The Internet and Cyber-bullying

654 Words2 Pages

Bullying is a major act that is increasing among our teens today, and it is something that we need to act about, as it not only damages the self-esteem of young teen, but in severe cases it may lead to suicide or severe depression, leading to drug use. Bullying is not only limited to the real world, but also the online, virtual world, in a form known as ‘Cyber Bullying’."Cyber bullying" is when a child or teen is threatened, harassed, humiliated orembarrassed by another person using the Internet, mainly social medias, or mobile phones The application of the internet to the modern world has made it easy for people to harass others without even having to be face-to-face, and with the increase in technology, there is no doubt that cyber-bullying will increase. Because of this, I believe it’s important to educate people about cyber bullying because it will help stop it from happening. Doing that would encourage the victims to speak up for themselves and get help, and have the bullies think twice about their attempt to bully someone.
It is very easy to harass someone via a social network because 93% of young people from the age 12 to 17 were online by 2008(Lenhart, Purcell, Smith and Zickuhr, 2010). Ask.fm, one of the major cyber bully-concentrated social networks, was linked to over nine teen suicides since it first started. The Ask.fm founder, Mark Terebin blamed the mass media for the suicides, and the website’s own users: “Mass media is knocking on the wrong door. It is necessary to go deeper to find a root of a problem. It’s not about the site; the problem is about education, about moral values that were devaluated lately. Ask.fm is just a tool which helps people to communicate with each other, same as any other social network, sa...

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... that will cause regret (Stopcyberbullying.org, 2014).
There are laws that prevent cyber bullying, but the parents and school need to have a role as well. Parents need to keep up with how their children are doing in school and make sure they are not being bullied. If they are, they will need to inform the police and/or school. The school needs to warn the students about cyber bullying and its consequences, and they should even expel a bully if needed.
In conclusion, with the expansion of social networking technologies and the internet, cyber bullying is becoming more and more severe. Victims need to know that they are not alone and that they shouldn’t give in to a bully’s behavior. Cyber-bullying is technology-powered and will only get worse as technology becomes more widespread, so we need to act fast about this dangerous worldwide issue before it is too late.

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