Cyber Bullying Essay

According to The National Crime Prevention Council the definition of cyber-bullying is "When the Internet, cell phones, or other devices are used to send or post texts or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person". Usually involving two or more youth with one being constantly harassed or tormented online, cyber-bullying is as simple as sending an e-mail/text message to someone who has asked for no further contact with the sender, however can go to extremes such as; threats, sexual remarks, making someone the subject of ridicule in forums, and posting false statements as fact aimed towards humiliation. A survey in 2004 done by i-safe.org of 1,500 students between grades 4-8 showed that 42% of kids had been bullied on line one in four of these kids said that they had had it happen more then once, 35% of kids have been threatened online almost one in five had it happen more then once, 21% have received mean or threatening e-mails or other types of message, 58% of kids admit someone has been mean or hurtful things to them online. More then four out of ten say that it has happened more then once. 58% have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online. A canadian study on the topic found that 23% of middle schoolers had been bullied by e-mail, 35% in online chat rooms, 41% by text messages on their cell phones, 41% of the kids surveyed didn't know the identity of their harasser.

For many young people cyber-bullying is extremely traumatic and considered "social death". The only really prominent difference between cyber-bullying and the old fashioned face-to-face bullying is the fact that, with cyber-bullying is that in most cases the bully is kept anonymous. With cyber-bullying its no longer just the "tough kids" bullying someone. It can just as easily be the shy, quiet kid behind the computer.

Only a quarter of cyber-bullies actually bully others in person the other three-quarters wouldn't ever bully someone in person. For the simple fact that many cyber bullies wouldn’t have the guts to say what they say online to someone's face. The other difference to the original bullying then cyber-bullying is that compared to the few people that see and hear the normal style bullying, to the billions of people that see the cyber-bullying and don't say anything. Most witnesses have the state of mind that the victim should not take the talk so seriously and that if they can't take a joke that they should not be on the internet.

Cyber-bullying has made it virtually impossible for kids to escape bullying, kids can be bullied 24/7. For the kids that are being cyber-bullied they can feel like they have no escape from it. The sever cases of cyber-bullying leave the victims with a greater risk of getting anxiety, depression and other stress-related disorders. In some very rare and very sever cases kids have turned to suicide to escape the torture of bullies, take the Megan Meier case for example, insulting the bullies back and talking to her parents didn't work she hung herself with a belt feeling that there was no other way out or away from the torture. Another cyber-bullying case David Knight didn't end as badly as the megan Meier case, however it did end with David dropping out of his high school and finishing his senior year at home. In David's case he was picked on and teased at school. He was sent a message from a friend telling him to check out a webpage. When he opened the page the first things he seen were a picture of him and the title saying that it was the webpage dedicated to making fun of David Knight. Within the pages of the website were posts directed to making fun of him and his family. One of the most frustrating things for the parents of such bullying cases is that the bullies hide behind the computer screens and it is virtually impossible for anyone aside from those involved to know who the bully is.

So the questions remain; "why do kids do this to each other?" "is it out of amusement or some other deeper meaning?" and also "what can parents or other adults do to help?". Well let's look at the answer to the first question "why do kids cyber-bully". Well none really knows the real reason as to why kids cyber bully, however there are a theories as to why kids do this. When is comes to cyber-bullying, kids are often motivated by anger, revenge, or frustration. Answering the second question we find that, in some cases the bullies do it for entertainment, or because they have to much time on their hands. The "power-hungry" cyber-bully will do it just to torment others or to keep their ego. "Nerds" may do it because it starts out with them trying to defend themselves and find that they enjoy being the tough guy/girl. Harsh or mean girls will do it to remind others of their social standing. Some kids even think they are righting a wrong and standing up for others. So as you see there are many reasons why a person will cyber-bully now lets look at what parents or other adults can do
to help.

Because of the fact that the motives for cyber-bullying differ, the solutions of fixing each incident may differ. The best way to stop it is from preventing it from ever happening in the first place. The only way to do this is to educate kids about it, teach them that when you cyber-bully there is a chance they will lose their ISP or IM accounts. Teaching to take a stand against bullying of all kinds will help to. However that doesn’t always help either schools often get sued when they try to take actions and punish kids for it when it is off campus and outside of school hours because they are exceeding their authority and violating the rights of free speech. Because of this parents need to be the one person kids can go when things go wrong and they get bullied. However many kids avoid this option....why? Well parents are known to over react and the victims fear that their parents will overreact and make it worse. So what CAN parents do? Well they need to be supportive of their kids, words and cyber attacks can easily wound a child, let the school know so that someone can look out for in-school bullying. The big thing though is that the parents stay supportive of their children.