Cyber Bullying: The Megan Meier Story

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.

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

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.

“...1 in 3 teens [have] admitted to being a victim of cyberbullying…” says child psychologist, Eden Foster, in reference to a survey, talked about in “The Dangers of Cyberbullying” by Brett Warke, that shows the absolute significance of cyberbullying in this day and age. Cyberbullying on social media is everywhere and it’s about time that someone took some action against it, and, in this case, taking legal action via prosecution may be the best way to go. Let it not be said that cyberbullying and bullying are different, infact, the only difference is the platform they take place on. Cyberbullying is done with the same malicious intent as face-to-face bullying is done with: the intent to hurt a victim in a psychological or physical way- showing

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.

Some people believe that the internet is “designed for opinions, rants, and invective” (Source C). They use that excuse to justify their actions whether their comments are friendly or not. In another case, more than 50 students protest a principal’s decision to suspend a student for cyberbullying. The students that did participate in the sit-in expressed that the student accused of cyberbullying was “exerting his rights to post what he pleases” (Source B). These accounts prove that the bullies know what they are doing is wrong and are aware of the potential outcome of their words. When students are accused of cyberbullying another person, they often find an excuse for what they did; the First Amendment of the Constitution. However, if these adolescents felt as if  their comments were not wrong in any way, they would not bother to look for an excuse when being

Online Bullying or even face to face bullying has been around for a long time. No matter what people try to do it won’t just away, this why i think that schools shouldn’t limit students online speech.The First Amendment states that we have the “freedom of speech” and schools need to respect and protect that right. Also, why should it matter what people say online or face to face? If it's not during school hours it’s not their concern.

To start off, people should be prosecuted for cyberbullying online because they might be threatening someone's life. If someone cyberbullies someone else, the bully could be ruining their reputation. Also they could be ruining their future careers that

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

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.

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.

Sticks and Stones may break your bones but words never hurt, but in reality, words cut deep. Cyberbullying is on the rise and more people are taking their lives due to another person(s) choice of words and actions. Someone has to take a stand against it, cyberbullies should be prosecuted. It has become a bigger issue than face to face bullying. Cyberbullying is permanent and inescapable as technology progresses with time it lasts forever. They way that social media networks are set up its possible for something to go viral within a matter of seconds. Some people argue that prosecution violates the 1st Amendment; others might say it doesn’t cause any bodily harm. The effects that cyberbullying may have on someone physically, mentally, and emotionally should be enough, criminalizing cyberbullying would reduce the number of victims. No one deserves to be trapped.

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.

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.

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.