Cyber Bullying: How Desperate Their Children Are Until It Is Too Late

Analysis of Cyber-Bullying
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Analysis of Cyber-Bullying
Most parents do not have any idea of how desperate their children are until it is too late and something bad has happened to them. Most of the teenagers who have been bullied or have received some sort of harassment from their peers end up committing suicide. Beside suicides, tragic stories resulting from cyberbullying are becoming frequent not only in America but across the world. Cyberbullying victims are often impacted with intense psychological and emotional effects with most of the victims experiencing at least one or a combination of various feelings such as shame, embarrassment and isolation. In most cases, this results in tragic physical violence. The media has reported some of the most tragic and appalling incidents of cyber bullying. These media reports are alarming not only to parents, but also to educators and policy makers. Therefore, this project is aimed at providing parents, educators and policy makers an overview of cyber bullying. To begin the project, it is important to have a look at bullying before technological advancements and its relationship to cyber bullying.
Bullying
In the past four decades, bullying in schools has increased and is linked to the rising homicide and suicide cases in most areas. Bullying is however not a behavior in school kids alone as it affects adults too. Scholars have argued that the motive of bullying is something that cannot be changed or corrected by the victims such sexual orientations, economic status, body size or even their color. A research that was conducted by “Fight the Crime Teen” explains that some of the primary cyber bullying motives revolves around having an interest in a certain gender, race, sexual orientation and appearance (Raskauskas, 2009). On the other hand, Safran and Safran (2008) utilize the Social Skills Deficit Model to assert that bullies engage in bullying activities so that they can remain or maintain their social statuses and power.
The schoolyard bullying is often conflicting in various characteristics across the grade levels. The elementary kids may engage in name calling as well as hitting each other while middle and high school students may take it to a different level due to the various opportunities such as cellular phones and access to the internet that are provided to them. Despite computers being used for the development of programs, they have the freedom of interacting with other sites.
Cyber Bullying
Immediately the teenagers were provided with the internet opportunity, they digitized their bullying. In the late 2000s, boys started leaking nudes of underage girls onto various social media platforms as a way of humiliating them. Additionally, collage videos of girls with humiliating captions were also leaked. These photos and videos were accompanied with homophobic comments. The victims ended up receiving rape and even death threats. In general, the technological advancements and evolutions are the foundation of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying takes place through the internet, cellular phones via text messages, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms. Hinduja and Patchin (2011), asserts that:
Kids have been bullying each other for generations. The latest generation, however, has been able to utilize technology to expand their reach and the extent of their harm. This phenomenon is being called cyberbullying, defined as: “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices.
Bullying has evolved from school fights to character assignation through the internet. The internet has no mercy, it has turned people into passive aggressors. It has given them an opportunity to humiliate people without necessary justification. However, I think some people do not realize that they are doing it. It is just that we are negative towards things that do not matter to us. What cyberbullying victims are undergoing these days is an abusive culture that is being built and reflected on social media and is even getting worse if proper measures controlling the use of technology will not be implemented.
Evolution of Cyber bullying
As stated above, bullying has been around for long and has evolved over the years to cyber bullying. One of the reasons why cyber bullying has gained attention of parents, the school administrators and the legislators is because of the increased awareness of the repercussions of cyber bullying. The hard truth of cyber bullying is that the internet never forgets. Once someone has been bullied online, especially on open sites such as Twitter where posts can be re-tweeted or re-posted, it is impossible to control or prevent the post from spreading. In some instances, hate posts have continued to flood in the social media account of a victim even after the victim has committed suicide. Thus, the terrors of cyber bullying spreads very fast unlike in traditional bullying where mean comments are spread by word of mouth. Nowadays, one does not need to meet their victim or perpetrator face to face since the world has become a global village. The ability to create multiple accounts on social media has also contributed to the evolution of cyber bullying. Bullies are able to create multiple fake accounts to target different individuals. However, victims have also made themselves easy targets, based on what they post online. It is easy to know that someone has a low self-esteem based on the comments or remarks they make on social media platforms. This exposes them to bullies who are willing to trash their self-esteem even more.
