Is Cyberbullying as Pervasive and as Dangerous as Physical Bullying?

1016 Words3 Pages

Making nick names by classmates, posting secret photos online by colleagues, or even being slandered by strangers, these common experiences are types of cyberbullying. Lots of people have such cyberbullying experiences because it occurs more frequently than before. More specifically, cyberbullying is the use of the Internet, cell phones, or other electronic communication devices to spread harmful or embarrassing information in the form of text, photos or videos about another person. Cyberbullying is worse than physical bullying because of its serious consequences, and the person who suffers the cyberbullying would be hurt mentally by harmful messages, which is more difficult to cure than physical injury.
First of all, an increasing number of people become victims of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying may affect a wild range of people, regardless their genders, ages, and social status. However, the psychological endurance of the young are more vulnerable, so young people or children are easier to be cyberbullied and get adverse effects, such as receiving poor grades, unwilling to attend school, having lower self-esteem, and even experiencing auto-sadism. The reason for the young people who have these problems is mainly ascribe to the cyberbullying but physical bullying. In recent years, more and more researchers did investigations about cyberbullying. The result shows that suicide rates of teenagers, between 15 and 24 years old, increased since 1980(qtd.in website suicide.org). Most children have access to digital devices outside of school, causing victims of cyberbullying can be bullied anytime and from anywhere, therefore, some researchers included this increase is contributed by the cyberbullying (Yalda). Cyberbullying is often a syst...

... middle of paper ...

...en and Susan Musser. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Cyber Bullying: Worse Than Traditional Bullying." Educators' eZine. 2007.Opposing Viewpoints in Context. GALILEO. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Doucet, Isabeau. "Cyberbullying Among Students Is a Dangerous Epidemic." Netiquette and Online Ethics. Ed. Noah Berlatsky. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Anti-Social Network: The Rise of a Cyber-Bullying Epidemic."http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com. 2012. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. GALILEO. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Uhls, Yalda T. "Cyberbullying Has a Broader Impact than Traditional Bullying."Cyberbullying. Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Is Bullying Going Digital? Cyber Bullying Facts." PsychologyinAction.org. 2010.Opposing Viewpoints in Context. GALILEO. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Open Document