Cyberbullying: An Actual Threat

Bullying is seen and unseen, noticed by others and unnoticed, it’s a problem not just in our little communities, towns, cities or states but all over our country, bullying is a worldwide problem. As the internet has roared up so has forms of bullying throughout the web. Cyber bullying has become a problem that has never been thought of before. Although it is less physical than traditional forms of bullying, it can have more devastating and longer-lasting effects. It is rapidly becoming a major problem. Now, a small physically weak child can be as much of a bully as the big brute but with more impact. Educators definitely need to understand how powerful and dangerous this new type of bullying has become as it has greatly impacted the classroom.

The word 'bullying' has developed a very traditional definition amongst society: a face-to-face interaction involving either verbal abuse and/or physical abuse. With the technological advances that have occurred within the past 15 years, bullying has become anything but traditional. Children and teens have more access to the Internet and to social media platforms more than ever before, thus allowing them to avoid face-to-face interaction. Within the past 15 years, there has been a significant rise of cyberbullying in the youth demographic (ages 12-18) (Slonje, Smith, & Frisén, 2013). In order to understand what the difference between traditional bullying and cyberbullying is, one must familiarize themselves with the definition of cyberbullying.

In 2014, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) did a study on bullying and the found that 19.4% of all the students interviewed had been bullied at school. This may not seem very surprising, bullying has been going on for decades. Generations of men and women have come to fear the people who walk the halls, stealing lunch money from those weaker than them. However, it is interesting to note that 14.8% of that 19.4% had reported being cyber bullied. Unlike the standard physical bullying, cyberbullying is a slightly more recent development, but it has evolved to become much more deadly. It gives bullies a better tool for creating more widespread pain. The awareness for cyber bullying needs to increase and ultimately, cyberbullying needs to be abolished completely due to its destructive capabilities.

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.

In recent years the problematic circumstances of bullying has been brought to attention as a widespread problem. Most bullying takes place on school grounds and outside school grounds, affecting numerous students. Bullying is any unwanted aggressive behaviors of youths or groups of youth who are not current dating partners or siblings that involves a perceived or observed power of imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated. Aggression such as name calling, hitting, tripping, purposely leaving out of the group, and rumor spreading may be considered as bullying. Bullying through technology, also known as cyberbullying is a form of bullying that occurs through chat rooms, instant messaging, e-mail, text messaging, pictures, and websites.

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

In the 21st century technology has led to a new form of bullying, cyber bullying (Dhariff & Hoff, 2007). Over the past 30 years bullying have incremented rapidly worldwide, affecting people of all ages. Whether it’s done via the internet or the traditional way, bullying has always being around, affecting more than 200 million children worldwide (Kandersteg Declaration Against Bullying in Children and Youth, 2007). According to a research study conducted by Juvonen & Gross (2008) and Patchin & Hinduja (2009), cyber bullying and bullying are often interdepended (Beran & Li, 2007; Willard, 2007b.). Recent studies on cyber bullying showed that in every 10 Australian kids who were bullied online, 84% of them were also bullied in school (No Bullying, 2014). Bullying is referred to the repeated verbal, social,

A bully is defined as someone who uses his or her superiority to harm or intimidate an emotionally weaker individual. Bullies on the playground and bullies on the Internet are much alike aside from the fact that Internet bullies can easily hide behind a computer with a fake avatar. The anonymity is a primary cause of this crime since the decreased chance for the person to be caught triggers their willpower to torment their victim. Internet bullies, also known as cyberbullies, usually do not think twice about what they do to their victims because as easy as it is to construct a phony identity for their obscurity, it is even easier to send a malicious message, start a rumor, or even upload an embarrassing photo online. But how can we stop it? How can we prevent or reduce cyberbullying? A meta-analysis has demonstrated how an anti-bullying prevention program has been proven beneficial in reducing bullying. In this article, four prestigious authors explain, “Assuming that mechanisms for traditional bullying and cyberbullying are similar, it is plausible to predict that general anti-bullying programs are short- and long-term effective regarding the prevention of cyberbullying and cyber-victimization” (Gradinger, n.p.). Although it is not a promising strategy, it is a first step solution to cyberbullying. However, including a multi-pronged approach along with

With Cyberbullying it is easier for the bully to affect you, as they are behind a screen so you may not know who the person is, some people don’t know that they are bullying. It has become a regular thing to see bullying online as some website don’t a lot of anti-bully things to help them. There are not many things that the internet can do as there is many people getting bullied on the daily. More than one in four young teenagers had been deliberately targeted, threatened or humiliated, either by another individual or a group, through the use of mobile phones or the internet. The abuse can come in many forms: hurtful comments left on social networking sites such as Little Gossip and Facebook; private images that had been photoshopped and displayed for all to see. Now, though, it is no longer necessary to be in the bullies’ physical presence in order to be bullied: instead, their presence is a constant one, 24-7, thanks to modern technology and young people’s obsession with their mobile phones.

With multiple ways to use technology and social media cyber bullying is a bigger issue then it ever has been. There are two main forms of bullying which are traditional and cyber bullying. Traditional bullying is physical and name calling to the victim. Cyber bullying is defined as the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others (Belsey, 2008). Cyber bullying occurs through instant messaging, mobile phone, e-mail, chat room, social network site, blog, forum, and websites (Campbell,2005). Cyber

Traditional bullying has been happening for a long time, but cyberbullying is fairly new, and is becoming more popular. Bullying is repetitive, negative interactions with the intention of inflicting physical or emotional pain to the victim, or in any way making the victim feel bad about themselves (Jan & Husains, 2015). Due to advances in technology, a new form of bullying called cyberbullying had begun to grow in popularity. Cyberbullying is similar to traditional bullying in that the intent of the bully is the same, but cyberbullying is committed using the internet, or cell phones (Baraldsnes, 2015). There has been a connection that has been found between bullying and cyber bullying; and that is that some of the bullies will continue to attack the

However, it has also brought alone with it the dangers of cyber bullying. In today’s interconnected world, bullying poses a serious problem for countless teens. According to the UK 2013 annual bullying survey –taken by 2,000 teens- 69% of young people aged 13-22 had experienced cyber bullying, with 20% also having had extremes cases and were twice as likely to be bullies on Facebook than any other website. And although cyber bullying is fairly recent, and traditional bullying has been around for years, cyber bullying is actually more prevalent. Not only bullies have the ability to cyber bully, but also even those who are bullied can participate. Often times the bullied individual will take out their anger and callous frustrations online via cyber bullying. This is not right. We need to find more positive, non-technological outlets to express our emotions. Over time, our world is getting morally worse, we can be the generation to stop cyberbullying, and make a safer internet environment for our

Traditional bullying, which can include face-to-face, verbal or physical altercations, differs from cyberbullying in several ways (Smith et al, 2008; Slonje and Smith, 2008; Dilmac, 2009). For instance, cyberbullying introduces technology, such as the internet and mobile phones, into the equation, which provides a different route for the bully to target their

Internet usage in children and adolescents has been increasing in a steadily fashion in the past number of years and with the increase in internet usage, a new form of bullying has developed – Cyber bullying. Cyber bullying can be defined as “the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person,” (Merriam-Webster, 2012). This form of bullying can come through various mediums including but not limited to text messages, emails, videos, and social networking sites. There is an overwhelming amount of information that defines cyber bullying, identifies the demographics of bullies and victims of cyber bullying, and identifies the outcomes of cyber bullying on victims. More focus needs to be placed on who the perpetrators

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