Bullying: Our Society Response To Cyberbullying

Bullying, often labeled as just a part of growing up, is a major problem in America’s schools today. Although it is such a hot topic in our country right now, it is also a long ignored problem that only seems to worsen. The complication with bullying is that no one quite understands it, and it is not taken seriously. The definition of bullying is an overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people. In more simple terms, bullying is not a onetime incident; it is repetitive and happens among individuals when there is an imbalance of power. Statistically, every one in six children are bullied, and this cannot continue to take place. Every child has the right to feel safe and have the pursuit of being happy in which bullying completely takes those rights away.

Schools are the most well-known settings for bullying. This is the place where students learn and socialize for most of the day. A school is a place meant to feel safe, not afraid. However, studies have shown us this is not the case. More and more students are reluctant to come to school. Why? Their peers may criticize them and abuse of them both verbally and physically. Bullying is more serious than most think. Many people just think it’s a simple hoax that was taken too far but this simple joke can lead to indelible emotional and physical scar that could hunt students for life eventually lowering their self-esteems and even ruining their lives. Schools and teachers have failed tremendously at stopping this.

An average bullying session lasts about 37 seconds; an adult intervenes in the problem about one in twenty-five times (Bullying Facts). Bullying is seen as aggressive and unwanted behavior between two or more people (Aspa).  Most people who are not involved in the actions going on do not really know it’s happening.  Most parents do not even know when their child, or children, are being bullied (Bullying Facts).  Bullying can be prevented if the right consequences take place.  Parents and schools have the rules about bullying prevention, but these do not prevent the bullying from continuing their ways.  People who bully often should receive bigger consequences because eventually the problem could escalate and the bully will continue their

In our time today, there are many types of "bullying", but the one type I believe can be the worse and the one I will be discussing will be “Cyber bullying.” Cyber Bullying is an action when people either get together or by themselves purposely threaten or harass another kid through social media, such as Twitter or Facebook. The use of smart phones makes this action so easy to do and we can't really do anything to stop it from happening. These people can go and tweet about something any part of the day. All types of bullying are usually related in some type of way but the action of doing it is usually much different. Cyber bullying is one of the worst types of

Cyberbullying is a relatively new threat, and it is very similar to traditional bullying. Despite the fact that cyberbullying and traditional bullying both share the common goal of harassment, cyberbullying differs from traditional bullying in that it does not stop at the schoolyard, and can continue when the victim is far away from the aggressor. It is just as devastating as common bullying, and sometimes is even more damaging. Professors Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin note in their journal, “Cyberbullying Creates Dangerous Stress and Anxiety”, that cyberbullying affects anywhere between 10-40% of students (contingent on their age group) (par. 1). J.D. Kelly A. Albin, in her article “Bullies in a Wired World”, defines cyberbullying as “…the ‘willful and repeated harm inflicted through use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices’” (157). It is caused by the fact that children feel their actions are mitigated when they use social media, as it creates the illusion of indirectness, and its effects range anywhere from mild depression to suicide.

Bullying has been around since the beginning of time. Parents may remember when they were kids and the bully would pick on them or their friends by stealing lunch money or just getting beat up, and that was the end of it. The victims remember the hurt, frustration, and sadness it caused. However, these days, bullying is not just happening on the playground or at the bus stop, it is happening on the Internet and on cell phones, making it possible to bully a child 24 hours a day with multiple bullies and thousands of kids watching. Cyberbullying follows children nonstop and into the safety of their house. Sometimes kids are afraid to inform their parents about the cyberbullying that they will think its there fault. Or that their parents will call the bullies parents or other parents, making the bullying worse. However, the effect and pain that comes from cyberbullying is real. People underestimate cyberbullying, just because it is happening online and not in person. Cyberbullying can lead to many different factors like drinking, and drugs, poor grades, depression, eating disorders. Many students have even taken their own lives because of another student saying something to them online. Cyberbullying has been taking place a lot more in middle and high schools because of the increased usage of social media networks and technology. Cyberbullying is worse and more harmful than traditional bullying.

School bullying is a big ethical problem within our schools and our communities. Some adults see bullying as just part of growing up and being a kid but it is a serious problem that can lead to children obtaining a loss of self confidence. Victims may receive a damaging self image and they may even want to end their own lives. There are many consequences to school bullying kids can obtain mental health problems and can experience anxiety or depression. Children may not be able to sleep or eat and they may lose interest in activities that they used to want to do.

Bullying is bound to happen anywhere at any time but occurs mostly within school limits. Kathleen Winkler defines bulling in her book, Bullying, as “...any kind of ongoing physical or verbal mistreatment, done with the intent to harm, where there is an imbalance of power between bully and victim” (Winkler 14). Bullying has an extremely important impact on one’s everyday life and can affect their life negatively getting to the point where they can no longer take the blow. To try and prevent bullying from taking place in schools, one needs to know how bullying effects a person, what the role of each person involved in the situation is, and have knowledge of specific methods on how to prevent it. Bullying in schools is a serious problem and a handful of school do their part to prevent it; others, not as much, which means there is room for improvements.

