One of the biggest things that people of online communities tend to overlook is the fact that words do hurt. Although these things that are hurtful are not being said online, saying them online can amount to just as much hurt and maybe even more.
I have been a witness and a victim to cyberbullying and have seen the effects that it can have on the victims and overall online communities that play a part with it. Cyberbullying is easily seen and more accessible on social media sites just because of the social freedoms that the sites allow us to have. I hope that in the future, social sites can find some way to automatically delete any type of cyber-threatening posts; I would love to do all within my power to try to stop the online bullying that occurs.
In this post I will talk about why cyberbullying should be stopped, it’s effects on social sites, methods that could be taken in order to prevent it.
What is Cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is the use of technology to bully a person or group. Bullying is repeated behaviour by an individual or group with the intent to harm another person or group. Cyberbullying can involve social, psychological and even, in extreme cases, physical harm. Young people can cyberbully other young people through abusive texts and emails, hurtful messages, images or videos, imitating others online, excluding others online or through nasty online gossip and chat. It can cause shame, guilt, fear, withdrawal, loneliness and depression.
Because children and young people are often online it can be hard for them to escape cyberbullying. Nasty messages, videos and gossip can spread fast online and are hard to delete. Sometimes the attackers can be anonymous and hard to stop. This can make it harder for adults to see and manage.
Cyberbullying can happen to anyone, however often the young people involved in cyberbullying are also involved in other kinds of bullying.
