festival's productions you can find "Anfriend" directed by Dafna Zilberg and "Bamoked" by Dr. Lior Zalmanson and Mia Magnet with audience participation. One of the most prominent plays at the festival is "Seen Last" directed by Moore Frank, a guest youth play of the Orna Forat Children's Theater and youth, which deals with the question of responsibility for online bullying. The show describes a video that gained momentum, was distributed in WhatsApp groups and led the victim of online bullying to attempt suicide. When things become charged, a conflict begins between the three companies responsible for the distribution of the video, and the question arises as to who is to blame for the online bullying: The photographer, the responding distributor or the observer?
who is to blame?
"She was last seen", photo: Yossi Zvekar
"The play was written by three actresses, some of whom are students of mine - Or Rotem, Gal Seri and Bar Alikim - who took personal stories from their environment, did extensive research and brought real stories from the web," explains director Mor Frank.
"They created a story that begins with three girls who arrive at a police interrogation room. The fourth girl, their friend, is in intensive care after a suicide attempt, and that's where it all begins.
"Through the investigation, we find out how each of them was related to the story of the shaming that made the fourth girl suicidal. Only the three girls are on stage, the adults are not on stage - and we actually go back and forward in time.
"It's a very non-didactic show. What happens on stage is very powerful," describes Frank.
"There is always a discussion after the show. In one of the discussions that took place at a certain school where we performed in the past, the moderator turned to the students and said to them, 'You are very quiet, you don't talk.' Terry and that he thinks no one can talk.
"Suddenly the girl she was shaming stood up and said in a trembling voice, 'Thank you to whoever made the show, thanks to her I feel like I have a voice and that I can say that this is exactly what happened to me,'" she tells of the powerful and important experience.
"The whole hall cried, and then three children stood up behind her and said, 'We are some of the boys who hurt her and we ask for forgiveness.'"
"A very non-didactic and very strong show."
Frank, photo: Yael Ilan
Do you really believe that such a show can change reality in the chaotic digital age, where the youth are exposed to so much violence?
"Not only do I believe in this, I talked to a lot of teenagers who watched the show and I was in a lot of discussions, and they say, 'We went into the show and came out different.' And they weren't locked up like the adults. If there's a theater that will change something, it's certainly a theater for teenagers, and it's a show that makes a difference, without a doubt."
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