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Kameron Rickard
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
26 April 2016
Cyber Bullying: The Takeover of The Online World
The world that young children and teens have grown up in today is much different than in
the past. The notorious taunter of the school used to wreck his havoc only in the hallways and
playgrounds. Unfortunately, as society has evolved, so has technology, and so has bullying. With
the expansion of technology, social media has been introduced into the world. According to the
nobullying.gov organization, more than 80 percent of teens regularly use cell phones, making
them a prominent form of technology. Therefore, cell phones are a common medium for cyber
bullying to occur. This opens a portal for bullies to spread their torment to their victims outside
of school. This online form of bullying is defined as cyber bullying. Ignorance of this topic is
evident as not many people know and are aware of what cyber bullying truly is as well as what
its capable of. Stopbullying.gov defines it as, when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen
using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. Todays generation
uses technology, such as cell phones and laptops, as a way to survive. Many think electronics are
a way to feel connected to your peers but some become so consumed in their phones that they
lose sight of themselves. Disastrously, technology can be used in very negative ways and is a battle ground for cyber bullying. The internet provides an alias for bullies to say or act however they

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want with no consequence. I am here to raise awareness in an effort to decrease the emotional
suffering that teens face day after day as a result of cyber bullying.
Bullying of any form can cause severe emotional, physical, or even psychological harm.
Although cyber bullying may appear to be harmless, things are not always as they seem. According to stopbullying.gov, cyber bullying has very significant differences to conventional bullying
that can prove it to be more sinister. Before the advent of the internet, a victim has a sign of relief
when he hears the final bell because his day of torture is finally over. Although the victim can no
longer see his bully face to face, the internet haunts him as bullying can occur anywhere and any
time. Unfortunately, for cyber bullying, the pain never stops. With cyber bullying, the victim can
always be reached by text message, social media, email, etc. The victim can experience humiliation and pain at any part of the day. Consequently, since the victim can be reached 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week, so can anyone and everyone else to share the humiliation of the victim. The
internet makes it very easy to post and spread information to a large body of people to view. In
addition, these posts can be submitted anonymously which makes it difficult to trace the culprit.
Finding who posted the anonymous post can feel like a small victory, but the online world makes
it very difficult for things to be permanently erased. Although the post in itself is deleted, whoever views it can take screenshots or preserve their own copies making it virtually impossible to
truly erase it forever (What Is Cyber Bullying).
A great example of cyber bullying in its entirety is ABC Familys movie, Cyber Bully.
This film, based off numerous true stories, follows a seventeen year olds life and how she encounters cyber bullying. Teen girl Taylor Hillridge, played by Emily Osment, grows up with a
single mother and one younger brother. She isnt the most popular in school and is a little awk-

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ward around others, constantly getting picked on by her popular classmate, Lindsay. When her
mother gives her a laptop for her seventeenth birthday, her world turns upside down. When she
receives a chat from a boy online, her two best friends assume he is fake. After beginning to develop a crush and chatting for several weeks, he begins to spread rumors about her online. Because of these rumors, Taylor gets severely abused online by all her peers at school, which results in a loss of her two best friends. While sinking into depression, Taylor posts a video online
telling her classmates she is going to commit suicide. Attempting to overdose on pills, her mother catches her and rushes her to the hospital. In the end, Taylor finds out the truth behind the online boy whom she had been chatting with. It was her best friend, Samantha, the entire time. Her
mother goes to the school in hopes of enforcing a law on cyber bullying. This movie is an eye
opener on how relentless cyber bullying can be and is a great example on how things posted on
the internet can spread like wildfire.
As technology continues to evolve, so do massive problems on the internet. Cyber bullying is continuing to grow and victims self esteem is vastly decreasing. By looking at nobullying.gov, over 52 percent of young people address that they are being cyber bullied. This is over
half of the young people population that report being bullied over the internet. Online harassment, rumors, and threatening is a major way to send young teens into a world of depression and
low self esteem. Adolescence is a time when you are still trying to figure out who you are as a
person. In this time of self discovery, you tend to erase the people who make you feel bad about
yourself. The worst part of cyber bullying is that the bully is not seen, they are hidden behind
their phone or computer, so the victim could have no idea who is being so cruel and who is making them feel so terribly. This creates feelings of hurt and sheer helplessness as it is hard too,

