Taking a Look at Cyberbullying

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.

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

Societal norms in the United States in terms of adolescents utilizing the Internet once as an additional source of communication has become the primary mode of communication. Today, “92% of teens proclaim they go online daily to check popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter among others” (Lenhart 1). The alteration from physical communication to online communication has exposed a dangerous interaction for social relationships known as cyberbullying. In order to understand cyberbullying, it is critical to understand traditional bullying. Traditional bullying thrives off on aggressive behavior that is repetitive and involves a real or perceived power imbalance. Cyberbullying is a form of violence predominantly seen in teens that has the potential to lead to long-term harm. It involves the use of technology such as cell phones and the Internet with the primary objective of

It was given to students between the ages of 12 and 17, to find the extent of cyberbullying in the particular age bracket. Five different forms of bullying was reported, with insults having the highest percentage reported, embarrassing pictures being the lowest, and threats, privacy violation, and password theft in between. Almost 1/5 of the respondents reported repeated experiences, and 72% reported that they had been bullied online during the past year. In 2002, Finn (2004) documented survey results that 10 to 15% of 339 students at University of New Hampshire had experienced multiple e-mail or IM messages that “threatened, insulted or harassed” (pg. 2) them. A survey that was given to 666 students at a university in Turkey in 2009 was used to assess the psychological needs of the cyberbully. The results that were found from this survey were “that aggression and succorance positively predicted cyberbullying, but interception negatively predicted it” (pg. 2). Also, 22.5% of students reported that they had cyberbullied at least once, and 55.3% reported that they had been a victim of cyberbullying at least once in their lifetime (Dilmac, 2009). Technology is becoming more accessible to today’s youth, and more questions are arising because of this. Extended research is needed to focus on the increase of technology and its impact on the events that are rooted from

Cyberbullying is worse than physical bullying because the bully can remain anonymous and those being bullied have no safe haven. Bullying through the internet means the the bully can remain unknown. Because students are too nonchalant about their usernames and passwords, the bully could easily hack into another student’s account and take on their identity (Scott Meech, computer teacher) . Therefore, the bully would be untouchable and could remain a complete mystery. Due to the accessibility of the internet, a student could be bullied by anyone, anywhere and at any time of the day. This means that student is no longer safe from bullying by just going home. In fact, a 2006 survey revealed that

In their e-book, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard, Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin define Cyberbullying as: “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices” (36). Hinduja and Patchin are both Ph.D.’s, professors at universities, as well as primary researchers at the Cyberbullying Research Center. The research and community outreach that they are involved in could greatly reduce the number of cyberbullying cases worldwide. Cyberbullies typically operate through social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to harass, intimidate, threaten, embarrass or otherwise target an individual. Cyberbullying is awfully prevalent nowadays and it is a far bigger issue than most people realize. It is an issue that is quickly growing; as there are hundreds of thousands of people signing on to use these networks for the first time every day. According to NoBullying.com, 25% of teenagers report that they have experienced repeated bullying via their cell phone or on the Internet, while 52% report having experienced it at least

Being in one of the first generations to deal with the roaring wave of social media has had a huge impact on my life. I have been personally affected by the most common form of bullying in 2015; cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is an underrated and, I think, the most effective and harmful way for someone to bully another. Those that have not been affected believe that someone can just “turn the screen off”. It’s not that easy, and I know from first hand experiences. Almost my entire childhood was filled with bullying on Facebook. Now, I see it everywhere on sites like Twitter on a daily basis. Cyberbullying can lead to self-harm, depression, or worse. As a survivor of serious bullying, I know the cost that it can have on someone. Person-to-person

Why can some people be so nice face to face, but when they go online they become a whole different person with a whole new attitude? People who could complement what someone looks like one day, but the next day say bad stuff about them over the computer. Cyberbullies are all over the internet, but many do not see them as that.

Millions of comments get posted every day. Some are bound to be offensive. some democratic senators want to make a law against cyberbullying. The law includes trolling and flaming. Although some people may argue that it is necessary to protect kids, if someone is getting bullied there is always a block button. Some reasons that this bill is impractical are that it can burden the court system, restrict freedom of speech, and even discourage responsibilities.

"Have you ever been called something inappropriate online, or seen something nasty online? Internet Content in this society has gotten so bad. People basically just go online to bash others and talk bad about people because they're different. Which includes me, because if being different is illegal, I might as well be in jail. Being different is okay, being the same is whats bad. Why bash people, it doesn't make sense? Do you think it makes you cool? do you think it's funny? yes? tell that to the 4,000 kids who commit suicide every year due to your snarky comments.

Bullying doesn’t just happen on the playground or in the workplace; it has now taken over the Internet and popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The term for online bullying is referred to as “cyber-bullying”. “Cyber-bullying is defined as the use of email, cell phones, text messages, and Internet sites to threaten, harass, embarrass, or socially exclude” (Patchin, 2015). Much like the face-to-face bullying some may encounter in school can cause physical harm to someone, cyber-bullying causes emotional harm to children and adults across the globe. Cyber-bullying comes in many different forms, from spreading false rumors online, commenting on someone’s appearance in a picture posted on social media, to sharing intimate/sexual photographs of someone without their consent/permission. This issue has become a serious problem as it has resulted in children experiencing mental/emotional harm as well as committing suicide because of what the emotional distress it left them in (Notar, Padgett, & Roden, 2013).

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

More than 1 and 3 teens have experienced cyberbullying in some way. Bullying among teens in the United States had become an increased problem since the invention of the Internet only several decades ago. Teens use their access to the internet to target other teens that might have emotional struggles already. Bullies use social networking sites, such as Twitter, to send off bad messages about their peers for everyone acquainted with the bully to see. The harsh comments eventually come out at school, making it an environment the victim can’t learn in. Schools should be able to get involved with cyberbullying problems because of the harm being done to the victims. Cyberbullying should be a criminal offense because cyberbullying alone can be even more traumatizing than traditional forms of bullying. Cyberbullying is often overlooked just because it isn't physical. This act of bullying causes and provokes an emotional issues and self harm.

As the use of technology continues to increase, the disadvantages also continue to increase. In today’s time, everyone has a smart phone, or access to the internet. In adolescents, 24% of teens are on social media almost constantly and 71% are active on at least one social media site per week (Lenhart, 2015). Within the last decade cyber bullying has become the newest form of bullying, while 9% of students in grades 9-12 have experienced bullying, 15% of high school studens, alone have experienced cyberbullying in the last year (“Stop Bullying”). Adolescents are typically targeted on the internet by those who have been bullied before, to gain power, or to get revenge on someone. Cyberbullying has harmful psychological impacts on adolescents. Those whom are cyberbullied are at a higher risk for depression and feeling sad and lonely. Adolescents are also likely to struggle mentally, physically, and socially.

Cyberbullying is growing and becoming one of the leading causes of teen suicide. Cyberbullying occurs when a person posts or messages someone in a negative way online. It can include threats, harassment, and even smearing someone’s name by spreading lies. The web’s anonymity provides the perfect cover for bullies to harass classmates or even mere strangers. Cyberbullying is usually not a hit and run, bullies target one teen and insult or spread rumors about them, not realizing that if caught, they are setting themselves up for criminal charges. Also, many bullies do not understand the effects their actions have on the victim, and how significant they are. Cyberbullying is a severe form of psychological abuse, and it can lead to short and