Cyber Bullying Is A New Form Of Bullying

Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that takes place over electronic technology throughout all hours of the day that can affect teens and adolescents on their daily basis. This electronic technology includes text, gaming devices, internet, emails, blogs, cell phones, apps, computers, and tablets which can be used for positive activities but can also hurt people. According to Edwina Thomas Washington (2015), these electronic technology gives the bully the capacity to contact the victim without having a face-to-face encounter. In addition, it occurs on different social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. This harmful behavior incorporates posting, sharing, or sending opposing, conflicting, and false content regarding someone else. Additionally, it includes sharing information referring to someone else with the purpose of producing discomfort and humiliation. Some cyberbullying passes the line into illegal or culpable behavior. Through the years, cyberbullying has become very common in teenagers.

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.

Pushing, shoving, name calling, teasing. When one reads these words, the first thing that we might associate it with is bullying. Whether or not we have experienced it ourselves, we have at least heard about it. However, as technology advances, so does the method of bullying. Today in our world that is run by technology, the modern method of bullying is called cyber bullying. The most recent definition of this is, “…………………This type of bullying allows the perpetrator to hide behind a computer screen or a phone screen and harass their victims without the need to meet face to face. This causes a new problem to arise in our public schools. Traditional bullying taking place at school was easy to spot and see; therefore, immediate punishment

Bullying is all over the world. Each year there is over 3.2 million victims being bullied. Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying.17% of American students report being bullied 2 to 3 times a month in a year. To many within a school semester. Since 2002, fighting behaviour has increased, especially in grades six to eight. Boys are more likely to start bullying because of being bullied in their past. Girls are most likely to cyberbully. Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. According to Gale, cyberbullying is the use of the Internet, smartphones, or other electronic communication devices to spread harmful or embarrassing information about another person, such as talking about people, telling other people’s

In their e-book, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard, Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin define Cyberbullying as: “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices” (36). Hinduja and Patchin are both Ph.D.’s, professors at universities, as well as primary researchers at the Cyberbullying Research Center. The research and community outreach that they are involved in could greatly reduce the number of cyberbullying cases worldwide. Cyberbullies typically operate through social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to harass, intimidate, threaten, embarrass or otherwise target an individual. Cyberbullying is awfully prevalent nowadays and it is a far bigger issue than most people realize. It is an issue that is quickly growing; as there are hundreds of thousands of people signing on to use these networks for the first time every day. According to NoBullying.com, 25% of teenagers report that they have experienced repeated bullying via their cell phone or on the Internet, while 52% report having experienced it at least

Bullying is generally defined as any deliberate act of aggression towards another person with the intentions of causing harm or suffering. Cyber bullying can be termed as the use of electronic communications (e-mail, text messages, instant messaging, social media, etc.) in which to humiliate, intimidate, threaten, or harass others and is often done anonymously. Though it as not as prevalent as “traditional bullying”, it has become a much more popular version of bullying because of the convenience of anonymity and the fact that it can be done any time of the day or night and anywhere.

Cyberbullying has become a prevalent problem over the past decade in the United States. This is due to the radical updates in technology and the easy access that teens have to these electronic resources. Whether at school, a local coffee shop, or in their own home, teens can gain access to computers, and are able to use them for cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place online or through any electronic device such as a computer or cellphone. There are many different ways to bully someone through these devices. This includes text messages, emails, direct messages on social media, comments on social media profiles, and much more.

Bullying has been happening for generation after generation. Today’s society made possible to bully people without being face to face. This type of bullying is called cyber-bullying. Teenagers uses theirs electronics advices as weapons to attack other people with hurtful things though the use of text messaging or social networking websites. Cyber-bullying can “damage a person emotionally” (Media). It can also make them have low self-esteem. In our society today, cyber-bullying is a new type of problem that many teenagers have to face.

Bullying is of various types: first is the verbal bullying, that includes teasing, threatening, inappropriate commenting based on a person’s appearance or sexual orientation. Second is physical bullying which includes hurting or attacking someone or someone’s possessions. The third type of bullying is Social bullying which includes damaging someone’s reputation. Cyber bullying is a form of social bullying that occurs on social media, online forums and through texting or gaming. It includes the use of digital devices such as cell phones, computers etc. According to the statistics from the 2015 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 16% of high school students had experienced cyber bullying in the past 12 months. My goal in this paper is to discuss the causes and effects of cyber bullying, and to create a digital awareness among parents and teachers to prevent the cyberbullying.

