There is one type of malicious activity on the web that is so powerful and has such an impact on people’s lives it should be nothing less than a crime. This is no mere virus or something that can be blocked with specialized software or just simply ignored. It’s cognitive, and it’s everywhere. Cyberbullying can have many negative effects and this is due to the fact that it has a wider audience than regular bullying, is harder to escape than regular bullying, and has greater consequences than regular bullying. Despite this, some people seem to think cyberbullying can be stopped by just “unplugging,” and this claim is not true.
Firstly, cyberbullying can have a very large audience. With today’s modern technology, it is so easy to simply upload a photo or a tweet for hundreds or thousands of people to see. According to Source 3, “84% of cyberbullies report to know their target.” This means that many people that “follow” the cyberbully on social media may also know the victim and believe the negative posts. Furthermore, cyberbullies can also reach a victim and “don’t even need to know [them]” (Warnke line 47). However, the conventional bully faces his target, unlike a
Source 1 adds again by stating, “It’s much harder to flee a cyberbully as they can ‘attack’ through a variety of electronic means.” For example, a person is being bullied on Instagram. The target decides to block the cyberbully. All the cyberbully has to do is move to another social media site or even make a fake account on the same site. The real life story of Megan Meier is the perfect example of a cyberbully using a fake account. “Assuming the fake identity of a teenage boy, Drew used the account to flirt with and then later break up with, Megan Meier,” Source 1 explains. This shows just how easy it is to manipulate others through fake accounts. Luckily, Drew was convicted of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse
Eden Foster states, “ The effects of cyberbullying reaches a much wider audience due to the popularity of social networking sites.” This is important because, since so many people have social media, a lot of people can view or share the effects of cyberbullying. If one sees the damage done to a victim, they can either share the post and make sure more and more people see it, or they can report the post. However, in order for something to be considered as cyberbullying, the bully must repeat their actions, making it problematic to stop all cyberbullying. The fact page, “What is Cyberbullying” mentions that anyone who has access to the internet can view the aggression caused by the bullies. Cyberbullies can attack their victim in many ways. It is possible to cyberbully someone by posting embarrassing photos, spreading rumors online, creating fake accounts to harass them, or forwarding hurtful messages about someone. Since there are so many ways to cyberbully, it is easy for many people to bully someone, which makes it accessible for numerous amounts of people to
By having cyberbullying grow, people are starting to make new laws and make it a federal crime. It’s a lot harder to get rid of cyberbullying, because there are so many social media sites where it can be found. With just a mean effortless tweet, comment, or message it can be a toll on somebody’s life. Statistics show that “20% of youth ages 11-18 have been victims of cyberbullying.” Most teens do cyberbullying, because they think it’s funny, or they just think that person deserves it, but what teens don’t get is what consequences lie
In Chapter 6 of the book, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard, authors Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin (2015) begin to move the subject matter away from theory into application. In the last chapter, the authors ended their discussion that explained the details of cyberbullying, and in chapter 6, they begin to discuss how the reader may apply this knowledge to combat the issue. This paper will present a summary of those application processes and it will review some of the practical steps that the authors give, which if followed, can help prevent the occurrence of digital harassment, as well as help reduce the amount of harm that it may cause. The chapter starts off by cautioning adults to try not to solve cyberbullying issues by simply removing a teen’s access to the internet.
In the United States of America, practically everybody can agree on the importance of the youth and their education. The youth and children of today are the future leaders of tomorrow. Although education, undoubtedly, is beneficial to America’s youth, there are some experiences, such as bullying, that negatively affect and stick with these youth for the rest of their lives. Certain children find an outlet for their frustrations through bullying others. In the past, these actions could be better controlled because they were limited to face-to-face interactions. However, due to the recent booms in technology over recent years, cell phones, social media sites, group chats, and other forms of technology have allowed bullying to expand into the Internet. This new form of abuse is known as cyber- bullying. According to the Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary, cyber-bullying is, “the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.” This can be done through cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyber-bullying may seem like nothing since there's no physical contact, but in reality it can hurt even more than the actual thing. The victims of cyber-bullying are real people with real feelings; and the bullying has led some to depression, and further more driven them to suicide. Cyber-bullying is a serious issue that negatively affects the youth today.