Nowadays, schools and private assemblies are working together to talk to students and parents to minimize the instances of bullying by persistently educating them on the effects of bullying and actual instances that have happened around the world. The world is evolving rapidly each and every day through research and there still seem to be many questions unanswered but through each experience of bullying there are new questions

Bullies start at a young age and carry on, this helps them feel good about what they are doing and who they are as a person. The only way to make a difference and try to stop bullying and cyberbullying is if the parents are there to help. “Parents of bullies are advised to take the problem seriously, looking for the causes of anger or frustration, letting them know that hurtful behavior will not be tolerated, supervising their behavior more closely, “punishing”bullying with positive acts toward others and teaching nonviolent ways of solving problems.” (PERSONAL HEALTH pg. 3) This illustrates that not only the school and parents but the community to must collaborate to control bullying. Parents need to supervise their children on social media and all places in their life, until the children can understand that this is not okay and that we can stand up to bullying. Bullying and cyberbullying can lead to serious causes to the victims and everyone around them. “It is found that children who bully are at risk for engaging in more serious violent acts, like fighting frequently and carrying weapons.” (PERSONAL HEALTH pg.) This proves that the actions of the bullies are long term effects. If someone is to hurt themselves or one another because of how someone made them feel not only will those certain people be hurting inside but the other family and friends in their lives. All of this combined shows that people do bully and

Bullying is one of the hardest thing to work on and prevent in today’s world. In school there are about 28 percent of kids that are getting bullied. The ages are between 12-18 year old kids “(According to American society for the positive care of children). The bully’s pick on people that are smaller than them and cannot fight back. Bullying can be hard to prevent in todays would but with the right help and effective intervention and solutions that can be stopped. “Those who bully and harass stand in the way of learning and threaten the safety of our children” (preface to “What laws will best prevent cyber-crime”). The whole point in going to school is to learn not to be fighting with the other kids. Because bullying is caused by todays increased

When it comes to bullying, there are some invisible boundaries and limits that are set, however, on the internet there are no laws let alone limits and thus, cyber bullying is quite an eminent problem that should be discussed about more often. Cyberbullying is a form of bullying through the use of technology. In the past few years, there have been laws created against bullying, making it a lot harder for bullies to do what they want, in result the media came along and that’s when the bullies took advantage. It is unfortunate that kids are vulnerable even in a place where they should feel safe, which is at their home. With how easy and simple it is to

Bullying can be found almost everywhere; in homes, on the internet, and especially in schools. Students of lesser abilities or non-conformists can essentially be main targets; however, anyone is vulnerable to a bully’s wrath. Although the common lunch thief threat has been the general association with the word bully, that term has unfortunately evolved and become apart of the violent side of our culture today. All too often students feel the need to “disappear” or escape leading to destructive decisions such as suicide, substance abuse, or depression (Kowalski 6). Today the causes of bullying are involved with social differences such as sexual orientation, physical appearance, ethnicity, or insecurities. For the past few years bullying has gradually increased in the US, and of course worldwide because of the internet’s growing diverse locations and servers. Statistics show that “A total of 29.9% of the sample reported moderate or frequent involvement in bullying, as a bully (13.3%), one who was bullied (10.6%), or both (6.3%)” (NIH Public Access). Forms of bullying include through a computer screen also known as cyberbullying and through physical confrontation leading students to experience symptoms of depression which could also provoke deeper personal issues. Cyberbullying has come across society through social media sites as well as personal opinion. Children are now breaking the norm of traditional confrontation and dunking heads in toilets

Bullying has been an issue for children in schools for years. Australia did a study showing that one in four children are bullied while in school. It has shown that children that have suffered being bullied have also suffered poor mental health compared to other children. Another research was shown that children that were bullied over time were actually suffering in long term as mentally unfit. Many researchers have conducted that most parents are not even aware that their child is being bullied at school. The main reasoning behind this problem is because parents are not in the schools everyday like the teacher is watching every move they make. Most of the responses of this issue have to come from the teachers or the child. Most children do not even

Bullying has been escalating to a certain degree that it has affected as many as 160,000 students that reported staying home from school every day, because they were afraid of being bullied (www.stompoutbullying.org). Bullying does not only stops one from wanting to go to school, it also makes one feel anxious, insecure, and unhappy at school, isolated and at times severely depressed (Young, Shin Kim, and Leventhal). Schools must have better resources available to students; this includes the victim and the bully. The victim should have both better counseling and stricter laws to protect them. Bullies also need counseling due to research which states “that many bullies tend to come from families where parents are more