Going to a new school in Massachusetts, all the way from Ireland, Phoebe Prince is ready to start a new life and make new friends. Not everything always workes out in her favor, though. As soon as Prince starts dating the star football player, the threats start flowing in. The constant torments at school leave her lonely and depressed, and when she got home, it never stopped. She was getting never ending text messages and the torments didn’t stop there. Phoebe was constantly getting harassed through social networking sites, such as Facebook. High school is supposed to be the time of her life, but she is only able to live one year of it because she takes her own life relentlessly. Cyber bullying is a problem that affects almost half of American teens (NCPC 1). Adult authorities should enact strict rules to protect vulnerable children from suffering the effects of the modern threat of cyber bullying.
Although technology makes it difficult to identify the real perpetrator, the expansion of technology throughout the years has recently made cyber bullying a more prominent factor. From Myspace to Facebook to Formspring to Twitter, cyber bullying makes its way over the entire internet, and will not stop for anything. The rise of networking sites, personal Web pages and blogs brimming with the minutiae of teens antics and angst has helped to create a rich climate for cyber mayhem: Locker-room photos snapped with cell phones and broadcast on the Internet, fake profiles created on social-networking sites, salacious rumors spread in chat rooms, threats zapped across town in instant messages (Billitteri 4). They warn that young people on these sites are more likely to be the victims of cyber bullying and that they are also vulnerable to pr...
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...y, has a very strict Internet usage policy with certain sites, like Myspace, blocked so students cannot access them (Cyber Bullying 3).
Cyber bullying causes destruction to not only the victim’s life, but the loved ones of the victim as well. With the modern day technology that increases every day, cyber bullying will keep growing without the strict anti-bullying laws that need to be enforced not only in select states, but in all. Schools need to be more open-eyed to what children are doing during school hours and being strict that their acts don’t follow them home. Parents need to teach their children better habits and respectful manners so that when they are confronted with others, it is less likely they will be a bully to them. With all these minor improvements that can be made, cyber bullying can be diminished very easily if everyone helps out every day.
In her article “How the Internet Has Changed Bullying”, Maria Konnikova explained how bullying has reached technology, and in the workplaces of many adults. The Internet has made it harder to escape from bullying, and easier for bullies to escape from confronting their victims. Furthermore, the author stresses that cyberbullying not only targets high schoolers, but it’s affecting the lives of college students as well (Konnikova 1). Cyberbullying takes place in the Internet world where is easier for a bully to gossip and humiliate multiple of victims in a faster pace. The studies have shown that cyberbullying is making a greater impact in the victims’ and the bullies’ lives more than the traditional bullying and many people are not aware of it; therefore the schools, witnesses, and employers should work together to fight against cyberbullying and provide help to the victims and bullies.
“Over the course of three months, Prince was verbally abused — publicly and in Facebook posts. She was threatened with physical abuse and received hostile text messages. On the last day of her life, Jan. 14, 2010, some of her tormentors drove by in a car, called her an Irish slut, and suggested that she go kill herself. She did.” (Huus). Phoebe Prince was an ordinary High School teenager who wanted nothing more than to fit in and live a normal teenage life, but because of harassment and embarrassment her life was cut short. Instead of focusing on how to prevent this type of bullying, people are focusing on how to punish the bully and deal with the incident after it happens. The internet is a fairly new thing, and it is not going away anytime soon; therefore, students need to be educated on cyberbullying and somehow shown how it can impact their life or someone else’s. Also students should be monitored when using computers and other technology that allows them access to the internet, and students need to take responsibility while facing the consequences for their actions online.
“About one third of all teenagers who use the internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities – such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online” (Amanda Lenhart). Cyberbullying is bullying that occurs using electronics such as cell phones, computers, and social media websites. Cyberbullying can include mean text messages, embarrassing pictures of others on social media, or fake profiles. The internet continues to be the most democratic of mass media. Anyone can use the internet and create a website
Each year, schools are having to update the Codes of Conduct in order to keep up with the bullying that is occurring on social media. Schools have failed to effectively monitor and take action upon what these students have been doing to others and what others do in return. This has resulted in many lost lawsuits, in which schools were held liable for not taking appropriate action on what occurs outside of campus. School districts therefore must take more responsibility over what happens to the students, on and off campus. Districts argue that such instances are outside of the school’s control, however these victims are still their students. In the case of Ryan Halligan, a teenage boy who committed suicide at the young age of 13, Albert D. Lawton
This sort of phenomenon makes major headlines regularly in recent times and effects a clear majority of today’s youth. State and local lawmakers have taken steps to prevent this type of bullying by making illegal under several criminal law codes. Michele Hamm, a researcher in pediatrics explained, “There were consistent associations between exposure to cyberbullying and increased likelihood of depression.” Cyberbullying became widespread among students with the rapid growth in use of cellular devices and the Internet. With this kind of technology bullies have the ability to send harmful messages to their recipients at any given time. This type of bullying is the hardest to control because it involves students but often happens off school grounds. However, because the evidence is material, students and parents could bring this evidence to the school and local police departments if a situation were to happen. Parents should be mindful of their child’s use of the internet and electronic messaging, cyberbullying usually takes place in a medium in which adults are seldom present (Mason, 2008). Also, instead of sending direct messages to other students, bullies use platforms such as social media and anonymous blogs to post harmful things for others to see. Educators must understand the significance of social media use to their students, especially
Technology has given individuals the opportunity to change the game of bullying. Cyber-bullying is one of the most common forms of bullying as of today. The Internet has no boundaries so the public has access to endless and countless number of things. Cyber-bully is the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person (as a student) often done anonymously according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. While traditionally bullying and cyber-bullying are very comparable in forms of technique that also have many differences. Cyber-bullying gives the bully the benefit of hiding their identity behind a screen. This makes it easier to tear people down because they do not have to come in contact with anyone. It’s the easiest form of bullying. These can happen in text messages, chat rooms, email, websites, excluding people from certain online activities, digital photos, and social media. Cyber bullies have unlimited supplies of ways to hurt someone. It is difficult to conduct a study on cyber-bullying because the majority of people will not confess or admit to it. Instead, in the article “Cyber-bullying among adolescents: Measures in search of a construct.” Researchers sit and listen through the grapevine on what is going on inside of schools. They found out that cyber-bullying is more dealt with within adolescents than traditional interaction bullying. (Mehari, K. R., Farrell, A. D., & Le, A. H.) Cyber-bullying can cause more
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, limited yet undefined punishable consequences if pursued, and slowly progressing methods to control cyberbullying as a whole.
