Every day, there are an average of 117 suicides per day according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. September 13, 2013 would have claimed the life of one additional person. Samantha had woken up on around noon on the warm summer day. She had skipped her classes for the day and had no intentions of getting out of bed. The past month she had a nonstop cycle of crying and sleeping. At the age of 18, she weighed just under 100 pounds and suffered from anorexia and had no intentions of bettering herself. Her hip bones stuck out through her 5’4 physique and she was barely able to stand for long periods of time without her frail legs becoming weak. Her once luscious, rich brown hair had begun to bald from the stress she endured. Despite …show more content…
According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, over thirty-eight percent of student will find themselves to be a victim of cyberbullying. Adolescent girls are significantly more likely to find themselves to be a victim with nearly 40.6% of girls saying they have experience cyberbullying. The effects of cyberbullying were expanded in an article entitled, “Parental Mediation, Online Activities, and Cyberbullying,” written by Dr. Gustavo S. Mesch. “There is growing evidence that victimization has negative effects on adolescents’ well-being. Victims of online bullying displayed low school commitment, engaged in alcohol and cigarette consumptions, and about one third of the harassed felt at least one symptoms of psychological stress” (Mesch 388). During her freshman and sophomore year of high school, Samantha was the popular girl. She was on the cheerleading team and had many friends, at least she thought. After being cyberbullied extensively by the cheerleading team and her ex-boyfriend’s friends, she had stopped attending cheerleading. In fact, she did not attend any clubs she had once been in. Her experiences after being cyberbullied directly correlate with Dr. Mesch’s findings. She had started participating less in school and her once good grades had turned into failing grades. She had become involved with alcohol,
Cyberbullying is a very controversial matter. People are starting to say that cyberbullies should be prosecuted for their actions. First of all, there are more important crimes to focus on like murder and theft than just prosecuting a kid who said something “offensive” to another kid. Also, the First Amendment protects cyberbullies to have freedom of speech and say stuff to other kids. To add on, just because someone “excludes” another kid form not joining a group, does not mean that they should be criminally prosecuted. If people are being cyberbullied, they should not use social media much.
Cyberbullying is no exception to this statistic. The two writers also stated that “There have been several high-profile cases involving teenagers taking their own lives in part because of being harassed and mistreated over the Internet (Apollo, 2007; Halligan, 2006; Jones, 2008), a phenomenon recently termed cyberbullicide—suicide indirectly or directly influenced by experiences with online aggression,” (Hinduja and Patchin, 2007). These cases are not a constant issue in every school, but they have happened frequently enough to raise attention to faculty and parents. With adolescents being at such a sensitive age, it is important to remind them that the actions they take can have serious consequences, including
This research paper was written to investigate and analyze the problem of cyberbullying in adolescence. Its intentions are to clarify the reasons behind bullying behavior and how cyberbullying can affect those undergoing the various stages of adolescence. Cyberbullying, although not as pretentiously threating as physical bullying in schools, it plays a tremendous role in influencing adolescents media-wise. Research has been conducted with various journal articles by professionals in fields ranging from criminology, political science, and doctors of philosophy. The research used in supporting how cyberbullying affects adolescence include: the study of adolescents’ health, the amount of media female adolescents use, and the reasoning for those
Since Teen suicide is the second leading cause of teenage death in the United States, there is a need for legislation that promotes awareness and education about Cyber-Bullying. Due to the growth of technology in the American society, the younger generations of adolescents are adapting to the excessive use of computers, cell phones, and social-networking sites. According to a study done by Amanda Lenhart, 87% of adolescents who are between the ages of 12 and 17 are using the internet on a daily basis (Trolley, Shields, and Hanel, “Demystifying and Deescalating Cyber Bullying in the Schools”).With these numbers increasing across the nation, the numbers of adolescents being harassed through technology means is growing as well. The relationship between cyber bullying and teenage suicide has been named “cyber bullycide”. Studies show that 1/3 of teenagers who have used the internet have stated that they have received threatening or offensive messages either through text, e-mail, IM, and other technology related programs. In 2007 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially labeled “electronic aggression” being cyber bullying as an “emerging public health problem” (Billitteri 387).
