For now my parents monitor my computer usage but soon I will be old enough to have my own Facebook and YouTube accounts. Many of my friends already have their own. Although it’s cool to read updates and see new things, I know that bullying online is a real problem. From my research, no school or community is immune to the problems of online bullying. Online bullying and bashing other kids is pretty common and more and more students are admitting to being victims, witnesses, and even bullies themselves.
Although the victims of cyber bullies may bear no physical scars, the wounds can still run deep. Cyber bullying can range from mean text messages shared among sixth graders - "Debby is a stupid" - to far more mean acts like students who have been caught using social media networks to prompt schoolmates into sexual encounters. While I have never experienced cyber bullying myself, I have read it online and it’s one of the cruelest things I’ve ever seen.
Recently I was on YouTube searching for a song and the first video that popped up was a boy singing it into his computer. I watched it and he seemed fine, but it looked like he had a disability (I could have been wrong) so I read the comments to see if they could answer my questions. The comments were fine—at first—with stuff people usually say like, “Don’t listen to what people say, just keep going” but then the comments started getting really cruel like, “Ha you suck and you’re ugly, go get some surgery”, or, “Okay this is what you do, dig a big hole, then jump in, pour the dirt all over yourself and stay there for five hours then I would love to come to your funeral”, and even a death threat! I just stopped reading after that, and to this day, I hope he’s all right and that he didn’t try to hurt himself. His video was posted a year ago, has over 1 million views, and vicious comments are still posted daily.
Bullying is when someone deliberately tries to hurt another emotionally, physically, or mentally. Cyber bullying can be worse. Regular bullying can be stopped because of teachers, parents, or even the start of summer vacation when you don’t have to be around the bully anymore. Cyber bullying usually starts outside of school the minute the bully gets to a computer or phone and can go on forever as hurtful comments and lies can be posted and forwarded from person to person, and forum or chat room, as long as the bully or bullies feel like it.
Research on how teenagers use online social media may be alarming to adults if they only knew more about it. A recent poll conducted by teenagers to other teenagers spoke with more than 700 students. The report found that 44 percent of teenage boys said they had seen a photo of a fellow female classmate naked and 10 percent said they had shared a naked photo of themselves online.
Cyber bullying is different from face-to-face bullying because it can be anonymous since bullies can hide behind account names. Cyber bullying is also different because some bullies are complete strangers to their victim. It is also different because more kids admit to being both a “victim and perpetrator” of cyber bullying. This is strange to me because I don’t get why anyone would want to hurt someone else if they’ve been hurt themselves.