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when you know who the bully is. Consequently, bullying and low self esteem seem to go hand in
hand. Victims of bullying are known to have a much lower self esteem than non victims. Interestingly, bullies have a higher self esteem because they get a rise out of what theyre doing (Patchin
and Hinduja). When a young teen gets bullied they feel rejected and unwanted by the world and
soon they start to believe everything the bully says. Clinical Psychologist Mary Lamia says that
bullies have a unique way of humiliating others. They are unaware of themselves dont know
how/what they truly feel. This is why they choose victims with insecurities so they can take
those and use them to attack. Hurtful things that the victims have been hearing sadly become a
reality and can lead to some devastating consequences.
On July 15th, 2015, a story was posted on Fox News that caught the eye of numerous
parents and guardians. A few days before the news article was posted, a young, bright, thirteen
year old girl took her own life and her mother believes it was due to bullying. The way her
daughter commit suicide is left unsaid. Zoe Johnson was a young girl who was part of the cheer
team at her middle school in Kenowa Hills, Michigan. Being the tough girl she is, she eventually
reached her breaking point, her mother, Rebecca Abbott, states. According to Abbott, Zoe had
already been dealing with minor depression but as the taunting at school became worse, so did
her depression. Her mother has decided to share a post that was from Facebook the night before
her daughters death. It was a picture that had a caption tag a bit** you dont like and had
Zoes name tagged to it. Comments on the picture are still occurring, even after Zoes death. One
comment reads good ur gone. Fox17 says that according to the Association of Suicidology,
rates of suicide among ten to fourteen year old teens has grown 50 percent over the past three
decades. This story is a leading example of harassment that occurs online.

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Words can be just as hurtful, if not worse, than physical harm on someone. According to
Teen Ink, a website where teens write their own articles, words hit straight to the heart and can be
very believable when its coming from someone online. With electronics just on the tips of our
fingers, bullies say anything and everything they can to hurt someone at any given time, and it
doesnt seem to be stopping. With the rise in popularity of cyber bullying, due to electronics,
other much more deadly occurrences have risen all over the world. This increase has affected
young teens and other victims of cyber bullying in the worst way possible; suicide. There are
many cases all over the country that have suicides directly related to cyber bullying (Spells).
For example, a news article posted in 2013 on National Public Radio dealt with the suicide of a twelve year old girl, Rebecca, because she had been severely bullied online. The two
girls that were arrested were twelve and fourteen. Astonishing right? Cyber bullying has gotten
so popular that kids as young as ten to twelve are beginning to take part in it. One of the two girls
said Yes, I bullied Rebecca, and she killed herself but I dont give a - and you can add the last
word yourself. National Public Radio states that the bullying began when the suspect started
dating Rebeccas ex boyfriend. After beginning to date her ex boyfriend, one of the girls would
initiate fights with Rebecca and convince others to join her. Forcing Rebecca to move schools,
the bullying and harassment only got worse. The girls began to torture her online even when she
was in a different state. Threatening her through messages and harassing her didnt seem to stop.
Because Rebecca couldnt handle this horrific torture anymore, she decided to end her life by
jumping off a silo at an abandoned concrete factory. It is truly sad that someones words can
cause someone to do something so catastrophic. This incident exemplifies just how destructive
cyber bullying can be and is today.

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Unfortunately, there are many cases of suicide around the world. Suicide is the third leading cause of death worldwide among adolescents. Suicide causes over 4,000 deaths a year and
these can be seen as a result of the monster, cyber bullying. A lot of adults dont think bullying
online is as bad as it really is, when it causes more complications than any other kind. While
some adults see physical bullying as worse than cyber bullying, educator Scott Meech tells all
that cyber bullying is long lasting, enters the home, and can stick with a student all the time. Cyber bullying is something that has ruined the world along with the destruction of thousands of
innocent lives. Thousands of students stay home from school in fear of being bullied and are
afraid to be face to face with someone who has been ruining their life over the internet (Kallie).
It is time to take a stand and fight to end this horrific action. More parents and teachers need to
be aware what is going on inside and outside the classroom in hopes of decreasing what can ruin
someones life.
With the introduction of social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook, adolescents
hold on to these sites as a way of staying connected to the world. Twitter was created in March of
2006 and Facebook was created in February of 2004. These two social media sites have made an
impact in the world. According to Jenna Wortham, author of Twitter Vs. Facebook, these two
popular social media sites have created a catastrophic and harmful world of cyber bullying. The
reason Facebook is the go to site for someone to bully is because its the easiest on which to
make a fake account, which is what has begun to grow over the years. In the past it used to be as
easy as meeting your friends in the park to hangout and have fun but now all you have to do is
put a screen in your front of your face and you begin socializing a different way.

