Argumentative Essay On Cyberbullying

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“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit” (KJV, Proverbs 15: 4). Consider Phoebe Prince, a fifteen-year-old sophomore at South Hadley High, Massachusetts, who took her own life January 14, 2010 after “suffering a barrage of vicious taunts and vulgar insults” (Smolowe, April 26, 2010) from classmates. Phoebe, the victim of this case of cyberbullying, signed her text messages "Life is an opportunity in itself" (Smolowe, April 26, 2010). Left in the wake is a town recovering from the shock; parents concerned for their own children 's safety; school officials analyzing policy; and six students charged with felonies ranging from stalking to statutory rape. Regarding digital citizenship, International …show more content…

One of the dimensions that make this a difficult issue for administration to control is that cyberspace is forever changing. Thus providing bullies a multitude of avenues to dole out their damage. “Christian leaders can impact character thus this should be one of their goals” ( LU Presentation a, slide 2, 2010). Educational leaders need to learn the many facets of this new terror tactic. Methods include texting derogatory, harassing messages on mobile phones, with students showing the message to others before sending it to the target; sending threatening e-mails; and forwarding a confidential e- mail to all address book contacts, thus publicly humiliating the first sender; flaming; posting obscene, insulting, and slanderous messages to online bulletin boards, online exclusions; or developing Web sites to promote and disseminate defamatory content; outing, sexual in nature, such as publicize that a target is homosexual, whether true or not; hostile takeover of another person 's account; cyberstalking, entails a threat, or at least a belief, that the virtual stalking could become real stalking; and voting/polling booths. The latest trend involves teachers as victims. At Providence High School in Charlotte, NC on January 2008, the student charged used a Facebook message board to post a link to a website with the …show more content…

Christian leaders work hard to develop skill at giving wise advice. (LU Presentation b, slide 6, 2010). Difficulties in controlling cyberbullying arise because students are reluctant to report the abuse and the anonymity that the electronic world affords keeps the tormentors hidden. Juvonen and Gross (2008) indicated that the reason for not telling an adult, cited at equal rates across age and gender, was that participants believe they "need to learn to deal with it" themselves (50%). They were also afraid that parents might restrict internet

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