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WHAT IS 

CYBERBULLYING?

Cyberbullying

Bullying is the unwanted, aggressive behavior of people that

implicates power or control on others (“What is bullying”, n.d.),

while cyberbullying is defined as the same, but occurs through the

use of electronic gadgets. In other words, cyberbullying is when a

person is threatened, harassed, humiliated, tormented and embarassed with the use of electronic devices.  Mediums of cyberbullying include text in mobile phones, messages through e-mails, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, blogs for expression of feelings and forums for discussion. Cases of cyberbullying continue to increase every year and there are various actions done to avoid it yet it is still one of the most prominent social issues people, not only children, face today.

 

   According to the article “What is Cyberbullying?” by Hazelden (2011), cyberbullying has unique characteristics that makes it vary from the traditional bullying:

 

 

1. Anonymity

A person who cyberbullies is often anonymous; not like the traditional bully that a person can see and potentially avoided. In this instance, the victim is left wondering who the bully is, which causes a great deal of stress.

 

2. Accessibility

With the traditional ways of bullying, the victim can be bullies at school or in the community during a standard period of time. On the other hand, victims who are cyberbullied can wreak havoc at any time of the day.

 

3. Punitive Fears

Cyberbully victims often do not report because of the fear of retribution from their tormentors and fear that their computer or phone will be taken away since adults’ responses are to remove technology from the victim.

 

4. Bystanders

Traditional bullying occur in the presence of other people who

assume the role of witnesses or bystanders. The concept of being a

bystander in the cyber world is different in that they may receive

emails, view web pages, forward images, etc. The number of

bystanders in the cyber world can reach into millions.

 

5. Disinhibition

The anonymity afforded by the Internet can lead children to engage

in behaviors that they might not do face-to-face. Ironically, it is

their very anonymity that allows some individuals to bully at

all. (Hazelden, 2011)

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Are you aware of the different forms of cyberbullying? Here's what you need to know, NOW! 

 

  1. Harassment – Cyberbullying may be considered as harassment when the bully repeatedly sends offensive or mischievous messages to an individual or a group.

  2. Cyberstalking or Online stalking – It is when a person’s online activities are constantly monitored. It also refers to the continuous sending of inappropriate messages and threats that may lead to physical violence outside the online world.

  3. Outing – This type of bullying shares the private information of someone online; it may be through pictures, videos or in other forms. The person is considered “outed” once his personal information is spread throughout the internet. There is a process of trickery, since the bully tricks someone into revealing personal information then sharing it with others.

  4. Defamation or Vilification – It involves posting defamatory remarks about an individual. These may be general insults, or include prejudice-based bullying. Bullies use their mobile phones or email to send sexist, racist and homophobic messages. Also, they can also target people with physical or mental disability, cultural or religious background, appearance, or socio-economic position. (“Understanding Cyberbullying”, n.d.)

  5. Flaming – It is similar to harassment but flaming pertains to an online fight through email or other instant messaging portals. It is considered as public bullying that contains bitter and rude language or images.

  6. Exclusion – It is the restriction of an individual to join a group or intentionally leaving him/her out of the group such as chats or sites, after such they will leave harsh comments or harass the one that they singled out.

  7. Identity theft and unauthorized access – Hacking means accessing someone’s account by finding out his/her username and password information. Hacking into systems and accounts may be a minor form of cyberbullying, but it is still considered illegal under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Some examples of hacking include accessing someone’s information in order to harass them, deleting someone’s information and impersonating someone.

  8. Masquerading– This type of bullying is when the bully creates a dummy or a fake identity to be able to harass someone anonymously. With that, the bully can impersonate someone and send inappropriate messages to the individual being bullied.

 

 

Effects of Cyberbullying:

 

With all the ongoing cases of cyberbullying come various effects on the victims of cyberbullying. People, particularly children who suffer from cyberbullying have a higher risk of depression and anxiety. Also, the victim loses self-confidence and credibility online because his/her reputation has been damaged with posts. Not only that, it can also threaten a child’s physical and emotional safety and have a negatively impact to their ability to learn.

 

According to the article “The Real Effects of Cyberbullying” (2015), children who suffer from this usually have the urge to not want to go to school, an explicit drop in his/her grades, self-esteem issues or worse, result to alcohol or drug use and sometimes even suicide. Cyberbullying has been considered as one of the leading reasons why teens choose to take their own lives. Victims have taken their own because they felt pressured, embarrassed and felt they have no other alternatives (“The Real Effects of Cyberbullying”, 2015).

 

For others, they use cyberbullying as an internet marketing. Online reputation is very important considering how powerful opinions of people is combined all together. A single post can ruin and destroy someone’s reputation. However, some see cyberbullying as an effective way to gain popularity. Since issues in social media are easily spread, it is easy to gain attention from other people. Sometimes the people who is cyberbullied is the one who wants to be popular. They just want to have fun such as getting many like. (Agabin, 2013)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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