Cyberbullying Case

Cyberbullying

With the advancement in technology today cyberbullying has become easier for today's generation to the point where they no longer need to have a personal confrontation with the target. Cyberbullying is defined by the National Crime Prevention Council as "when teens use the Internet, cell phones or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person." (NCPC, 2006) The National Crime Prevention Council also stated that cyberbullying is a problem that affects almost half of all teens in America. This has become a disturbingly common trend among today's teens. During this paper I will look at what affects this growing trend has on today's youth and what is being down to prevent this problem coming continuing to rise.

Going to school for most children is an already tense experience, but now they are faced with an even bigger social problem called cyberbullying. This problem has taken bullying from the school hallways and playground to their very own households. This new form of bullying comes in various forms from social media sites, instant messengers, emails, and blogs and text messages. These platforms are used to make open threats, impersonate or to post inappropriate photos of those they are trying to target.

Cyberbullying can include posting of hurtful or defamatory photos or remarks about another student. These remarks could just be a general remark or can be intended to attack someone's race, physical disability, personal appearance or family's economic background. A student handout was developed by Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use (Willard, 2007) that describes the different forms of cyberbullying such as:

 Flaming. Online fights using electronic messages with angry and vague language.

 Harassment. Repeatedly sending nasty, mean and insulting messages.

 Denigration. "Dissing" someone online. Sending or posting gossip or rumors about a person to damage his or her reputation or friendship.

 Impersonation. Pretending to be someone else and sending or posting material to get that person in trouble or danger or damage that person's reputation or friendships.

 Outing. Sharing someone's secrets or embarrassing information or images online.

 Trickery. Tricking someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing information, then sharing it online.

 Exclusion. Intentionally and cruelly excluding someone from an online group.

 Cyberstalking. Repeated, intense harassment and denigration that includes threats or creates significant fear.

A cyberbully could falsely gain access to someone's email or social media account and forward nasty messages to everyone in their contact list without anyone knowing that these did not come from the owner of the account. A quick search on Google and one could find a site such as www.armsms.com that allows users to enter any name in the send box send a message to any phone number. A user could use this site to send nasty and hurtful messages to someone and not only be anonymous but could use another person's name as the sender of the message.

These harassers can be classmates, online acquaintances or even anonymous users that the target may have never met. A survey done by MTV and the Associated Press in September 2011 reveals that 76 percent of 14 to 24 year olds say that cyberbullying is a serious problem with people their own age. This survey also reported that 56 percent of those surveyed said that they had personally experienced some form of cyberbullying. This study broke down their findings into categories of the type of cyberbullying that people had experienced over the last six months as; 26 percent had people write something that were not true, 24 percent had people write things online that were mean and 20 percent experienced someone forwarding private messages for others to see. An alarming fact that was provided by this survey was that 46 percent felt that using discriminatory words or phrases was perfectly alright as long they were being made as a joke. (Kaufman, 2011)

A research study was done by Sarah Pedersen of Aberdeen University and was reported in the Huffington Post. Her study revealed that 68 percent of boys stated that they had been bullied and about half of those said that they had themselves bullied someone online. The study also revealed that 49 percent of girls reported to have been bullied and 33 percent said that they had bullied someone else online. Surprisingly this survey also revealed that 40 percent of the boys and girls surveyed admitted to "fraping" another person's Facebook. (Huffington, 2011) According to the Urban Dictionary, fraping is "the act of changing all the details on someone's Facebook page when they leave it open and vulnerable. Personal details, relationship status, gender, sexuality, political views etc." (Urban Dictionary, 2011)

The majority of parents worry about how much time their child spends on the Internet. An article by middleweb.com shows that most parents are not thinking or worried about cyberbullies but are instead worried about their children access pornography sites online (Pappas, 2005). Internet safety has become extremely important and becoming familiar with the warning signs and symptoms of cyberbullying is crucial for parents and teens. Teens who are cyberbullied can experience a variety of emotions and none of which are positive. The Cyberbullying Research Center has shown that there are many warning signs a teen will show if there is being cyberbullied such as:

 Angry, depressed or frustrated after using the computer

 Avoids discussion about what there are doing on the computer

 Becomes abnormally withdrawn from family and friends

 Appears uneasy about going to school or outside in general

This research also noted several warning signs for parents to look out for if their teen is the one that is cyberbullying other teens. Warning signs include:

 Quickly changes or switch screens when you walk by

 Get unusually upset if he/she cannot use the computer

 Uses multiple accounts or uses one that is not their own

 Uses