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According to NoBullying.com, Facebook is one of the worst social media websites that
deals with cyber bullying. To start off, seven in ten people are victims of cyber bullying. 54 percent of people that are bullied online are experiencing it through Facebook. Almost everyday
there are appalling statuses or pictures posted to expose, embarrass, and humiliate someone.
Once something is posted, its incredibly hard, if not impossible, to get rid of it forever after so
many people encounter it. The sad reality is that a lot of victims begin to believe whatever the
bully is telling them, they believe that they are someone they arent and can have severe psychological problems. Bullies feel more powerful online because they can hide behind their phones
and say whatever they want to say. Facebook is a playground for bullies and they go to vast extremes just to hurt someone, such as faking an account and beginning to chat with someone online. This is where it all begins. A lot of vulnerable adolescents are willing to chat with anybody
that is willing to give them attention.
In the world of online networking, the issue of safety is constantly being brought up by
adults and teachers. Although there are a lot of negatives to Facebook and various ways in which
cyber bullying can occur, this social media website has taken great action in hoping to decrease
the amounts of cyber bullying and offer help to people experiencing it. The actual Facebook
website itself offers lots of ways to get help when experiencing cyber bullying. For example, you
can block the account or delete the person completely. You can report the abuse in hopes of
getting it deleted as well as reporting the actual account to be deleted all together. Another way in
which victims can get help is by documenting and saving any messages or signs of bullying. In
addition, there is a Help Center on Facebook and a Bullying Prevention Hub that was just
launched to provide tips on how to get rid of someone who is harassing you online. Facebook has

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tried its hardest and has succeeded so far in providing different ways in raising awareness to
what has been occurring (Zuckerberg).
On the website StopBullying.gov, there are many useful tips about what parents can do to
become more involved in their childrens lives. Due to the upsurge of cyber bullying, parents
should begin monitoring their childrens access online and try to decrease the amount they spend
on websites. Parents and teachers should also monitor their child or students behavior because
that can be a warning sign of being bullied. This organizational website offers many warning
signs of being bullied. For instance, frequent headaches or stomach aches, loss in appetite, decreased self esteem, lowering in grades and difficulty sleeping are all signs someone is being bullied. This website offers advice to parents that includes talking to your children about the risks of
bullying and overall making sure theyre involved in their childrens lives online and offline.
Talking to your children makes it a lot easier for them to come to you if they do experience bullying. Parents should also always give their kids positive feedback and comments to make sure
their self-esteem is boosted and their confidence isnt decreasing. Its very important to encourage children, teens and young adults to help others who need it.
With so much technology increasing in the world, cyber bullying has been an obvious
growing problem in many different ways. From threatening messages to online harassment, cyber bullying has taken first place in being the worst form of bullying. Cyber bullying will continue to be a threat to people of all ages until preventative measures are taken. With the information,
statistics, and real life examples I have presented in this paper, many should be aware of the
severity of cyber bullying. The internet has begun to act as a complete playing field for bullies
and victims are being sucked into their world that is full of hatred. With this form of bullying

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leading to depression, low self esteem and even suicide, parents and teachers need to become
more involved in helping to protect their children from online bullies.

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Works Cited
Creston, Nicole. Girls Charged For Cyberbullying Girl Who Committed Suicide. National
Public Radio. National Public Radio, 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.
Cyber Bully. Dir. Charles Biname. ABC Family, 2011.
Cyberbullying on Facebook, How to Teach Teens About It? NoBullying.com. NoBullying.
Web. 5 Apr. 2016
Kallie. Bullying To Suicide. Teen Ink. Teen Ink. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
Lamia, Mary C. The Psychology of Bullying with Dr. Lamia. TeenSafe. TeenSafe. 26 Mar.
2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
Patchin, Justin W., and Sameer Hinduja. Cyberbullying and Self Esteem. Journal of School
Health 80.12 (2010): 614-621. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.
Sidorowicz, Josh. Mom: Cyber Bullying Killed My Daughter. Fox17. Fox News. 21 July 2015.
Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
Spells. Teen Depression and Suicide Due To Cyber Bullying. Teen Ink. Teen Ink. Web. 8 Apr.
2016.
What Is Cyberbullying? StopBullying.gov. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012.
Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
Wortham, Jenna. Twitter vs. Facebook: A Tale of Two Sites. The New York Times. The New
York Times, 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.
Zuckerberg, Mark. Facebook. 4 Feb. 2004. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.