The Problem of Cyberbullying

Bullying is a situation where one person abuses power over another. Bullying is about power, control and abuse. Bully’s come in all shapes, sizes and forms. Bullying occurs throughout a human’s life span. The most-critical development stage of one’s personality is adolescence. Bullying during adolescence has been a major issue in every community. Bullying can happen in three known forms; direct, indirect, and cyber. Both gender and sexual orientation are associated with all forms of bullying. Bullying affects self-esteem and family cohesion.

While cyber-bullying is a

Cyberbullying is when psychological harm is done through the use of electronics such as computers, cell phones, e-mail, social networking, and instant messaging (Clancy 579-582; Hanel, Trolley 33). However, in addition to the verbal behaviors, cyberbullying can happen when someone posts pictures or videos without the consent of the other person, creates hate websites of the victim, makes web pages posing as the victim, and such (Hinduja, Patchin, “Traditional and Nontraditional” 728; Willard 1). Cyberbullying is done two ways: direct and indirect. Direct cyberbullying is when such material is sent directly from the bully to the victim. Indirect cyberbullying is when the bullying is done through another person, another person’s screen name or cell phone, anonymously, or by hacking

What is cyberbullying? Cyberbullying is, “Writing hurtful statements on a social media site or website” according to “What is Cyberbullying?” published by the Ophelia Project. Regular bullying is usually face-to-face and usually ending with someone getting physically harmed. Cyberbullying is only hurting someone’s feelings not physically harming them. “If the child in question can’t handle... [their feelings getting

Cyber Bullying is defined by the National Crime Prevention Council as - "when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person" (National Crime Prevention Council).

Bullies may abuse their victims verbally, physically, or psychologically. Bullying may involve name-calling, pushing or hitting, or preventing an individual from joining a social group or participating in an activity. It may also involve harassing, embarrassing, or threatening a person using cell phones, text-messaging devices, interactive games, instant messages, or websites. This type of bullying is called cyberbullying (Funk & Wagnalls). Unlike traditional bullying, which is most likely to occur at school, cyberbullying can occur anywhere that children and youth have access to technology, leaving targets accessible to perpetrators at any time of the day or night. Although bullying is often associated with children, bullying of adults by adults is just as pervasive and harmful. Adult bullies are characterized as often being subtle in their attack by starting harmful rumors or by using sarcastic or demeaning language to dominate or embarrass, being self-centered, lacking empathy for others, spontaneous in their attacks, and/or using the threat of attack (as opposed to using physical violence or actions) as a means to frighten and demonstrate power (Kowalski).

Bullying is about lack of power as one person is powerless to stop the teasing or form of abuse. Bullying is the selective, uninvited, repetitive oppression of one person by another person or group. Similarly, cyber-bullying is defined as ‘the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.’ In the end, we must conclude that any type bullying is still considered bullying.

During these days, bullying was thought more of an innocent ‘misbehavior’ and was part of a normal childhood’s behavior. Although it did happen, it was never really a huge ordeal, so there was not a word described for this kind of behavior, so it was thought little of during this time. However, bullying went on the rise during the twenty-first century. Bullying was not recognized until the nation heard of a few cases of suicide due to severe harassment and finally realized that this is an occurring problem in our nation. As technology has advanced, bullying has now taken over online and has become a major issue as well. Several cases have become so dreadful that cyber bullying had become its own category in the different types of

Pushing, shoving, name calling, teasing. When one reads these words, the first thing that we might associate it with is bullying. Whether or not we have experienced it ourselves, we have at least heard about it. However, as technology advances, so does the method of bullying. Today in our world that is run by technology, the modern method of bullying is called cyber bullying. The most recent definition of this is, “…………………This type of bullying allows the perpetrator to hide behind a computer screen or a phone screen and harass their victims without the need to meet face to face. This causes a new problem to arise in our public schools. Traditional bullying taking place at school was easy to spot and see; therefore, immediate punishment

The difference between bullying and cyberbullying is important and maybe not be as simple as originally thought.

“Cyber bullying is defined as using the computer or other electronic devices to intimidate, threaten or humiliate another individual,” Admin October 13th, 2008. As the

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

Technology can be used in many ways to cyber bully. Barnardos released a booklet in 2012 outlining a number of key risk factors of cyber bullying. Personal intimidation includes actions such as sending out threatening text messages, posting abusive and threatening comments on the victim’s Facebook profiles or other websites and the use of instant messaging in chat rooms etc. to threaten the victim further. Impersonation involves setting up fake profiles and web pages that are attributed to the victim; this also involves hacking or gaining access to the victims profile to contact or instant message others. Exclusion encompasses blocking an individual from a class group or community group on a social media website. Personal humiliation is a behaviour that involves posting images or videos of the victim that are intended to embarrass or humiliate them. This can be done on Facebook or by text messaging etc. And lastly false reporting, this is where the bully reports the victim to the service provider for a range of behaviours with a view to having the account suspended, blocked or deleted (Get With It, 2012).

Bullying is a bad thing but the worst of all the types of bullying is cyber bulling, it is a terrible weapon that can destroy someone's life and reputation. Cyber bullying is a part of bullying in which a person torments or harasses other people in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner, with technology. It has had a much greater effect on the world more than the traditional way of bullying.

What is a bully? A bully is a person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker. There are many types of bullying. There is verbal bullying when someone is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes teasing, name-calling, inappropriate sexual comments, and threatening to cause self harm. Another form of bullying is social bullying. It involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationship. Social bullying includes spreading rumors about someone, telling other children not to be friends with someone, and embarrassing someone in public. Then there is physical bullying which involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. Which includes hitting or kicking, tripping, taking or breaking someone’s things.