Bullying is a major problem that impacts many teens over generations, causing an endless cycle of bullying. With the new age of technology, this leads to new issues that are affecting teens’ lives. One of these issues is that cyberbullying is quickly becoming more common than the traditional playground bullying, as more social media are appealing to teens. Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that happens using electronic devices such as phones, laptops, and tablets. This form of bullying includes spreading rumours, sending mean and hurtful messages and sharing embarrassing videos or photos. Cyberbullying over social media has become extremely easy for bullies to victimize other teenagers affecting the victim’s mental health. Therefore,

Cyberbullying is a new form of bullying that allows individuals to threaten or intimidate others via online resources like social media and instant messaging, as well as other electronic technology like smartphones and tablets. Due to the fact that cyberbullying is a fairly new concept, due to the advances in technology it has become one of the most prevalent sources of bullying among adolescents. The ease in which children can gain access and use electronic technology, and the fact that cyberbullying most of the time can remain anonymous, has led to an increase in this form of bullying. With reports indicating that 93% of teens are active users of the Internet and 75% own a cell phone, up from 45% in 2004, there is great potential for cyberbullying among youths (Schneider, O’Donnell, Stueve, & Coulter, 2012).The increase in cyberbullying has led to an increase in suicide rates among adolescent, and has expanded bullying past the traditional school environment.

Traditional face-to-face bullying is a widespread act and has been found to take place in social contexts such as parks or schools, but with the increased use of technology, cyberbullying has become another platform for bullying to occur (Fanti, Demetriou, & Hawa, 2012). Cyberbullying is the act of harassing individuals via the internet or cellphones (Smith et al., 2008). Cyberbullying now allows bullies to victimize individuals from anywhere and at any time, creating an inescapability component (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Nuccitelli, 2012). Cyberbullying has become a serious issue for adolescents; in 2014 50% of adolescents reported having been cyberbullied and approximately 20% of adolescents reported recurring cyberbullying (NOBullying.com,

Cyber bullying is a new phenomenon that even the most tech savvy wasn’t prepared for. It allows the aggressor to pick on their victim at all hours of the day. It’s not limited to the classroom anymore; it allows the bully to enter the victim’s safe zone: home. Emails, instant messaging, photo transmitting, and social media outlets are the fuel that feeds this behavior. In traditional bullying, at the end of the day you can escape the torment, but with cyber bullying, there is no escape.

Despite the positives, there are many negatives associated with social media. Using social media can make a person more vulnerable to predators and cyber bullying. In this age, “Cyber bulling is quite common, can occur to any young person online, and can cause profound psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and tragically suicide” (“American Academy of Pediatrics”). Cyber bullying impacts society in a negative way because it is harming young teenagers’ minds. Bullies, torment, threat, harass, and even embarrass their victims by using different forms of social media. Using social media can also decrease privacy for an individual. People often give out their personal information not knowing who can see it. To average internet users, “A false sense of security may leave social networking site users vulnerable to security attacks such as hacking, leaking sensitive information, and sending viruses” (“ProCon”). Furthermore, Social media can also lead to brain disorders and can cause people to have a hard time interacting with people face to face. “Social networking entices people to spend more time online and less time talking to a person face to face.” (“ProCon”)

For such a long time, physical bullying has been the largest problem schools and parents had to face with their children, but now another form of bullying has arisen; cyber bullying. In society today, teens are drawn cell phones, laptops, and other technological advancements. Social media is a way for many teens and adolescents to interact with one another and share countless happenings of their personal lives. Cyber bullying occurs when individuals use the internet to send or comment cruel and unnecessary messages to another. In its various forms cyber bullying includes, indirect and direct harassment, posting inappropriate pictures, impersonating another being, or just being plain cruel. Although anyone can become a victim of cyber bullying, improper use of the internet can further induce harassment, due to the adolescents desire to use modern day technologies. The harassers could be classmates, online “friends’’, or anonymous users. One barrier that is difficult to overcome is determining who is responsible for the attacks online, because many bullies hide behind fake usernames or profiles to protect their real identity, which is commonly known as “hiding behind a screen”. (Bonanno 2013). The motives for a cyber-bully are never clear, some might say