Cyberbullying and E-Safety: What Educators and other Professionals Need to Know

There is debate over these social networking sites; do the benefits outweigh the dangers? Some people argue that social networking sites promote increased communication with friends and family, familiarize people with valuable computer skills, and allow contact and interactions with people from around the world. Others argue that these sites expose children to predators, increase vulnerability to computer viruses, lower worker productivity, and promote narcissism and short attention spans. Social networking sites entice people to spend more time online and less time involved in face-to-face interaction. On an average day it is said that American’s waste about 17% of their day on the internet interacting on social media and networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace. The popularity of these sites has more than

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.

“Professor Campbell said the study showed 59 percent of the children participants felt face-to-face bullying was worse for them than being cyberbullied.”(Face-To-Face Bullying Worse Than Cyber-attacks) It is understandable that traditional bullying causes physical harm but what this argument does not take into account is that there are more factors than just physical harm. It doesn’t take the victim to be physically harmed for them to become emotionally distressed. Cyberbullying increases the risk of anxiety, depression, and suicide. Cyber bullying has a long lasting effect on the

Emotional distress is probably the biggest difference between cyberbullying and traditional bullying. Cyberbullying is a very serious matter. Journal of School Health Association Stassen, Berger noted, “almost every student is threatened occasionally. Consequently, most of the victims will find protective strategies who suffer from anxious, aggression, or irritation. Accordingly, this may cause teenagers to become victims” (647). The emotional effect of cyber bullies to their victims has increased the risk of depression, social isolation, and obesity. Moreover, the victims become powerless with daily harassment online with no control, they have suicidal thoughts. Although, traditional bullying have a similar serious impact of emotional distress.

Cyberbullying, intentional aggression through means of digital technology, is slowly becoming recognized as a social problem that needs to be addressed. This new form of bullying, emerged with the information and communication revolution during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Cyberbullying occurs largely through communication devices; cyberbullies harass their victims “by sending photos, text messages, e-mail, instant messages, and video through cell phones, personal digital assistants, and computers” (Swartz 2009). Since there was an initial gap between those who grew up with the new forms of communication technology and those of the older generation who had not adapted, the threat of cyberbullying was often left unchecked

Bullying is everywhere and with the recent stories about the most violent cases it is becoming so public, a new major issue has been found for in our nation. The tolls of years of bullying are effectively pushing victims into two corners. The victims either seek out help and fight back or fall in deeper and resort to self harm. Whatever it maybe be, it's everywhere. Bullying has found a new home on the internet. Cyberbullying is so common in today's society. Teenagers spend most of their time on social media sites and those sites are perfect for potential cyber bullying. One in ten teens go to parents for help when cyberbullying is involved.

Generations after generations teens have used the actions of bullying to hurt others they felt as a threat or to be in the “in crowd” of popularity. Traditional bullying was physical and thus confined to face-to-face contexts. However, with the development of widespread social interaction via social media websites, email, and text-messaging, teens have additional avenues of expression and, as a result, other means of bullying. Over time the bullying taking place using digital means has come to be known as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has brought the evilness out of teen’s actions, words, and thoughts whether they were the bully or the victim. Equally important, the ending results of these actions, words and thoughts have brought death,

Online users are bullied on social media sites. In “The Dangers of Cyberbullying“, author Christopher B. Davison describes cyberbullying as an agressive, intentional act distributed by an individual or group, using contact in an electronic medium continously and relentlessly against someone else who can’t stand up for their rights (Davison 595). Technology affects bullying in a lot of different forms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr or any other form of online communication. Kovalski and Limber discovered that instant messaging (66.6%) is used most frequently for cyberbullying (598). With the increasing use of the internet cyberbullying is likely to be a growing problem. Lenhart found that 68% of students use the Internet during schoolhours for bullying actions(596). Additionally adolescents use the internet 17 hours on average, with some spending up to

Many negative effects are outcomes of cyber bullies. The impact cyber bullying has on kids is detrimental. Victims can develop psychological problems. For example, victims begin having anxiety, lower self-esteem, and frustration. They may also be diagnosed with depression. It’s tough to ignore cyber bullying. Compared to school bullies, internet bullies cause their victim more emotional pain. Children and teenagers are able to escape school bullies when they return home. However targets of cyber bullying don’t have that advantage.

