TW: spoilers for the anime film Belle/hard home life stuff depicted in it-IM OK BY THE WAY
So recently I watched this film called Belle about a girl called Suzu who joins this online community called U and uses the online persona Belle to post her music to find a place of belonging after years of feeling depressed and alone ever since her mum passed away.
It’s a great, visually pleasing and moving film, but near the end it touched on some intense stuff.
Mainly the physical and verbal abuse another U user and his brother faces that gets broadcasted live to EVERYONE on the internet and a hardhitting ‘everyone says they’ll help me but they don’t actually follow through so I need to endure this LEAVE ME ALONE’ monologue that shook me to the core.
This made me remember some frightening statistics I read a while ago while researching for school about this topic and think ‘wait…this might be too often a reality for some people! It SHOULDN’T be a reality for ANYONE!!!!!’
So I just need to know, what can I do to help people in a similar situation?
As much as I’d like to cos I’m so angry and horrified, I don’t think I can just bust down the door of the perpetrator and confront them like Suzu did in the movie (for privacy and safety reasons) are there any organistations I can support, any websites I can read up on, any social awareness events etc? Or better yet, what are some language and attitudes towards this I need to change and/or keep in mind to prevent and address any stigma around this issue?
No one should be treated the way those kids were treated. EVER.
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