A sense of anonymity online gives someone an excuse to commit sexual harassment, or be more aggressive towards others. Sexual Harassment involves an unwelcome sexual advance that can cause a person to not be able to work well in their work environment as well as be uncomfortable in a personal environment as well. Social media has a sort of anonymity, which doubles, as a sort of shield to people who harass other’s online, and the law can only do so much for the victim. Sexual harassment, not only in person, but online can have devastating emotional, mental and physical repercussions to the victim who is being sexually harassed. Taking away the power the offender has is one of the ways to give the victim their life back, as well as making it …show more content…
The offender has a sort of “shield”, which makes them think that what they are doing is okay, and that the consequences of their actions are not their fault. “People lose their moral compass online. You can be as cruel as you want behind a screen because no one is immediately responding and you don’t have to face what you say/do,” (Duggan, 2014). Anonymity is one of the main factors as to why there is sexual harassment online, due to the fact that there is really no such consequence of harassing someone online.
The law, and justice system can only do so much about sexual harassment online. And of course there is the chance that the creator of the website where the harassment happened, will delete the account of the person who has done the harassing, but they can always create a new account, and even a new identity giving them even more sense of anonymity. But it also comes down to what the authorities are willing to do to the victims of online sexual
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Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network. (2009). Self-Harm. Retrieved from: https://rainn.org/get-information/effects-of-sexual-assault/self-harm
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With large social issues like online harassment it is incredibly easy to reduce the problem to a personal level and make banal statements like “Just don’t take naked pictures of yourself,” or “If you simply ignore the harassment, it’ll go away.” While both of these are ideal solutions, they are simply not practical, given our nature as human beings. For example, you can also ignore a broken toe in the hope that it will “get better”, but, in the long run, it will not heal properly without some form of medical attention. The same metaphor applies to this and most other social dilemmas as well. The cultural problem of Internet harassment is more of a public issue for a variety of reasons. The biggest obstacle that we, as a society, have to overcome is this notion that being persecuted online is “just part of the culture of the Internet”. While it will never be possible to completely eliminate all forms of negativity and pestering online, it still is possible to reduce it to a more manageable level. Like on a fair number of other social issues, America could learn a lot if it strove to emulate its European brothers and
Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K. J., & Ybarra, M. L. (2008). Online “Predators” and their Victims: Myths, Realities and Implications for Prevention and Treatment. American Psychologist, 63. Retrieved from http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/Am%20Psy%202-08.pdf
Every semester, a student attending a college campus will have at some point experience some inappropriate, unwanted attention. There is always someone at school who tends to make someone uncomfortable, be it through eye contact, persistent advances, or just uncalled for innuendos. Of course, we do our best to ignore it, or to just report the bothersome activity, but that can only do so much without someone finding a way around such things. Someone is always going the extra mile to get what he or she wants, even if it’s at the expense of the victim. We can’t turn a blind eye on our friends, our family, or our associates in these dark, sexual assault situation. Campus sexual assault is a problem with plenty of factors regarding it.
It is still not good to bully people online like that. According to the fact sheet about the “Ophelia project”, “60% of targets said that their online experiences as a target of cyberbullying affected them at school, home, and with friends, and reported experiencing feelings of frustration, anger, and sadness”. As the fact sheet states, cyberbullying can still make people feel sad or angry, but cyberbullies still should not be prosecuted. Instead, another kind of punishment can be used like banning from social
What is sexual assault? Sexual assault is, “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape” (Sexual Assault).
waist. Her underwear was on the ground; her hair disheveled and covered with pine needles” (CITE). Two males witnessed Turner thrusting his hips on top of her while he was using his phone with flash. It is clear his motivation was power rape. After being denied by her sister, Turner went to assault the victim while she was alone and under the influence. He was rejected and that frustrated him, wanting complete power and control over her sexuality and body. The mishandling of campus sexual assaults is present in this case when the attackers sentence was minimized to 3 months with good behavior. He is being watched in protective custody in a single cell because he did not seem dangerous as general populated inmates. A questionable but simply ridiculous and clearly a form of privilege towards a white male and athlete influencing society and allowing a slap on the wrist as his sexual violence deeded a “minor mishap”. The lenient jail sentence is also a form of ridiculousness to the severity of sexual assaults in general. Trying to Justify for allowing a short sentence as the judge feared a longer sentence would have a severe
Kowalski, R., Limber, S., & Agatston, P. (2006). Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Imagine this, you're walking down the street in your favorite outfit feeling as confident as ever and then, suddenly, you're hollered by a man beside you or from across the street telling you how hot or fine you look. You no longer feel comfortable in what you're wearing because of his demeaning compliment. Obviously, you spend the day thinking of the unpleasant encounter you had and you think about heading back home to change. Men, boys should not make comments about women or girls on the street because it can vary as sexual harassment, it can make women self conscious of themselves and women can be offended by these comments.
