‘The price of shame’
Lewinsky delivers a talk on cyber bullying and calls for a more compassionate internet at TED 2015 conference.
When my story broke it broke online. It was one of the first times that the traditional news had been usurped by the internet for a major news story. I went from being a private figure to being a publicly humiliated one worldwide. There were mobs of virtual stone-throwers. I was branded a tart, a slut, a whore, a bimbo. I lost my reputation and my dignity and I almost lost my life. Seventeen years ago there was no name for it, but now we call it cyberbullying or online harassment.
Every day online, people – especially young people who are not developmentally equipped to handle this – are so abused and humiliated that they can’t imagine living to the next day. And some don’t.