In 2006, a 13 year-old girl named Megan Meier committed suicide in her bathroom after weeks of being bullied on-line by someone who had initially started out as her friend through MySpace. She had been communicating with the person, who pretended to be a boy interested in Megan, for weeks. It turned out that the person was an adult, contrary to what Megan thought, who had created an account in the social website specifically to harass Megan. The Megan Meier case drew national attention to cyber bullying after it was discovered that the person behind the screen was actually a woman whose daughter used to be Megan’s friend. As a result, a bill known as Megan Meier Cyber bullying Prevention Act was introduced in 2009 and although it was never enacted, it brought more attention to cyber bullying and the need for passing laws to protect victims of cyber bullying. The perpetrator was eventually acquitted and the lack of definitive federal and state laws regarding cyber bullying may have contributed to this. This led to the enacting of the Megan’s law in Missouri to prevent harassment of individuals via the internet.
As technology advances, so does cyber bullying. Almost everyone, old and young, has access to a device with internet connectivity. This has made it easier to interact with people across the world and bullies have also taken this opportunity to spread terror to other people. The case of Megan described above is a true depiction of how technology has influenced the evolution of cyber bullying. People are able to disguise themselves to match preferred character of their target. In addition, the ability to remain anonymous over the internet ensures that the real identity of the perpetrator is not known to the victim. The current generation is also more tech-savvy and is able to manipulate the internet to fit their personal needs. What has made technology an effective tool for cyber bullies is the fact that victims share personal information via the internet, oblivious of who is watching them.
Legislation Related to Cyber Bullying
Cases of cyber bullying have been increasing over time and as a result, legislators are more dedicated to enacting new laws or amending existing ones to address cyber bullying. There are federal and state legislations that are currently used by law enforcement to address cybercrimes and ensure justice for victims. Currently, there are no federal laws in the U.S addressing cyber bullying directly since the Megan Meier Cyber-bullying Act was never enacted. However, the federal government addresses cyber bullying through the federal civil rights laws that ensure there is no harassment in federally-funded schools. In addition, some cases may incorporate federal stalking laws and cyber bullies can therefore attract stalking charges.There is however laws in different states in the U.S that address cyber bullying, with close to 48 states having an explicit law on cyber bullying.
In Nevada, there is a bullying law which include cyber bullying. It also includes electronic harassment and requires a school policy for public schools within the state although the schools are not allowed to discipline cyber bullies unlike in other states with school sanctions(Hinduja & Patchin, 2016). However, it does not include off campus behaviours. Cyber bullying in Nevada falls underNevada Senate Bill (SB) 163(Chapter 188), which defines cyber bullying as “bullying through the use any written, verbal or pictorial information through the use of an electronic device, including, without limitation, a telephone, a cellular phone, a computer or any similar means of communication”.
In addition there is an act that falls under SB 504, updated on March 2015, which provides disciplinary measures against public school administrators and all employees in the school if they fail to comply with the provisions of the law concerning bullying and cyber bullying. Public school administrators are required to include a policy on the provision of safe and respectful learning environment. They are also required to “amend provisions relating to reports of and investigations into incidents of bullying; and providing other matters properly relating thereto”. The Senate bill also created an office of safe and respectful learning environment that has a website and a toll-free hotline within the department of educationthat allows individuals to report incidences of cyber bullying. The legislation concerning a safe and respectful learning environment, as stated in Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS 388.132), declares that “the use of internet by pupils in a manner that is ethical, safe and secure is essential to a safe and respectful learning environment and is essential for the successful use of technology”. In addition, it declares that any school administrator, teacher or employee who encourages, tolerates or participates in bullying or cyber bullying will be answerable.
Cyber bullies can also be punished under the cyber stalking laws in Nevada. NRS 200.575(3) states that cyber-stalking is punishable as a category C felony as provided in NRS193....