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Paulina Pirichian
Professor Vana Derohanessian
English 114B
8 May 2014
Whos to Blame for Cyberbullying?
Everyday, more and more teenagers all around the world are constantly getting bullied
through the Internet. Our generation has become so accustomed to the use of technology, that
majority of the time, it is being taken advantage of and used for the wrong reasons. It gives
teenagers the ability to bully others through a screen, allowing them to feel powerful, because
although they may be insecure, it is much easier to bash on someone behind a screen, than to
bully them in person. The act of this is called cyberbullying, which is the use of information
technology to harm or harass other people in a deliberate, repeated, hostile manner. Although a
majority of society would agree that it is the childs fault for cyberbullying, we neglect to realize
that it is the parents fault, because of the way they raise their child(ren). Parents should be held
accountable for the path their child chooses to take whether or not they are under the influence of
others, because their parental actions influence the way their child thinks and acts.
Cyberbullying has become a domestic problem, because parents are not taking this issue into
consideration and are only causing it by being too involved in their kids lives, not being
involved enough, and even abusing their kids themselves.
Everyone has a different insight towards cyberbullying, which is how conflicts and
arguments arise. Although I believe that parents should be to blame for their child harassing or
harming other kids, some would disagree. For example, in the article Parents Should Not Be
Held Liable for Cyber Bullying, Elizabeth Eaton says how a Clinical Professor named Paul D.
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Bennett states, not all household items should be considered dangerous even if theyre used in a
harmful manner. If theres a baseball bat at home, and a child uses a baseball bat to harm
somebody else, are the parents responsible for that?. (Para 5) Although Eaton states a good
argument with sufficient evidence, she neglects to realize why or how the child became
accustomed to the mindset of using the bat to harm others. No, it is not the parents fault for
keeping a harmless item like a baseball bat in the house, however, it is their fault that their child
behaves this way, because the parents are liable for the way their child acts and thinks. Children
are not born with the mindset to kill or harass, they are taught it. Additionally, when kids are
constantly harassing others online, it is the parents fault for providing their children with such
little knowledge, or even too much knowledge of cyberbullying.
When parents are too strict on their kids, the kids begin to get frustrated and feel the need
to release their anger towards others. Majority of the time, the strictest parents are the only ones
who are not actually involved in their childs life, they are just there to control it. The act of not
caring or not being involved allows the child to do whatever they wish on the Internet. For
example, in the article Stop Cyberbullying, What is the Parents Role in This?, it states how
parents need to be supportive of your child during this time. You may be tempted to give the
"stick and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you" lecture, but words and
cyber attacks can wound a child easily and have a lasting effect. (Para 2) Not only is this
stating how those who are victims of cyberbullying need to be heard of rather than having the
matter be disregarded, when parents say the sticks and stones may break your bones, but words
will never hurt you speech, it only enables the child to think that cyberbullying is okay as long
as youre not physically hurting them, which can lead them to becoming bullies themselves.
Parents need to pay close attention to how they address certain things to their children, because
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the children may take it the wrong way, which allows them to insult others online only to feel
superior when in reality, are very weak.
Parents are finally catching up on the whole reverse psychology method on their kids
and showing them that they trust them by not questioning their childs actions. They do this in
order to have a closer bond with one another and respect their privacy, however, how
comfortable will the kids become with that trust and how often will their son or daughter actually
obey it? Although parents want to respect their child and be on good terms with them, there is a
certain boundary of involvement that needs to take place. For example, in the article, A
Parents Role in Putting a Stop to Cyber Bullying, it says how it is not safe to assume your
child is not playing the role of a bully in a situation, despite your wanting to think the best of her.
The world is full of new and exciting situations for children and their natural impulses may not
be ethical ones. (Para 11) This enables the child to believe that their parents will never find out
about their actions online towards harmless human beings. Additionally, if they do find out, they
would not want to take action, because it would be very difficult for a parent to understand how
their child could be the cause of harm towards others, and why they hadnt realized their childs
frustration sooner in order to be able to prevent it. Although parents do not enforce their children
to act and speak so vulgar online, the fact that they trust them to do whatever they please through
the Internet, allows them to be at fault for not being as involved in their childs life.
Surprisingly, in some cases, parents are very well aware of the fact that their child is
harming others but will not do anything about it, only because they themselves physically and/or
verbally abuse their child. When parents are the ones to harm their children, it can lead them to
growing up with two different mindsets. One of them would be to ignore it and never treat their
own child the way they had been treated, and the other and more likely option, would be that the
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child grows up to harm others the way their parents did, and sometimes even go to more drastic
measures. This would be a continuous cycle of abuse that would never cease. For example, in
the TV series, Criminal Minds, the BAU team searches for grown men and woman who are
constantly committing crimes and harassing others in person and online. During their search,
they investigate the families of these men and women, because the team needs to understand
where and how the criminals were influenced with this mentality and why their behavior has
struck now. Parents are the leading cause of everything their child says and does which is why
in our generation, when a child is extremely upset and has a lot of anger built in them, it is very
easy for one to access a computer and degrade others without getting caught, instead of showing
others how weak they really are.
Regardless of the reasons society may believe that bullies are made up of their
surroundings, not from their own home, parents are the ones to be to blame. It is our job as a
community to recognize the reasons for cyberbullying and to prevent it from happening.
Cyberbullying may not be seen as a big deal since kids are so blunt with their words anyways,
but little does everyone know that it can actually harm or even kill an innocent human being with
just a click of a button. Kids are becoming accustomed to the idea of cyberbullying, because it is
the newest form of harassment in our generation due to our parents lack of involvement, too
much involvement, and even the acceptance of verbal and physical abuse.





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Works Cited
"A Parent's Role in Putting a Stop to Cyberbullying." Mysecurecyberspace.com.
N.p., n.d. Web.
Eaton, Elizabeth. "Parents Should Not Be Held Liable for Cyberbullying."
The Arizona Daily Wildcat 5 Nov. 2013: n. pag. Print.
"STOP Cyberbullying." N.p., n.d. Web.
<http://stopcyberbullying.org/prevention/parents_role.html>.