Cyber bullying

     Cyber bullying

    Today’s new generation of teenagers are doing plenty use of technology. The high speed internet facilities are commonly available is every home of middle class and higher class family and teenagers are often found busy on internet. Many of them using the instant messengers, social networking sites for interacting with their friends also spends hours in text-messaging with friends on mobile phone. Technology is always being seen in the form of new benefits like easy access to the information and benefit the teenager in studies but many of the teenagers are using internet to commit crimes, exploit innocent and creating negative scenes in life of many of the directly connected people. This technology has allowed some teens to take the bullying that thrives in school hallways into cyberspace.

Cyber bullying is using the Internet, cell phones, video game systems, or other technology to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person. Cyber bullies victimize teens in a variety of ways ( Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2006):

v  Nearly 20 percent of teens had a cyber bully pretend to be someone else in order to trick them online, getting them to reveal personal information.

v  Seventeen percent of teens were victimized by someone lying about them online.

v  Thirteen percent of teens learned that a cyber bully was pretending to be them while communicating with someone else.

v  Ten percent of teens were victimized because someone posted unflattering pictures of them online, without permission.

     According to the American National law against cyber bulling in 2006 around 13 million children and teenagers with a age range of 6-17 were reported as a victim of cyber bullying. (McQuade & Sampat, 2008) states that there is a significant rise in the number of kids being harassed by someone through internet or mobile phones. The cyber bullying is of different types as follows:-

v  Doing fights online using e-mails or chat rooms in angry manner and using vulgar text.

v  Sending dangerous, panic creating and abusing messages to victim repeatedly.

v  Creating rumors and fake news about the victim which can damage his/her social image

v  Hacking victims e-mail and sending vulgar mails to others through it.

v  Talking with victim on chat or instant messenger and creating trust to get sensitive information and then making the information publically available.

v  Purposeful elimination of victim from the common group to keep him alone and unconnected with the friends.  (Willard, 2007a).

      As compare to the face to face bullying which kids normally do with their friends the cyber bullying is more dangerous in many aspects. Firstly it is difficult to track the person who is bullying the victim as the identity of the person is hidden due to use of some fake e-mail ids to post or mail the text against the victim. Second the people involved in the bullying process can increase due to circulation of the material and lot many people may stand against a single alone victim ( Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2006). In face to face bullying the person who is initiating the process may realize after some time that it is actually hurting the victim and can think of stopping the bullying but due to use of technology now the victim is far away from the person initiating the bullying hence due to unawareness of the side effect of the bullying on the victim the person might will continue the process , (McQuade & Sampat, 2008). Finally, the face to face bullying may get caught due to observation of teachers or parents but the cyber bullying is often difficult to track and it is always found that the parents are unaware and unprepared of keeping watch on the cyber activities of teenagers.

The lifetime cyber bullying offending rates from 2004 to 2010 are as follows:-

                                Fig-Lifetime cyber bullying offending rates (2004-2010). (McQuade & Sampat, 2008).

Impact of Cyber bullying

     There is a significant emotional impact of cyber bullying on the victim. The victim often feel depressed, it has been observed a drastic drop in the school performance of the victim facing the cyber bullying, in many cases the victim just start hating the school and avoid going school. In cyber bullying cases it’s always difficult to remove the online posted messages hence the impact of the cyber bullying is long term in nature. The victim many times starts believing the wrong thing which has been posted against him or her which may result into physiological illness or multiple personality disorders. Sometimes the victim becomes violent against the person who has initiated the cyber bullying and tries to physically hurt the person or many time attempts to murder the person, (McQuade & Sampat, 2008). Drugs and alcohol addiction in teenage is the another link to the cyber bullying, the victim end up in the bar or a habit of smoking in order to handle the stress created due to cyber bullying. The victim may enter in the criminal areas to avoid the people who are aware of the wrong thing which has been posted or just to get rid from the regular irritation. The emotional pressure and the loneliness may drag the victim to the step of suicide.

According to the impact of the cyber bullying on the life of the victim as well as an initiator it is a topic on fire. Many families have lost there children due to the side effects of the cyber bullying (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2006). The cyber bullying is also one of the important aspects now days behind the increase in school drop out ratio. Many bright children in studies have lost their track towards their careers just because they become the victim of cyber bullying. It has a huge social impact on each and every member of the families where the teenagers are using the technology in a wrong way and the victim is facing the unreasonable treatment. The prevention of the cyber bullying is very important in terms of offering a secure future to the teenagers and children’s of the world. Many countries have reinforced the law against the cyber bullying. The main steps that society should take against the cyber bullying is that the teachers and parents should keep track of the cyber activities of the children’s and get updated about the advance technology, where as the educator can create the awareness among the student from 6-17 age about the ill effect of cyber bullying and motivate them to avoid such behavior, (STOP Cyberbullying, 2008).

References

1. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. (2006). Cyber Bully Teen. Report prepared by Opinion Research Corporation. Retrieved from:  http://www.fightcrime.org/cyberbullying/cyberbullyingteen.pdf
2. McQuade III, S. C., & Sampat, N. (2008). Survey of internet and at-risk behaviors. Report of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Rochester, NY: Rochester.
3. STOP Cyberbullying (2008). What methods work with the different kinds of cyberbullies? Wired Kids,Inc. Retrieved from : http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/parents/howdoyouhandleacyberbully.html
4. Willard, N. (2007a). Educator’s guide to cyberbullying and cyberthreats. Eugene, OR: Center for Safe and Responsible Internet. Retrieved from : http://www.cyberbully.org/cyberbully/docs/cbcteducator.pdf
5. Willard, N. (2007b). Cyberbullying and cyberthreats: Responding to the challenge of online social aggression, threats, and distress. Champaign, IL: Research Press.