Because cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon, there is some degree of variance in its definition. In its early inception, cyberbullying was thought to be limited to the internet. However, the rapid creation of new technology tolls has expanded the boundaries to include cell phones, instant messaging, chat rooms, and email (Campfield, 2006). Campfield (2006) conducted a study of middle school students to determine the incidence rates of cyberbullying. She found that nearly 70% of students were involved in cyberbullying in some capacity, as a bully or victim. In a similar study, Li (2007) found that 39% of students have been involved in cyberbullying, while 52% were aware of a peer being harassed through electronic m...
The physical abuse that used to happen in the halls and on the playgrounds is no more. Time has changed bullying into a twenty-four hour, seven day a week, occurrence. The pain these children are suffering, from being bullied over the web, is not something you can put an ice pack over. The psychological hurting is what gets to them. The agony these children endure is just as real, and may be even more excruciating to bear. With cyber bullying becoming a sweeping problem for children, there needs to be a solution. Adults, educators, legislators, and even children need to prevent this type o...
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 of this form of violence are and how this form of violence is linked to traditional bullying. This will allow researchers and practitioners to move forward with research and implementation preventative methods and intervention once the problem has already occurred.
Cyberbullying has risen since the inception of social media sites and the rise of the internet. While the statistics regarding cyberbullying vary widely, anywhere from ten to forty percent or more of adolescents have reportedly been bullied online. The percentage of those on social media, like Facebook, has an even gre...
As we are living in the age of technology, we are seeing our youth being victimized by a new phenomenon of bullying, called cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is defined as the use of information and communication technologies such as email, cell phones and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate repeated and hostile behavior by an individual or group, which is intended to harm others. Cyberbullying can also employ media such as PDAs, blogs, and social networks (Beckstrom, 2008). This form of bullying is progressive because it can happen instantly due to the technology involved, whereas traditional bullying tends to take longer to evolve and happens
A safe supportive school climate can also help prevent cyber bullying. A tone of respect and trust can help the student share their feelings. The misuse of technology begins with the school culture and education. The school culture “sets the stage for everything that happens within the school” and affects every aspect. Student engagement, collaboration to prioritize challenges and opportunities, setting goals, action planning, assessing attitude and engaging in openness are the six characteristics that can help build a positive school culture (Taylor & Fratto, 2012, pp. 54-58). It’s also important to educate students about the misuse of technology, the consequences and dependency. The power of blogs, social networking and interacting with a larger audience have to be monitored. Students need to be instructed earlier on password, safety, security and sharing information on the internet. Reviewing digital citizenship can not only help prevent cyber bulling, buy it can also help detect
Stutzky suggests that cyber bullying is the use of modern communication technologies to embarrass, humiliate, threaten, or intimidate an individual in the attempt to gain power and control over them. Bullying has been around since the beginning of time. These days however, bullying isn’t just happening on the playground, it’s happening on the internet and mobile phones, making it possible to bully a child 24 hours a day. Cyber bullying follows children around the clock and into the safety of their own bedrooms. A recent survey by MindOh!, an educational company that follows youth trends, reported that nearly 80% of the 5,500 teens that were surveyed said that they had been exposed to cyber bullying. Cyber bullying affects the mental health of so many young adolescents around the world, and the issue is steadily increasing as more and more ways to bully are created.In extreme incidents, cyber bullying has led teenagers to suicide. Most victims, however, suffer shame, embarrassment, anger, depression and withdrawal. While technology continues to evolve, new means of communication enable today’s bullies to become more effective in terrorizing and tormenting their victims. The aim was to increase awareness and decrease the prevalence of cyber bullying- Year 9 at Meridan State College being the stakeholders (people involved).
The online bully’s goal is to make their target feel weak; these online bullies can be referred to as a cyber bully. Cyber bullying is the exercise of using technology to embarrass, threaten, harass, or target another person; according to its definition it occurs among young people (New, 4). It is usually performed by a child’s peers and surprisingly occurs early as the second grade (Jacobs 1). Cyber bullying can even be unintentional, especially through the use of emails, IMs, and text messages because the tone of the sender may be hard to depict. However, recurring emails, online posts, and texts are hardly ever unintentional (124). As the number of youths increase that have the availability to technology, cyber bullying is likely to continue to rise and continue to take its toll on youth. Due to its excessive effect that it has on children today, Cyber bullying should be taken more seriously.