Sexual assault is an offense that plagues many U.S. citizens. Although some studies show that rape is on the decline, other studies report that the phenomena actually occuring is that less rape victims are reporting the crime. In fact, approximately 68% of sexual assaults go unreported to the police according to the U.S. Department of Justice in a National Crime Victimization Survey from 2008-2012. It is common knowledge that rape victims are usually severely traumatized after the event, which leaves them susceptible to various emotions such as shame, anxiety, numbness, fear, denial, and guilt. Because of this, many rape victims decide to repress their experience and let it go unheard. However, not only does this prevent them from healing emotionally,
imagine that you live in a world that you couldn 't just say no. Where you were forced to do things that you didn 't want to do. Imagine that just because you said no, that wasn 't enough. That you were worthless, that what you say not matter. This is how 293,066 Americans feel per year(“How often does sexual assault occur?”).They are victims of sexual assaults, there refusal wasn 't enough for someone to stop. No one can truly understand how these people felt until they realize what the problem is, why it 's happening and some solutions to the problem.
While many young teens have found committing cyber bullying, yet walks out free with no punishment. In the article “Cyberbullies.” Billitteri informs, “Moves to improve online safety have been building in Congress and the states for years” (Billitteri, par.4). Obviously not enough actions are being towards it, more hands needs to be involved in this issues forcing lawmakers allows sanctions to those who perpetrates cyberbullying . Freedom of speech should not even consider when it comes to cyberbullying , reason being no one should have the right to go anonymous to hurt other regardless if your child or teenager. Billitteri states, “Experts say cyber bullying has become a scourge of the adolescent world” (Billitteri, par.4). Many teens believes in revenge they believe in order to win of gain attention they must hurt others, so they use this online harassment strategy to feel empower. Charging an adolescent a felony for
Cyber bullying can be more terrifying than standard bullying, because the target typically does not know who is after them. Cyber bullies believe that because they are posting anonymously or not using their names, they can get away with anything. The case is that Internet activity is traceable. It is important to know that cyber bullying can be charged as crimes. In some cases, cyber bullies will be charged as sexual predators and have to be on the registry. Furthermore, items posted on the Internet can affect the person’s ability to get into university or employment.
...n them and their friends. Online predators mainly exist on the Internet, because they take advantage of the anonymity that social networking sites provide. They usually treat their victims with kindness, attention and even gifts. Once the predator build trust with their victim, they will try to meet them in real life in hope that they can fulfill their fantasies of having sexual encounter with underage kids.
In today's day and age, social networking sites have taken over the internet. Sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr have linked people together in a way that was never thought possible. However, from all good comes bad, and from social networking sites the act of cyber bullying - bullying and harassing someone through the internet was born. Now, whether or not the websites are the cause of cyber bullying or not has become a rather controversial topic. Abraham Foxman and Cyndi Silverman, both part of the Anti-Defamation League, vehemently feel that these social networking sites spawned cyber bullying. On the other hand, Kate Harding, blogger and author, believes strongly that while they may be involved in cyber bullying, social networking sites are not to blame. While both articles address social networking sites and cyber bullying, they have very distinct differences.
Violence against women is not always physical. With the continuing advancements in technology, cyber stalking is an increasing way for predators to attack women. “Cyber stalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone which may be a computer crime or harassment.” The anonymity of interacting with someone online makes it very easy to stalk someone without even leaving home. Cyber stalkers have a sense of security that since they are not seen, they will not be identified. It is estimated that over 75% of victims are women. This estimated figure is lower than the actual number because a large majority of cyber stalking goes unreported.