Bullies have been around a long time, but the advancement in technology gives these bullies a whole new platform. Cyberbullying is the act of harming or harassing via information technology networks in a repeated and deliberate manner. Sometimes cyberbullying is easy to spot, for instance if a child shows their parent a direct tweet or message which is viewed as harsh, rude or even threatening (Kids Health From Nemours, 2016). In other cases, it is not as easy to spot, like impersonating a victim online or posting personal or embarrassing information. Cyberbullying causes psychological, emotional and physical stress. Each person’s response to bullying is different and unique, but more often than not, youth who are bullied have a higher risk of depression and anxiety (Kids Health From Nemours,
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
Middle school is a transitional period where students are going through many changes physically and emotionally that affect their well being. They are breaking away from the comforts of elementary school and are transitioning into young adults with more responsibility and independence than before. It is also a time where many adolescents are learning about themselves and are experiencing new emotions and may face periods of insecurity and low self esteem. New forms of online bullying have become worrisome for today’s middle schoolers, teachers, and parents. Cyber bullying which occurs online and on various social media platforms has been linked to negative affects on adolescents mental health and behavior. Cyber bullying has become a new challenge
With the vastly advancing technology growing every day, cyberbullying is becoming a constant issue among teens and adolescents. A simple text, tweet, post, or video is all that it takes to ruin an individual's self-esteem. The Internet has become a tool for many different things, but unfortunately many individuals have chosen it to anonymously bullying other individuals. Cyberbullying is something one can never escape, due to that it can happen twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Anything can be posted anonymously and can become wide-spread within minutes. The U.S Department of Health and Human Services states, “Kids who are cyber bull...
Reports by the Bureau of Justice indicate that 28% of middle and high school students experience traditional bullying, with 18% experiencing cyberbullying. Traditional bullying has been defined as “intentional aggressive behavior repeated over time…when supervision is at a minimum” (Simmons & Bynum, 2014, p. 452-453). Cyberbullying has been defined as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices” (Patchin & Hinduja, 2010, p. 615). Face-to-face and virtual bullying have grown to such proportions that the U.S. Department of Education has referred to bullying as an “urgent social, health, and education concern” (p. 789). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The American
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.
“Unless and until our society recognizes cyberbullying for what it is, the suffering of thousands of silent victims will continue”─ Anna Maria Chavez (n.d). The rapid progression of technology has turned into fundamental part of the everyday lives of individuals globally. Although this phenomenon offers life change general society wish, it has serious drawbacks that rapidly increased cyberbullying among teenagers. Strom and Strom (2005) define cyberbullying as an act of threatening or harming others via technological devices such as emails, mobile phone messages, online voting booths, and social networking sites. The cyber bully typically covers up "behind the mask of anonymity" (Schneier cited in Strom & Strom, 2005, p.22) through nonexistent screen names, display pictures, and fake email address which spare them from sentiments of regret and sympathy. This paper aims to argue that although the booming of the digital stage of the 21st century offers many benefits among teenagers, it requires effective methodologies to promote security against the growing threat of cyberbullying.
Before students only had to worry about being bullied at school, but due to technology advances and the use of social media, teenagers can be bullied twenty four- seven. Cyberbullying causes a huge impact on students and when they are too busy with the anxiety of being bullied their grades can suffer or they can even drop out. According to HealthDay News, 9,590 students were surveyed from 580 U.S. schools. Compared to kids who were not bullied, students that were cyberbullied experienced a 0.049 drop in their GPA between grades 9 and 12. This number is too big when you think about the potential students have but the constant bullying by their peers on social media effects that. For some, dropping out or taking the bad grades feels like their only option. Some teenagers that get cyberbullied on social media can’t take the constant criticism, which can lead to suicide. An example is Hannah Smith, a 14-year old student from England. Smith had been on ask.fm, a social networking site that allows people to ask questions anonymously. Cyberbullies urged her to drink bleach and cut herself. Eventually she couldn’t take the bullying any longer and committed suicide. Social media has a huge impact on these suicides because it’s through these websites that these teens are being bullied by other students. If teens don’t stop soon the side effects of cyberbullying
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...
Nowadays bullying has gone much farther than just physical violence. Most teens today have either been cyber bullied or have been witnesses to it. Cyber bullying is a form of bullying that is done over electronic messaging or over social media. This is very new to many people of the older generation, but is very relevant to the new generation. Cyber bullying is becoming an increasingly big problem in the U.S. every year. Being a kid who has grown up with technology and social media I have witnessed cyber bullying many times in my life. I have had many friends that have fell victim to cyber bullying and this is why I chose to talk about this topic. Since this topic of bullying is overlooked in our society as not being an issue I decided to choose
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).