Present Age Cyberbullying Among Youth
The concept of cyberbullying
Cyberbullying, most commonly known as online bullying, is considered a kind of harassment committed by electronic means. It is when someone harasses or bullies a person through the internet, mainly through social media. This has become increasingly common nowadays, mostly among teenagers, due to their outreach to technologies. The distinguished behavior of a bully may include an intent to harm by posting rumors, hate speeches, exposing personal information, defamatory content, and so on. These behaviors may have dismal impacts on the victim's mental health. They begin to adopt various negative emotional responses like suicide, lower self-esteem, and fear of going out in public, which indicates that cyberbullying can cause as much damage as conventional bullying.
To simplify, cyberbullying may imply acts like repeated threats, false accusations, defamatory posts, hacking into a person's content, and so forth. Moreover, online bullying is defined as trolling on the internet, cyber stalking, expressing hate, and posing threats. Online trolling may take place mostly on gaming platforms and social media. The bullies take trolling the internet to evoke a particular reaction in someone or just for personal amusement. Teenagers involved in gaming and social media platforms may fall victim to such acts. Another type of online bullying is cyberstalking, including stalking or following someone electronically. This might pose a threat to the safety and security of the victim. Other activities like threat posts or hate speeches are also often considered a threat to the victim's life.
How cyberbullying takes place
Despite the internet being the go-to place for many people for almost any need, there are still many things about the internet that people are not aware of. Cyberbullying is one of them. Though the specific statistics of cyberbullying differ by country, it is almost ubiquitous in every part of the world. We know that the internet can easily connect one point on the earth to another. People often come across people from other parts of the world. So, it has become easier to commit online harassment worldwide. Researchers suggest that there could be some way to use modern computer techniques and the internet to identify and stop cyber harassment.
Bullies often prefer online harassment to the traditional way of harassing people. They embrace techniques like impersonation or creating fake accounts to commit such acts. Among the many reasons why people commit online harassment may be jealousy, envy, unemployment, or the desire to feel superior. Victims often fail to identify the person or determine why they are being targeted for harassment. This can have long-lasting effects on the victims, as the content used to harass can reach many people and stay on the internet for an extended time.
Cyberbullying prevention
Though the harmful effects of online bullying may vary between adults and youths, the youth seem more susceptible to its damaging effects. The significant effects of cyberbullying include a variety of negative emotional responses, such as avoiding friends, and public gatherings, a drop in self-esteem, and feeling scared and depressed. In extreme cases, victims have even committed suicide. With such potentially devastating consequences, it is necessary to make adults and youth alike aware of the concept of online bullying and its dangers. Only by working together, we believe, we can put an end to this growing problem.
Covid-19 and the current situation of cyberbullying
Cyberbullying has become more common among children because of all the communication technologies they access. For example, Facebook and Snapchat are the social platforms through which people are being bullied the most. The younger generation spends more time with the media than doing anything else all day. They are the most exposed to electronic screens. Growing teenagers may come across different things online without knowing about them. They may unknowingly get involved in such content that exposes them to bullying. Hence, the current easy availability of technological devices like mobiles and constant access to the internet has made it easier for people to commit harassment online.
On top of that, the COVID-19 period has seen an increase in access to digital platforms by students. With the increased usage of smartphones and social media, students prone to traditional bullying are often prone to online bullying. The home-bound pandemic may exhaust the students into more screen time because of boredom and idleness. While this is a matter of concern, kids who have completed their daily activities early before going to bed at night may get access to additional screen time. In such situations, cyberbullying can become one of their activities if the opportunity arises. While so many parents are stressed out by having to homeschool their children during the pandemic, they are often too exhausted to pay attention to what their children might be doing during times other than school hours.
Parents: Do not let cyberbullying ruin your child's life.
It cannot be left unsaid that conversation with youth is essential. Children must be taught beforehand about online behavior as their use of technology evolves. Parents should be there to let their children know what cyberbullying is and how to take steps if experienced. Children should also feel safe knowing their parents are there to help if such cases arise. If preventive measures are not taken against online harassment, young children and teenagers will start to show significant changes in their behavior. In addition, they might also start to lose interest in their daily activities. Parents should have a conversation with their children if they see any abnormal changes in their behavior. Without a proper conversation, issues like cyberbullying may go unaddressed.
Maintain a safe digital environment.
In an era of continuous technological development, people cannot live a life without electronic devices. However, we must understand and differentiate between the good and the bad. Considering how technology-oriented our lives have become, it is our job to try to maintain a safe and sound digital environment.
