Cyber Bullying: The Megan Meier Story

To conclude, no one should have to face prosecution for what they say online because bullying isn’t illegal in real life, people have the right to speak freely, and people should be allowed to decide who they interact with

To begin, any person that has cyberbullied another person should be punished, whether it be in school or legally. The victim being cyber bullied often feels “angry, hurt, embarrassed, or scared” (Source A). The way that these victims feel is also displayed through movies like “Cyberbully” and “13 Reasons Why.”  These movies have a school setting and they reveal how a victim feels at school and in their community when being cyberbullied. If cyberbullying was supposed to be justified by the First Amendment or anything

Cyber bullies cause harm physically and mentally. For example, Rebecca Sedwick, who was 12, jumped off a tower and died. 2 girls went to the State Attorney’s Office for admitting to harassing Rebecca. In California, some kids posted mean pictures and sent mean messages to a boy. In despair, Seth tried to kill himself on September 19, and died eight days later. “In 2010, the Cyber bullying Research Center surveyed 4,441 teenagers. It found 16.6 percent of males and 25.1 percent of females said they had experienced cyber bullying. And 83 percent of all respondents used cell phones.” In my opinion, these bullies should have consequences.

The victims can harm themselves over what the bully has told them, insulted them, anything. Source 3: fact sheet, states “60% of targets said that their online experiences as a target of cyber bullying affected them at school, home, and with friends, and reported experiencing feelings of frustration, anger, and sadness.” Cyber bullying can affect people in so many ways by harming themselves, etc. In source 1: radio interview, it states, “In 2008, Lori Drew was convicted of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after creating a fake Myspace account. Assuming the fake identity of a teenage boy, Drew used the account to flirt with, and then later break up with, Megan Meier.” See the bully can not only be someone people have met, it can be people they have never met.

Concluding, ones who bully online should be prosecuted for the acts they have committed. The effects done by cyberbullying cause many people to become miserable. Bullies do terrible things to make others feel bad about themselves because of their insecurities or because they do things differently than them. Cyber bullies should only be prosecuted for reasonable reasons. If the bully does something so bad that it causes the victim to do things such as self-harm, then they should be punished for their

Every day, millions of people roam the internet. There has been much discussion on whether or not people should be prosecuted for cyber bullying. I believe that they should. Although many think that prosecution affects the first amendment, cyber bullying promotes getting hurt, affects the targets life, and promotes depression.

In the ophelia project fact sheet 60 % of targets said that their online experiences as a target of cyber bullying affected them at school and at home by causing them intense anger. Cyber bullies are very mean and should be prosecuted. Cyber bullies cause mental and physical harm as well as the message the bully is relaying can be viewed by a much bigger audience and the message will forever be in cyberspace. Even though some people believe that prosecuting cyber bullies violates the 1st amendment, individuals should be prosecuted for cyber bullying because cyber bullies are making threats which violates the 1st amendment.

Not to mention with everyone being connected throughout social media makes it easier for the word to get around faster and make it worse for that person. Cyberbullying might not involve physical abuse and the words said will not make it hurt any less, but the posts someone puts up will be there for anybody to see and might not ever go away. Cyberbullying is no better than bullying because it can still lead to psychological or emotional problems many kids have to face. In some serious cases it can lead to depression or even worse suicide. It can be prevented by social media websites censoring any harsh or mean comments before the posts are even posted. Although it is not their fault, that is how the problem starts and continues.

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

Whilst cyber bullying is not physical it’s emotional and psychological effects are devastating for the victim and can often lead to suicide and depression (Hinduja & Patchin, 2010). Social Networking sites act as a platform where bullies can say things they might not usually say to someone in person, anonymity and less physical proximity act as a wall between the bully and the victim, none the less, the words or rumors’ that are shared are still just as hurtful. Bullies often feel more confident online and they can contact their victims anytime, anywhere, day or night, not just in the school yard (Smith et al., 2008).” (Procon. (24 O). Retrieved from http://socialnetworking.procon.org/)

Although the freedom of speech has had limitations and changes added to it, it should not be changed for cyberbullying. Bullying and cyberbullying are very similar yet they are also very different, cyberbullying is only mental or emotional harm, while regular bullying is usually only physical and emotional. Physically harming someone is illegal but emotionally harming someone is not illegal because no true harm was done. If someone who does have their feelings hurt easily they should avoid the Internet as much as possible, yes it is very difficult to not use the Internet because almost everything today uses the Internet, those people could block other users that are hurting their feelings instead of the “attacker” getting prosecuted. “But then, why don’t kids just ‘unplug’?” according to “The Dangers of Cyberbullying” by Brett Warnke.

There are many consequences of cyberbullying. There are long and short term consequences. You tend to say things over internet that you would never say in real life. You can go to jail for cyberbullying. You can also get criminal charges which could lead up to jail. Don’t say something on the internet that you wouldn't say face to face with somebody.

This type of bullying can take place 24 hours a day and is brought into the student’s home where it was once considered safe. Cyber-bullying has changed the world's view on this age-old subject, meanwhile the media suggests that bullying is an epidemic by reporting on tragedies that happen among our youth shedding light on the problem. One thing everyone can agree on is that the internet has provided a non-stop opportunity to bully. Nicole Edgington was celebrating her 17th birthday at a concert when it would be turned upside down by cyber-bullying. A senior in California was wrongly accused of turning some students in for coming to school intoxicated. Because the students assumed she had turned them in, they began a barrage of social media attacks along with text message threats. Nicole wrote an article, the girl who got even: A true cyber bullying story, explaining how she rose above the threats and daily negative texts. It takes courage to stand up and face your fears especially when you feel isolated. Nicole’s mom started to speak out on cyberbullying and found that teens wanted to hear other teens. Nicole would face her bully’s by speaking out about the behavior. The media has suggested that bullying is an epidemic, reporting on tragedies that happen among our youth shedding light on an age-old problem. When bullying moves to the internet it becomes more

Cyber bullying is quite different from the old traditional bullying. The traditional bullying has a combination of physical abuse, verbal abuse, and emotional abuse. While in cyber bullying it would just be emotional and verbal abuse because the person being bullied doesn’t get physically hurt. The traditional bullying would be face to face usually on school grounds during the school day, and it would have a smaller audience. Cyber bullying is at school and at home, all day, everyday either by the form of a text message, or chat room, or on social networking websites, and it has a large audience, for example if somebody posted on your wall on facebook everybody can see it and then people will comment and it will be a lot of people.