Cyberbullying

What Is Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.

The most common places where cyberbullying occurs are:

• Social Media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter
• SMS (Short Message Service) also known as Text Message sent through devices
• Instant Message (via devices, email provider services, apps, and social media messaging features)
• Email

 

Special Concerns

With the prevalence of social media and digital forums, comments, photos, posts, and content shared by individuals can often be viewed by strangers as well as acquaintances. The content an individual shares online – both their personal content as well as any negative, mean, or hurtful content – creates a kind of permanent public record of their views, activities, and behavior. This public record can be thought of as an online reputation, which may be accessible to schools, employers, colleges, clubs, and others who may be researching an individual now or in the future. Cyberbullying can harm the online reputations of everyone involved – not just the person being bullied, but those doing the bullying or participating in it. Cyberbullying has a unique concerns in that it can be:

 Persistent – Digital devices offer the ability to immediately and continuously communicate 24 hours a day, so it can be difficult for children experiencing cyberbullying to find relief.

Permanent – Most information communicated electronically is permanent and public, if not reported and removed. A negative online reputation, including for those who bully, can impact college admissions, employment, and other areas of life.

Hard to Notice – Because teachers and parents may not overhear or see cyberbullying taking place, it is harder to recognize.

What does cyberbullying look like?

Cyberbullying comes in many forms, but the most common are:

• receiving mean or hurtful text messages from someone you know or even someone you don’t know
• receiving nasty, threatening or hurtful messages through social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat
• people sending photos and videos of you to others without your permission to try and embarrass or hurt you
• people spreading rumors or lies about you via emails or social networking sites or text messages
• people trying to stop you from communicating with others or excluding you from chat groups
• people stealing your passwords or logging into your accounts and changing the information there
• people setting up fake profiles pretending to be you, or posting messages or status updates from your accounts.
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Why is cyberbullying so hard to deal with?

• A lot of people can view or take part in it.
• The content (photos, texts, videos) can be shared with a lot of people.
• It is often done in secret with the bully hiding who they are by creating fake profiles or names, or sending anonymous messages.
• It’s difficult to remove because it’s shared online so it can be recorded and saved in different places.
• It’s hard for the person being bullied to escape it if they use technology often.
• This content may also be easy to find by searching on a web browser like Google.

How can cyberbullying affect you? It can make you feel:

• guilty - like it’s your fault
• hopeless and stuck like there’s nothing you can do about it or stop it
• embarrassed, like you don’t fit in
• depressed and rejected by your friends and other groups of people
• unsafe and afraid and scared to go to school
• stressed-out wondering what to do and why this is happening to you.

Ways To Prevent Cyberbullying

1. Talk

Every psychologist will tell you that the best way to help your child or student is to have a conversation first. Be patient and ask a child about the problem in general: what is cyberbullying, does he/she know someone who is being bullied, what children should do if notice acts of bullying. This way you will see how much your child is involved in the situation and which side he/she is on.

2. Use celebrity card

Modern children are the same as we used to be. They choose role models and follow them in every way. Now they choose singers, sportsmen and actors. Nowadays, a lot of celebrities are supporting cyberbullying victims. Many of them post numerous comments against online bulling on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Demi Lovato Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus are the most popular teen singers who talk about this problem out loud.

3. Monitor online activity

Luckily, cyberbullying has one advantage: you can notice it and save the evidence. If taking their phone away is not an option, you can install iPhone monitoring app Pumpic. It allows monitoring social media activity, including Facebook and Instagram, view all text messages (even deleted ones), call logs and general online behavior. You can block and control the child’s phone remotely through PC or personal cell phone.

4. Engage parents and youth

Create a community for adults and pupils to send a unified message against cyberbullying. Establish a school safety committee that will control and discuss the problems of online bullying. You can create policies and rules, including cyberbullying reporting system. It is important to make the main objectives known to parents, school and children.

5. Build a positive climate

School staff can do a big deal to prevent cyberbullying.  As a teacher you can use staff and parents meetings and even send newsletters. Use your school website to create a page and forum, where parents can discuss the problem. You can also engage bullies and victims by giving them mutual tasks, so they can try to see each other from a different perspective.

6. Volunteer in the community

As a parent, you can prevent bullying by working in the community. With your experience on the ground, appropriate strategies can help identify the victims and redirect bullies’ behavior.

 

References

Green, P. (n.d.). www.google.com. Retrieved from htp://www.teachthought.com/technology/7ways-to-prevent-cyberbullying.

www.google.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://au.reachout.com/articles/what-is-cyberbullying

www.wekipedia.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/index.html