Cyber Bullying

Table of Contents I. Cover page II. Table of Contents III. Report

It only seems like yesterday that teachers would have to stand on the play ground during recess and monitor the bullies, who would try to take another child’s lunch money, or to take a note being passed around in the classroom that would read something like “I will see you on the play ground after school.” A way to help prevent your child from being one of the many bullying victims is to know what the risk factors are of your child becoming one of the bullying victims. When it comes to being a bullying victim, children, teens and adults are those who don't get along well with others, have few or no friends, is less popular than others, what color their skin is, or what kind of clothes they wear, because they wear glasses, and what kind of house they live in. Now here we are in the year 2011, dealing with an entirely different style of bullying, which we all know is called “CYBERBULLYING”. No longer are the days of having the teacher send the student to the principal’s office or a phone call home to mom and dad. Friends and family of victims are also taking part when cyber bullying occurs. They may find themselves in difficult situations where they are peer pressured into participating in the bullying, afraid that if they don't play along, or they could become a target. They may feel that they have no power to stop it or start feeling guilty for not having spoken out against the bullying, when they first see it happen.
Bullying isn’t just happening on the playground or at the bus stop, it’s happening on the Internet and on your kids’ cell phones, making it possible to bully a child 24 hours a day and include thousands of other children to participate in the harassment. There is no escape from cyber bullying because it can happen any time and any place. Cyber bullying is known to children around the clock, and into the safety of their own homes. A cyber bully victim feels like there is no safe place from cyber bullying. Many times, kids are scared to tell their parents about cyber bullying, thinking they will be blamed, lose their Internet privileges, or that their parents will call the school or other parents, which would probably make the bullying worse.
Cyber bulling has become one of the biggest topics of the 21th century, and can be known as, any electronic device that allows people to speak with one another, giving them access to the Internet and the ability to send an email, text messages, cell phone communications, or social networking websites which may be used to hurt or humiliate one another. Technology has changed bullying because it has only made it easier and more available to cyber bullies. Children these days have figured out how to use picture messaging and change the way the image looks. These bullies can then send the picture to multiple people in their contact list as a picture message, and before you know it the text has traveled around the world in 60 seconds and now everyone is talking bad about that person.
Cyber bullying can lead to poor grades, depression, eating disorders, self-mutilation, drinking, and drugs. Children have even committed suicide because of cyber bullying. Bullying has been around since the beginning of time. Therefore, parents should not think too little of online or cell phone bullying, just because it may be happening in cyberspace and not in person. Parents may remember when they or their friends were being bullied as a child. No doubt they remember the hurt, frustration, and sadness that they and their friends experienced as a child. And today no one wants to see their own children suffer as they did.
Cyber bullying is hurtful and can is dangerous. For instance, Ryan Haligan was a victim of cyber bullying (Ryan Patrick Haligan Story). He took his own life because of the online torment. Everyone should have a chance to live. The school’s monitoring of websites will give kids a wakeup call and hopefully make them see that what they’re doing is wrong. Suicide is the third case of death among teens (bullystatistics.org). If new rules would be passed, fewer kids would be bullied and think twice about suicide. Online bullying is a problem that needs to be addressed to everybody.
With the growing and popularity of the Internet, Facebook, texting, and social networks become a huge danger. The majority of individuals love their technology devices and tools but they don’t use them with caution or protection. Steps must be taken to protect one’s privacy and property, while avoiding cyber bully, cybercrime and even harassment. Although it happens to a younger group age and even to adults, cyber bullying is more popular within teenagers. With cyber bullying all you need is a computer or a cell phone.
After teenagers have these devices all they have to do is contact the person they choose and then the bullying starts from there. Most of the reasons why cyber bullying has become more and more popular is because you don’t have to show your identity, anyone can choose to harass, terrify and embarrass another person without telling them who they are. Teenagers choose to practice cyber bullying because they know they can get away with it and no one can find out. There are many ways of internet bullying. Internet bullies may use offensive and improper language in an effort to affect the personal life of their victims.
Bullying isn’t just stopping with kids it is also happening with adults, and what I mean by this is when children go to the adults because they are being bullied they are expecting the adult to take charge and take action about the situation that is happening, but in many cases the teacher, parents, or staff member are getting together with the other bullying child’s parents and wanting to take action, but when the kids find out what happened then the bullying does go farther and the child is made fun of even more. Even though the bullying may be caused more when parents take action, it is very important that parents play a role in stopping cyber bullying.
In 2006, Megan Taylor Meier, an American teenager from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, committed suicide by hanging herself in her closet, three weeks before her fourteenth birthday. Meier's parents suggested an investigation into the matter and her suicide was caused by cyber-bullying through the social networking website “MySpace”. It was said, that a mother of another teen on the same block opened a fake MySpace, to find out why Megan was not getting along with her teenage daughter. The name of the MySpace profile was Josh Evans, who was a 16 year old boy. Meier and Josh became online friends, but never met in person or spoke. Meier thought he was attractive.
Meier began to exchange messages with this person, and family started to describe Megan as having had her "spirits lifted". As the exchanging of messages went on, they started to change. Evans writes to Megan: "I don't know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I've heard that you are not very nice to your friends". Similar messages were sent from Megan to the fake MySpace profile with the name of Josh Evans; then, some of Megan's messages were shared with others that shouldn’t have been shared.
After Megan’s death, her father went to the computer to find out more information about this so called “Josh Evans”, but when he went to go do so there was no profile of a Josh Evans. Six weeks later, Megan Meier's parents were informed that the mother of one of their daughter's friends had created the "Josh Evans" account. The parent, Lori Drew, who created the fake account, admitted that she and her daughter had the password to the account; they had told reporters that they had created it as a JOKE. (More can be read on the internet).
To prevent cyber bullying parents should explain to kids what cyber bullying is, why it is wrong, what will happen if their kids take part in cyber bullying, let kids know that no one deserves to be bullied, have access to all of their kids' accounts, and their kids should know that their parents may check their things to make sure their online activities are safe. It is also a good idea to keep computers in a busy area of the house, and out of bedrooms, and parents may also want to have a rule that cell phones must be turned off at certain times. Parents have the responsibility to keep their kids safe in any way, shape, or form.