Footballers Jordan Henderson, Declan Rice, Harry Maguire, Kasper Schmeichel and Ben Mee have joined together with leading online abuse charity, The Cybersmile Foundation, as part of their 10th ‘Stop Cyber Bullying Day’.
In a bold new campaign, each individual footballer has shared an ‘edited selfie’ with physical injuries overlaid, in order to highlight the real-world implications of online abuse. This coincides with The Cybersmile Foundation’s commitment to raise awareness about the importance of making the internet a safer place, alongside the responsibility of all users for their actions, words and comments.
The campaign marks the first anniversary of the partnership between creative agency Ten Toes and Cybersmile, which was inaugurated on Stop Cyberbullying Day 2021.
Speaking about the initiative, Scott Freeman, CEO for The Cybersmile Foundation, said: “Everybody at Cybersmile is excited to be working alongside Ten Toes and such high-profile players to deliver the very important message carried by this campaign. It is too easy to forget that words communicated online can have the same impact as words communicated offline”. In addition, Managing Director at Ten Toes, Josh Hershman, said: “Itʼs a real pleasure to work alongside Cybersmile on this campaign, which sees household names in football come together and call out online abuse and underline the way it can affect people away from the internet. This is an issue which can affect all of us and itʼs one that has huge consequences in the real-world, so weʼre very proud to work with Cybersmile and these players to highlight this.”