More importantly, cyberbullying has deeper influence than physical bullying because it may involve in a wide range of audiences within short time period and give high pressure to victims psychologically. For the traditional physical bullying, it refers to the physical altercations or perhaps verbal abuse from others, so victims of traditional physical bullying might feel safe at home, which can be limited the bullying in the place. Even though someone is injured due to physical bullying, the wound is curable, and won’t leave a trace. However, the cyberbullying is a kind of bullying popping up in cyber space, so the victims can be attacked from anywhere at any time through the network (Yalda, Psychology in Action), so the victim would leave an incurable shadow. In 2006, an American Educational Research Association study shows that the number of people who prefer to harass other online was twice as the number of people who would bully others face-to-face (Scott). Some researchers made further analysis with 7200 U.S. 6-10th grade students and shows that that “The cyber bullying victims exhibited higher rates of depression regardless of frequency” (“Bullying Statistics”). If a person browses Facebook or Twitter and watches some

Cyberbullying is bullying which occurs via utilization of electronic technology; electronic technology incorporates apparatuses and paraphernalia for instance cellular phones, computers, and tablets in addition to communication instruments which embrace social broadcasting sites, text messages, chat, and websites. Illustrations of cyberbullying include a derogatory text messages or emails, rumors sent through email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or counterfeit profiles. (StopBullying.gov)

Merrill and Hanson (2016) found that bullying has different forms, such as direct, indirect, and bullying through the internet, known as cyber bullying. All forms of bullying affects the life of the victim, his/her family and the community severely. Therefore, parents, children, and adolescence are all needed to

Life should be the creation of beauty, happiness, and sincerity. However, our generation has slowly diminished and turned away from these ideals. One of the ways this is done is through the form of cyberbullying. “Cyberbullying is when someone uses technology to threaten, harass, embarrass, or target another person publicly” (New, 2012, p.1). The majority of cyberbullying occurs among young teens and who adults often used what is now extremely accessible to all, a cell phone. Most commonly, cyberbullying can be seen via text or more predominately on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and twitter. Cyberbullying includes many cyber crimes such as cyber-harassment and cyber-stalking. Most cases of cyber bullying happen in schools or in the child’s home with the use of a cell phone or computer. Open innovation generally utilized for cyberbullying are no more only a PC or portable workstation, however now, have extended to telephones, tablets, and even game systems. Anyone that has access to these devices can be a cyberbully or a victim of cyberbullying (New, 2012, p.1). By definition, “Cyberbullying is used to describe the misuse of technology between children” (New, 2012, p.1). However, the definition of cyberbullying is not interchangeable when referring to adults and children. “When an adult misuses the internet to hurt others, this is considered as cyber- harassment or cyber stalking, which can lead to jail time, if found guilty” (New, 2012, p.1). This paper is

This type of bullying has the potential to lead to many health problems in an individual. Victims of cyberbullying are more likely to turn to drugs or alcohol at a young age to escape the pain they are feeling (“Cyberbullying”). This type of behavior changes the person through and through. They are now dependent on a substance to subside their pain that has been inflicted on them. Another health problem that has been linked to cyberbullying is having abdominal pains and headaches (Drummond). These victims have so much anxiety due to the torture they are facing their bodies are reacting in an unhealthy way. Insomnia has also been connected to this type of bullying (Drummond). This may be because adolescents are unaware of when another rumor or piece of private information about them is going to be published. 34% of teenagers are said to be the victims of cyberbullying in a study conducted by Finnish researchers which shows that these victims are more likely to have abdominal pains, and suffer from insomnia (Drummond). If the bullying continues more problems are likely to develop in the individual, physically or mentally.

Technology has arguably had one of the greatest impacts on our society in the past decade. It has integrated itself from only a few elements in life to now countless different ways and methods of usage throughout day to day activities (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). There has been a steady increase in technology use not only with teenagers, but also adults. An aspect that is also on the rise with technology is the use of the internet (Lenhart et al., 2010). Some of the most popular uses of the internet include online shopping, reading news outlets, researching economic and health information, social media, and countless other means. Of the variety of uses for the internet, one of the most common is social networking; almost three-fourths of individuals between the ages of 18-29 frequently use a social networking website (Lenhart et al., 2010). Whether it is updating a profile or posting a photo, a common theme between the different forms of social networking and technology is communication.