Preventing Cyber-Bullying And Trolling

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Recommended: The effect of social media on young people

"Jumping off GW bridge sorry." That was the last status update Tyler Clementi ever posted to his Facebook page before leaping to his death off the George Washington Bridge in New York City. A month before his suicide, Tyler, who was gay, started his freshman year at Rutgers University and was housed with a roommate who did not approve of homosexuals. Unbeknownst to Tyler, his roommate began to electronically spy on him and eventually recorded him kissing a man. The roommate then posted the video to YouTube and soon Tyler’s fateful and heartbreaking Facebook status would follow (Cloud). Unfortunately, stories like Tyler’s have become more common as bullying has made the leap from the playground to the massive new world of social media. With forty percent of teenagers using social media claiming they have been cyber bullied at least once (Billitteri “Cyberbullying”), the trend of teenage bullying through social media has become harder to ignore. The anonymity of online profiles has contributed to the rise of cyberbullying while easy access to social media applications and devices has contributed to its ability to spread quickly. The type of response from those in authoritative roles along with inadequate laws has also created an environment that breeds bullying. While some point out that bullying would still happen without social media, or that it is awareness rather than the actual number of incidents growing, cyberbullying via social media is still a serious issue that needs addressing.
The anonymity of online comments allows bullies to harass others without worrying about their identities being revealed and can lead some to make comments they would never say in person. According to stopbullying.gov, “Cyberbullying messages and ...

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... personal responsibility and not bullying themselves and offer support to others suffering from it.

Word Count: 1,722

Works Cited
Billitteri, Thomas J. "Preventing Bullying." CQ Researcher 10 Dec. 2010: 1013-36. Web. 23
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---, Thomas J. "Cyberbullying." CQ Researcher 2 May 2008: 385-408. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
Cloud, John. "Bullied To Death?." Time 176.16 (2010): 60-63. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
Mary Madden, Amanda Lenhart, Maeve Duggan, Sandra Cortesi, Urs Gasser. “Teens and
Technology 2013”. Pew Internet & American Life Project 13 Mar. 2013. pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-and-Tech.aspx. Web. 11 Nov. 2013
NICOL, SARAH. "Special Feature / Cyber-Bullying And Trolling." Youth Studies Australia 31.4
(2012): 3-4. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Oct. 2013. stopbullying.gov. US Department of Health and Human Services. Web. 23 Oct. 2013

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