Threats to the Wiener School: 12-year-old suspended because of fake accounts

Threats to the Wiener School: 12-year-old suspended because of fake accounts

At the beginning of June, a list was published on the TIKTOK platform that contained names and impending statements about students of a Viennese school. This led to serious consequences and a suspension of a 12-year-old who was identified as the alleged author of the list. The suspension confirmed the suspension by the spokeswoman Anna Gutt. In addition, several parents of affected students filed a complaint, which resulted in a police investigation campaign. OE24 reports that child and youth welfare (MA 11) was involved in this case in order to further clarify the Situation. In a survey, the suspended student vehemently rejected the allegations. The police are investigating several advertisements about the suspicion of the dangerous threat and examining whether these threats may emerge from a fake account.

The incidents in Vienna are not to be considered isolated. On the same Monday morning, more than 50 bomb threats were recorded in schools and kindergartens in Vienna as well as in Lower Austria and several other federal states. In Lower Austria, for example, there were 27 incidents, including three in St. Pölten. In Upper Austria, too, 14 threats, many of them at vocational schools, were registered. Experts suspect that these threats were formulated using AI programs such as Chat GPT. The phenomenon of "swating", in which people are terrorized by such threats, has increased and often directed against schools, teachers and public figures. Backgrounds and implications of such threats.

The dangers of digital bullying

The incidents also lift light on the problem of bullying in schools, which has increasingly reached in recent years. According to an analysis of the "Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC)" study, about 14 % of the students have had experience with school bullying. Cyberbullying is also a growing problem; About 7 % of those surveyed reported corresponding experiences in the virtual world. Koch Institute emphasizes in his analysis that bullying can not only cause physical but also psychological damage and thus represents a significant health risk for adolescents.

The increase in cyberbullying and threatening online actions is in the context of changing social handling of digital media. It is urgently needed to implement effective anti-bullying measures in schools in order to combat the growing threat to the mental health of children and adolescents and to act.