As I stated earlier, a large incentive of cyberbullying is the lack of consequences to the behaviour. This is something easily achieved with the use of social media because as written in 'Cyberbullying: Horror in the Home.' (a news report about certain individuals who were victims of cyberbullying, it was reliable to explore personal aspects of my research) (2013) "(Danielle Perry) took his own life after he was blackmailed after befriending someone he thought was a girl his own age." Meaning someone was able to torment Perry using a false identity and could not be easily traced. However, aside from a lack of consequences, using social media to harass others can simply be a more effective way of doing so. In this academic paper 'Cyberbullying' (An academic paper that was useful for explaining the nature and effects of cyberbullying, and its link to social media written 2016, on go.galegroup.com), it says "... Bullying through electronic means allows embarrassing hurtful messages or photos to be sent out quickly and to a large number of people." Which is further supported by Horror in the Home "...(Cybrbullying) can go on for 24 hours," quoting Dr. Lucy Maddox. So, the knowledge that one can humiliate someone, at any time from anywhere in the world, in front of literally billions of people may provide some sort of sick thrill to someone who is inclined to
180). Pittaro (2007) defines cyberstalking as the use of the internet, email, or other electronic communication devices to create a criminal level of intimidation, harassment, and fear in victims (Pittaro, 2007, p. 180). In this definition, the cyberstalker is one who carries out these acts when targeting a victim. What causes cyberstalking is rage, power, control, anger, and the victim’s actions and inactions (Pittaro, 2007, p. 180). Cyberstalkers use the internet to hide and conceal their identity, known as a veil of anonymity (Pittaro, 2007, p. 180). The majority of cyberstalkers are middle upper-class Caucasian males and many cyberstalkers have a prior criminal record, a history of substance abuse, or a personality disorder (Pittaro, 2007, p. 181). Although, victims of cyberstalking are often complete strangers who were contacted by a cyberstalker through the internet which accounts for about 50% of all cyberstalking incidents (Pittaro, 2007, p. 181). The difference between cyberstalking and regular stalking is the physical contact element between victim and perpetrator (Pittaro, 2007, p. 182). Another difference, is that the geographic proximity between the victim and the perpetrator is closer in regular stalking and much larger in cyberstalking as it can literally happen anywhere (Pittaro, 2007, p. 182). The main method perpetrators of cyberstalking utilize is email over other electronic communication devices and their main motives for cyberstalking are revenge/retaliation (Pittaro, 2007, p. 183). A study done by McFarlane and Bocij (2005) (as cited in Pittaro, 2007, p. 184) found that there are four types of
In the essay “No, You Don’t Need to Go to Holiday Parties If You Feel Lonely” by Neha Gajwani, there are a lot of good points, but I do not fully agree with the essay. It is not a bad thing to force yourself to go to social events. When you force yourself to go to events it can help build social skills, expose you to a celebratory environment contributing to a sense of belonging and creating long lasting memories with other people and exposes you to diverse types of people leading to new experiences and world views. Forcing yourself to go to social events and activities provides opportunities to build your social skills. Social skills are something that develops yourself, not something that you are just born with.
As we are living in the age of technology, we are seeing our youth being victimized by a new phenomenon of bullying, called cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is defined as the use of information and communication technologies such as email, cell phones and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate repeated and hostile behavior by an individual or group, which is intended to harm others. Cyberbullying can also employ media such as PDAs, blogs, and social networks (Beckstrom, 2008). This form of bullying is progressive because it can happen instantly due to the technology involved, whereas traditional bullying tends to take longer to evolve and happens
Cyber bullying can be more terrifying than standard bullying, because the target typically does not know who is after them. Cyber bullies believe that because they are posting anonymously or not using their names, they can get away with anything. The case is that Internet activity is traceable. It is important to know that cyber bullying can be charged as crimes. In some cases, cyber bullies will be charged as sexual predators and have to be on the registry. Furthermore, items posted on the Internet can affect the person’s ability to get into university or employment.
One of the biggest and growing problems today for kids and teens are bullies and they can’t escape them because now, we have cyber bullies. Some people think that prosecuting cyber bullies is the only thing that will help kids. However, other people think that prosecuting cyber bullies is a too much for just some hurt feelings. But, it's not just some hurt feelings, there are emotional and physical effects some so severe they may lead to self harm. All things considered, cyber bullies should be prosecuted because it's becoming too common, has an emotional impact on kids, and is easier than regular bullying.
All around the United States, the prevalence of cyberbullying ranges from 10-40% of people who get bullied through electronics. Furthermore, this is a problem caused by kids, teens, and adults who target one another online by repeating harmful threats and harassments. This conflict negatively impacts the victims’ life which is why anyone who cyberbullies should pay the consequences and be prosecuted.
Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that takes place with the use of any electronic technology. Cyberbullying is a major problem affecting young people today. There are different types of cyberbullying. This topic comes as an interest to many people these days because bullying is very common and it can ruin a person’s life. These days, cyberbullying is considered a new form of bullying. It can happen over the internet by computer, mobile phone or any other electronic devices. Cyberbullying could involve any form of unpleasant words or pictures being displayed on the internet for others to see. It could also involve the spreading of lies about the victim on the internet. Many people are stepping up efforts to prevent bullying in the first place. Approximately half of U.S. students are impacted by traditional bullying each school day (Ross). Bullying peaks in middle school, then reduces in high school. Other types of bullying may involve the passing of notes behind someone’s back, rumors being whispered about someone, or being threatened in the internet. The most common types of cyberbullying include passing of humiliating photos, cell phone pranks, cyber stalking, impersonation, online slam books, and text wars. Bullies appear scary but truthfully they are the unhappy ones. Majority of bullies have been bullied by parents, siblings, or other young people. This may trigger them to bully and pick on other kids.
Imagine being personally targeted and bullied by another individual constantly. Maybe never seriously injured but verbally abused in person and possibly online. The issue of cyberbullying can be quite pivotal in this new generation. Cyberbullying is a controversial matter that the world must address because of how it can occur anywhere at any time, causes harm to targeted people, and affects all associated parties.
Cyber bullies bully for a reason, just as all bullies do. There are many reasons that the bully may perform this horrible crime; the bully “may feel bad about themselves and may think being a bully will make them feel better” (Jakubiak 8). The cyber bully also mig...
With technology progressing, students are moving past face to face hectoring, and are verbally bullying other through social media. Cyberbullying can sometimes become more harmful than verbal, physical, and emotional bullying due to victims, not feeling like they have an escape route because they are threatened repeatedly through text messages, e-mails, social media, etc. The worst part about cyberbullying is that the things posted can be anonymous; therefore, there is no blame for who posts what. A victim can suspect that someone is to blame for the actions done, but there is no proof to solve a possible ongoing issue. Cyberbullying and bullying are actually considered a crime when someone: physically assaults another person, gender or racism is talked about, violent or deadly threats are made, sexually texting, inappropriate photos, stalking,