The Pros And Cons Of 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.

Bullying is all over the world. Each year there is over 3.2 million victims being bullied. Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying.17% of American students report being bullied 2 to 3 times a month in a year. To many within a school semester. Since 2002, fighting behaviour has increased, especially in grades six to eight. Boys are more likely to start bullying because of being bullied in their past. Girls are most likely to cyberbully. Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. According to Gale, cyberbullying is the use of the Internet, smartphones, or other electronic communication devices to spread harmful or embarrassing information about another person, such as talking about people, telling other people’s

Since the beginning of time people have always had to deal with bullies. Just like anything else, however, things tend to evolve with technology. With the evolution of social media and technology some adolescents and even adults are simply unable to escape harassment from their peers in school and in the workplace. This social phenomenon is what has come to be known as cyberbullying.

Cyber-bullying, which describe an intrusion of ones’ privacy or a cyber-action that is intended to hurt others physically or verbally, has been occurring during the advanced period of technology, especially in the informative communication field. According to the Cyberbullying Research Center (Bullying Statistics, n.d.), it has been proven that eighty percent of teenagers have been using technology and half of them engaged in cyber-bullying. In other words, cyber-bullying includes direct attack to the society, such as harassment (Kean.edu, n.d.). There is a drastic increase of cyber-bullying around the world and it usually victimises teens who aged thirteen to seventeen (NCPC and HarrisInteractive, 2007). Researchers have proven that government

It is important to understand that technology has been the main source for these bullies to go from traditional bullying to cyber-bullying. Today, there is a significant changed because now teenagers own a device and have easy access to the use of technology. According to the Family Community Health (Kiriakidis & Kavoura, Volume 33, 2010) it is stated, “these methods of communication cannot always be monitored by parents who may not be as capable as their children in using information technology.” Technology has improved on many aspects over the last decade because before not many teenagers owned a phone nor did had easy access to the Internet. Teenagers have been known to be the victims of others to any type of harassment; through social media sources such as Facebook, Snap chat, Instagram and Twitter. The easy access of Internet has been the main reason in why this issue has evolved over the last two decades. According to the Universal Journal of Educational Research (Notar, Padgett, Roden Volume 1, 2011) “more than 97% of youths in the United States are connected to the Internet in some way. The number of children and teens who use the Internet at home is rapidly growing, with now over 66% of fourth to ninth graders able to go online from the comfort of their bedrooms.” It is clear that technology amongst teenagers and children has escalated tremendously over the last decade. The types of cyber bullying are harassment, flaming, exclusion, outing and masquerading. The easy

Traditional face-to-face bullying is a widespread act and has been found to take place in social contexts such as parks or schools, but with the increased use of technology, cyberbullying has become another platform for bullying to occur (Fanti, Demetriou, & Hawa, 2012). Cyberbullying is the act of harassing individuals via the internet or cellphones (Smith et al., 2008). Cyberbullying now allows bullies to victimize individuals from anywhere and at any time, creating an inescapability component (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Nuccitelli, 2012). Cyberbullying has become a serious issue for adolescents; in 2014 50% of adolescents reported having been cyberbullied and approximately 20% of adolescents reported recurring cyberbullying (NOBullying.com,

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

Surrounding the discourse around the subject of cyberbullying, it is imperative to not only address alternatives, but also to formulate recommendations on how to remedy this issue. In addition to the discussion within the report, a potential first recommendation to defeat the issue of cyberbullying is to make school systems the main point of contact for the conflict. A common factor when addressing the problem of cyberbullying is how heavily schools are involved in the scenario where cyberbullying is occurring. The student adolescents involved with cyberbullying fit the statistic that, “55 per cent of all teens that use social media have witnessed outright bullying online” (nobullying.com). Look for example at the case Jessica Logan mentioned previously in the discussion. This is a very extreme case where multiple high school students were involved in the cyber harassment of a female student. This would not have been the case if schools spread more awareness of the issue and inflicted some safety precaution. “Over 80 percent of teens use a cell phone regularly, making it the most popular form of technology and a common medium for cyber bullying, (http://www.bullyingstatistics.org).” With that being said I feel as though school programs should inforce that they take away the cell phones of students at the beginning of the school day and give it back to them at the end. Cell phones aren’t directly used too much in the classroom to begin. With it stripped away, it would take away the risk of having the group of students involved in cyberbullying and produce more engagement in the classroom at the same time.

With the use of technology becoming increasingly, students who use it to bully others ends up taking it to a whole another level by bullying outside of the school. Cyberbullying is defined as the use of technology such as e-mail, cell phones, and the internet by an individual or group of students who uses very bad behavior to harm another student (Bauman, 2008). Through cyberbullying, students will use verbal abuse to harass their peers and it is more common today than it was a couple of years ago. Since cyberbullying happens mostly outside of the school, students that are being bullied can still report the incident to a teacher, school counselor, parent, and the principal’s office. Since the use of cyberbullying is increasing, it seems that no one is doing enough to keep this from happening. For instance, students that are being cyberbullied are still feeling neglected due to the lack amount of help that they are receiving. Also, suicide rates for bullied students continue to keep going up as well.

In the year 1997, the first social media forum was created and used as a new way

It’s no secret that the generation born between the mid 90’s to present day have a huge technological advantage over previous generations. These progressions have made such a great impact on the education system, allowing students to be able to learn in a more effective manner; however, technology’s faults are only increasing as time passes. Within the last decade, it has become a trending issue that children are abusing technology to harass and bully others online. Bullying within school walls, while still a pressing issue, is beginning to be swept under the rug by cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can be defined as the “willful and repeated harm inflicted [on another] through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices” (Rice 66). Some may fault parents who allow their children to have the access to such technology. However, they are not completely at fault here. Given the ways schools interact with their students and the importance of schools ' role in shaping responsible citizens, schools are well situated to fight cyberbullying (Lane 1803). Regardless of the location (at school or at home), it cannot go unnoticed that the aftermath affects the behavior and success of students while they are present at school. For that reason, school administrators must be held accountable and take action to prevent this online phenomenon. The public education system can eliminate these online bullies by creating school policies, raising awareness, training staff members,

ccount and send damaging messages, pretending to be someone else online to hurt another person. Sexting, a circulating sexually suggestive pictures or messages, is reported that one in five teens have posted or sent sexually suggestive or nude pictures of themselves to others (“Cyber Bullying Statistics”). Taking unflattering pictures of a person and spreading them through cell phones or the internet. A statistic from the Harford County states that one in ten teens have had embarrassing or damaging pictures taken of themselves without their permission (“Cyber Bullying Statistics”). On Twitter, a social networking site, subtweeting is a new form of bullying. Subtweeting is the act of post a rude comment without the name of the person it is about (Hinduja). Usually the person who posted the tweet does not have the guts to tag the other person or say it to them in person. For example, a girl and a boy broke up and the boy went to twitter to express his feelings. He would post something emotional for the whole twitter world to see. In reality this, boy was talking about his old girlfriend and did not have the guts to say it straight to her.

Aside from being a distraction in the classroom, technological devices can be the main cause of cyberbullying in schools. A majority of cyberbullying now a days, happens on social medias such as: Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and through texting. By allowing phones and Ipods in schools, the chances of cyberbullying are increased. This year, many have seen this to be

We use technology in almost every aspect of our daily lives; it is how we stay connected in this fast-paced world. Technology provides many benefits, but it has the potential to destroy many people. With technology use on the rise, bullying has taken a new, more destructive form. Cyberbullying, as defined by the Cyberbullying Research Center, is the willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text (qtd. in Chait). Cyberbullying is a serious problem and has serious consequences.

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