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Cyberbullying is a growing concern around the world. It is clear that cyberbullying has a world-wide impact, but existing laws and increased education about the issue can help countries respond to and eliminate the problem. The Internet industry works to prevent and stop cyberbullying. One common solution to help stop cyberbullying on social networking sites is the ability to report abuse.
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What is Cyberbullying?
- Sending mean, vulgar, or threatening messages or images.
- Posting sensitive, private information about another person.
- Pretending to be someone else in order to make that person look bad.
- Intentionally excluding someone from an online group.
- Spreading lies and rumors about victims.
- Tricking someone into revealing personal information.
The nature of gaming as a place where cyberbullying occurs, can happen through gaming websites or PC and console games with online components (e.g. Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3).
Cyberbullying in gaming is usually referred to as "griefing" and is fairly common among young gamers who use IM, chat, and voice chat features to tease and taunt other players.
How is Cyberbullying Different from Face-to-Face Bullying
- The victim has no place to hide; the bully can target them anytime and anyplace.
- Cyberbullying can involve a very wide audience (e.g. through the circulation of video clips on the internet), although the bully may not be aware of their reactions.
- The bully is relatively protected by the anonymity of electronic forms of contact, which acts as a safeguard against retaliation or sanctions.
- As with some indirect traditional bullying, the cyberbully does not usually see the response of the victim, changing the satisfactions or inhibitions normally generated by this.
- Adolescents who tended to spend more time online tended also to report that they cyberbullied or were themselves cyberbullied more frequently.
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Possible Short-Term Effects:
- Anxiety
- Loneliness
- Low self-esteem
- Poor social self-competence
- Depression
- Psychosomatic symptoms
- Social withdrawal
- School refusal
- School absenteeism
- Poor academic performance
- Physical health complaints
- Running away from home
- Alcohol and drug use
- Suicide thoughts
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Possible Long-Term Effects:
- High rates of depression
- Social anxiety
- Pathological perfectionism
- Greater neuroticism in adulthood
- Childhood bullying is a highly memorable experience and recollections of these events show no evidence of forgetting
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Cyberbullying is a global problem but government responses vary by country. This issue cannot be solved by the criminal punishment of teens; instead, the best solution is to encourage kids to make the right choices online in the first place. Teaching kids to use privacy settings, block users who are bothering them, and report abuse to social networks can help prevent and reduce cyberbullying. Companies should continue to offer these solutions and promote consumer education to empower users to follow safety guidelines.
It is best to avoid quick reactions to sensationalized news stories about cyberbullying. Instead, legislators should be encouraged to deal with this issue by focusing on educational solutions to combat this behavior. Existing laws are already available to punish the most severe forms of cyberbullying. Increased industry efforts, education for students, awareness and resources for parents will lessen the number of acts of cyberbullying, and alleviate the impact when they do happen.
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