Cyberbullying: A Major Epidemic In The Modern Day World

Rebecca Sedwick, a 12-year-old girl, committed suicide after being repeatedly cyberbullied by 15 girls for many months. Once again, cyberbullying through social media has led to the suicide of a child. (“Phillips, Suzanne”) Social media allows hundreds of ways to communicate with others with electronic devices. Sometimes communicating with strangers, and sometimes unanimous. This idea of constant messages, notifications, and texts can be very dangerous when it comes to cyberbullying because the victim feels like they have no way out, or nowhere to hide. Social media for kids and teens ultimately has only negative effects because it leads to cyberbullying, a decrease in education, and suicide.

It has been a common misconception that bullying is normal and every kid needs to experience it so that they can learn to stand up for themselves. Cyberbullying has been reported many times as a cause of suicide in teens, and that is still happening today. Bullying has continued to be a major problem among teens for a while now, and does not seem to be coming to an end. Since the consequences of cyberbullying are more detrimental than traditional bullying, something must be done to stop cyberbullying, not only to save young kids from stress and anxiety, but also to save lives of those who just could not tolerate this awful behavior.

“Statistics on cyberbullying include: Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online; seventy percent of students’ report seeing frequent bullying online; sixty-eight percent of teens agree that cyberbullying is a serious problem; eighty-one percent of young people believe bullying online is easier to get away with than bullying in person; ninety percent of teens who have seen social-media bullying say they have ignored it; only one in 10 victims will inform a parent or trusted adult of their abuse; girls are about twice as likely as boys to be victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying; nearly 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online; bullying victims are two to nine times more likely to consider committing suicide; furthermore about 75% of students admit they have visited a website bashing another

Did you know that over 43% of kids have admitted that they’ve been bullied online? Even more admitted that they have witnessed it. Cyber bullying is a big issue in America, and it needs to be stopped. There are many problems related to cyber bullying that can last a lifetime, if not taken care of. These affect schoolwork, friendships, relationships, and attitude. America needs to stop this, so we can provide a better future for our teens.

In order to understand the importance and consequences of cyberbullying, the main idea of cyberbullying must be expressed. Suzanne Phillips states that “cyberbullying like any form of bullying is relational aggression. It is intended to make the victim feel frightened, humiliated, helpless and too often—hopeless. What makes cyber bullying particularly harmful and in the case of too many young people who have committed suicide, so deadly, is the nature and virulent reach of electronic medium” (Phillips 1). Students are put in danger everyday due to the relevance of cyberbullying that surrounds them. The effects are detrimental to their health and have major impacts on the society. Justin Patchin explains that teens have unhealthy ideas when he states that “cyberbullied youth also report having suicidal thoughts, and there have been a number of examples in the United States and abroad where youth who were victimized ended up taking their own lives” (Patchin 1). Average teenagers express everyday that the effects of cyberbullying are harmful to their well being and self esteem. This causes most teens to feel worthless and makes them believe that their lives are not meaningful. Justin W. Patchin also shows the many outcomes of cyberbullying and displays that at “first, many targets report feeling depressed, sad, angry, and frustrated.

Cyberbullying is just one of the many forms of bullying that can occur and unfortunately, it continues to occur in ever-growing amounts. In this generation, the internet is so easily accessible that no one can prevent themselves from potentially being entrapped by the heinous claws of cyberbullying. Since cyberbullying can reach so many people, it can also bring the detrimental effects along with it. Mental illness, self-harm, and suicide are just a few of the effects that can happen to a person being cyberbullied. Most of the time these effects can be prevented by the intervention of schools, friends, or loved ones. Most cyberbullying incidents happen to students and in most cases, schools are unable to take any form of action. People, especially young Americans should speak up and take action against cyberbullying. They must voice their concerns and make schools be required to intervene in cyberbullying matters that occur off campus, because it can affect them, their friends, or others around

Doctors Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin defined cyberbullying as “willful and repeated harm to others inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices” (208). It is a serious problem amongst children and teens all around the world. Many consider cyberbullying as merely expressing one’s thoughts which is considered freedom of speech. Many live in constant fear of what’s the next thing that’s going to be said about them. Although cyberbullying is considered freedom of speech and is therefore not breaking the law, it should ultimately be illegal because it causes low academic performance, depression and suicide in teens and young adults.

Eighty-one percent of minors say that cyberbullying is easier to get away with than regular bullying. Of the kids who are cyberbullied, twenty percent of them think about committing suicide. One in ten go through with it. Suicide is the third leading reason of death in the United States and seventy percent of school students have reported seeing usual cyberbullying. Another nearly seventy percent of teens say that cyberbullying is a big problem and a little over seventy percent of teenagers say they have been to a site where they seen others being harassed. From ages thirteen to seventeen, more than forty percent of teens say they had been cyberbullied in just that past year.

Having discovered that cyberbullying is leading to alcoholism and depression, it is becoming clear that this issue must be addressed (Gamez-Guadix, Gini, Calvete, 2015). Bullying is now taking place beyond the at school verbal and physical at school and is now being inflicted online anonymously, so you are not able to know who is doing it and it reaches a larger audience (Gamez-Guadix, Gini, Calvete, 2015). In conducting a cross-sectional study of adolescents, they were able to establish a link to depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide ideation and attempts to cyberbullying (Gamez-Guadix, Gini, Calvete, 2015).

Given that cyberbullying is a relatively new construct, it is important to note that there are still definitional and methodological inconsistencies throughout the literature (Nixon, 2014). Although fairly new, the research that has been conducted has shown that this form of bullying has been growing rapidly, and has led to a myriad of mental health issues for students who have been subjected to it. Researchers have been trying to narrow down cyberbullying in order to properly quantify it, and measure it

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but cyber bullies hurt too. According to Confronting Cyber Violence in the Digital Age, “Unless and until our society recognizes cyberbullying for what it is, the suffering of thousands of silent victims will continue,” (Maria paragraph 4). Students ages 7 and up are getting phones, the more technology the young students have the more cyberbullies online. Schools should put more effort into stopping cyber bullying because bullied victims have a higher chance of committing suicide, parents are afraid of their child being bullied, and it can occur at any time of day.

　　Cyberbullying is a major problem in today society. It is one of the many ways in which teens are bullied and it is causing problems for many teens and even their families and loved ones. Teens have killed each other and committed suicide after been involved in a cyberbullying incident. Cyberbullying is no little problem that we as a community should

Despite the physical contact or audible insults, cyberbullying can be even more traumatizing and damage have life time effect on mental health than traditional forms of bullying. Through social media and

Review of the Status of Cyberbullying and Cyberbullying Prevention (2014), a scholarly article written by June Chisolm PhD, with the Department of Psychology at Pace University in New York, explores the effects of cyberbullying and the impact that it has on adolescents. The author first defined cyberbullying as “the intentional and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices” (pg.78). In recent studies, it was found that one in five youths will be cyberbullied, and the adolescents between the ages of 10 and 18 years of age, 19% of them will either be the victim or the perpetrator (para.4 pg.78).

Cyberbullying can be defined as “bullying that takes place using electronic technology” (“Cyberbullying”). It is much harder to track or get away from because the bullies can get at the victim in so many ways. The bullying could take place on social media like Facebook, over text or a call with the victim’s number, messaging over email, and many other electronic platforms. Blocking numbers and accounts can only get so far because new, fake accounts are easy to make, and a phone number change is a simple way to keep up the