Cyberbullying

MALIAYAH KELLY
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Maliayah Kelly

Professor McCallum

CSCI 101

16 November 2018

Cyberbullying

Social networking has been used to take bullying to the next level. Long before the

advancement of technology, students were faced with direct bullying. Technology now gives

them a whole new platform for their actions. They seem to target the victims via the internet

because it is more private. Children think that emails and instant messages are their own privacy,

not knowing it could be pulled up by anyone with the power of access. It’s quite coincidental that

bullying starts in direct before it becomes cyberbullying. When it comes down to any form of

bullying not only cyberbullying adults should be involved and try to get the problem solved.

Everyone undergoes bullying in different ways. Children are bullied for all different types of

reasons. No one really takes it into consideration on how bad bullying can affect some mentally

and physically.

I once had this one problem in my childhood of being bullied then cyberbullied. I was in the

middle school, I did not really know anyone. I decided to hang with this one girl, who SES was

very low. I am not a judgmental person, so it did not cause me any problems to be her friend. So,

one day these girls came up to us at recess and were asking me why I hanged with her. “You
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must be want to be poor like her”, is the type of things they said to me. They were even awful to

her saying bad things. Then later that night, this was back when MySpace was the deal. I got an

inbox from this fake page one of the girls had made, saying they were going to jump us if I did

not stop hanging with her. They told me I needed to stop hanging with her because she makes me

look bad and other bad things. The way I was cyberbullied was not bad as it could’ve been, but it

was bad enough that I had to get my mom involved because I did want to get into any more

problems with those girls at school. My friend, on the other hand, was scared to get her mom

involved because she did not want to be looked at as the snitch. She told me, it would hurt her

feelings if I stopped being her friend because I was the only friend she really had since she

moved her, but she did not want to get me into any problem because of the girls and what they

were doing.

According to kidshealth.org, which is very helpful when it comes to information on

cyberbullying. Cyberbullying itself is harassment, threaten, embarrass, or target another person

occurring mostly in younger people. Cyberbullying can also be accidental, such as a harsh joke

but the receiver takes it into aggressive defense or as an insult. But, when or if its accidental it

does not happen again or repeats itself. The article states different signs to be aware of when

dealing with cyberbullying, a child being emotionally upset during or after using the Internet or

the phone, being very secretive or protective of their digital life, when she/he wants to stop using

the computer or cell phone and being nervous or jumpy when getting an instant message, text, or

email. Sign to be aware of when dealing with both general bullying and cyberbullying are having

withdrawals from family members, friends, and activities, avoiding school or group gatherings,

and slipping grades and "acting out" in anger at home, changes in mood, behavior, sleep, or

appetite.
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As I stated I certainly think bullying starts as direct face to face at school. In reference,

Michael stated in the article “Preventing Bullying At Your School” that, A survey of 361 teens

showed that 64% of the adolescents said they had been bullied at school in 2013. Being verbal

teased had the highest percentage of reports. Followed by cyberbullying being the second

highest. Lastly, physical aggression is reported but its less than 50%. He also throws out that

students reported being bullied because of them having food allergies and being bullied with the

food. Teens with diabetes, epilepsy, or other physical, mental, or emotional disabilities also are

more frequent targets of bullies. Adolescents are being bullied by their sexual preferences, such

as rather they are straight, gay, bisexual, lesbian, or transgender. Transgenders are often bullied

more out the group. Yet, while all of this is going on at school when the predator feels no

victory, they begin to cyberbully.

The use of technology today is just a different ball game. It is not always easy to know how or

when to step in as a parent. Children today are using technology for online gaming and social

interaction rather it is good or bad. Kids are learning to use phones as far as texting at an early

age. Majority of the teens are now connected to their phone. It is harder for parents to be aware

of any communication because children are texting everything. The knowledge the children

today have for the digital word is exclusive to parents and adults.

As a parent or adult, it harder to get notified when bullying occurs, and even harder to know

when cyberbullying occurs. One of the easiest ways to know is if you simply have a child who

openly comes to you and shows you the text, IM, tweet, snap, or response that is mean, harsh, or

cruel and is sent from the predator. According to Kids Health, parents should inform their child

that it is not their fault that its happening. Let the child know that he/she is not alone in the

situation. Inform the school to be aware of the victim and the predator. Parents should encourage
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their child not to reply to the bully, in fact, they should block them. If the bully is using a fake

account block the fake account and be aware of who the bully is in real life and block them.

Parents should establish a limited time on social media network. The parent should also know

their child digital life such as checking their child social media account but not overdoing it.

Parents should inform their children about the importance of privacy and why its important not

to share any personal information online. Then, there are the parents on the other hand whos

child is the bully. Those parents should confront their child on their behavior, inform them about

the harm or damage they could cause someone to do upon themselves or even to them the bully.

Parents should remind their child of the privilege of having a device. All adults should keep in

mind to model good behavior for all children.

Cyberbully is one of the common linked to teenage depression. Victimization of young people

online has gained a high level of scrutiny. Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent

feeling of sadness and loss of interest, that may lead up harmful self-doing. There are series of

high profile suicides of teens who reported about being bullied on different social media

networks. According to Morgan with scientificamerican.com in 2013, there was a suicide link

with the website ask.fm, where users ask each other random question anonymously. As in

reference to the article face to face, bullying seems to double the risk of depression in adulthood.

It makes life even harder than it was at teenage years. It’s about less than 50% of the reported

cases of cyberbullying of teens lead up to suicide.

Cyberbullying is real. Cyberbullying is serious. You never know when someone is battle it

unless they speak up. Protect yourself and close friends from cyberbullying. Speak up and help

out when you can, you just might end up saving someone’s life. Parents, get involved in your
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child’s interaction with the social world. Teachers and schools should be aware of face to face

bullying, caught it before it leads to cyberbullying. Speak up, be heard, report at 309-232-8087.
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Work cited page

E., M. (2013, September 01). Preventing Bullying at Your School. Retrieved November 17,

2018, from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-342769040/preventing-bullying-at-

your-school

Hirsch, L. (Ed.). (2014, June). Cyberbullying. Retrieved November 17, 2018, from

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/cyberbullying.html

Pappas, S. (2015, June 23). Social Media Cyber Bullying Linked to Teen Depression. Retrieved
November 17, 2018, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/social-media-cyber-
bullying-linked-to-teen-depression/