Cyber Bullying Essay: 

In today’s world which has been made smaller by

technology, new age problems have been born. No doubt technology has a
lot of benefits; however, it also comes with a negative side. It has given
birth to cyberbullying. To put it simply, cyberbullying refers to the misuse
of information technology with the intention to harass others.
Subsequently, cyberbullying comes in various forms. It doesn’t necessarily
mean hacking someone’s profiles or posing to be someone else. It also
includes posting negative comments about somebody or spreading rumors
to defame someone. As everyone is caught up on the social network, it
makes it very easy for anyone to misuse this access.

In other words, cyberbullying has become very common nowadays. It

includes actions to manipulate, harass and defame any person. These
hostile actions are seriously damaging and can affect anyone easily and
gravely. They take place on social media, public forums, and other online
information websites. A cyberbully is not necessarily a stranger; it may
also be someone you know.

Cyber Bullying is Dangerous

Cyberbullying is a multi-faced issue. However, the intention of this activity

is one and the same. To hurt people and bring them harm. Cyberbullying is
not a light matter. It needs to be taken seriously as it does have a lot of
dangerous effects on the victim.

Moreover, it disturbs the peace of mind of a person. Many people are

known to experience depression after they are cyberbullied. In addition,
they indulge in self-harm. All the derogatory comments made about them
makes them feel inferior.

It also results in a lot of insecurities and complexes. The victim which

suffers cyberbullying in the form of harassing starts having self-doubt.
When someone points at your insecurities, they only tend to enhance.
Similarly, the victims worry and lose their inner peace.
Other than that, cyberbullying also tarnishes the image of a person. It
hampers their reputation with the false rumors spread about them.
Everything on social media spreads like wildfire. Moreover, people often
question the credibility. Thus,  one false rumor destroys people’s lives.

How to Prevent Cyber Bullying?

Cyberbullying prevention is the need of the hour. It needs to be monitored

and put an end to. There are various ways to tackle cyberbullying. We can
implement them at individual levels as well as authoritative levels.

Firstly, always teach your children to never share personal information

online. For instance, if you list your home address or phone number there,
it will make you a potential target of cyberbullying easily.

Secondly, avoid posting explicit photos of yourself online. Also, never

discuss personal matters on social media. In other words, keep the
information limited within your group of friends and family.
Most importantly, never ever share your internet password and account
details with anyone. Keep all this information to yourself alone. Be alert
and do not click on mysterious links, they may be scams. In addition, teach
your kids about cyberbullying and make them aware of what’s wrong and
right.

In conclusion, awareness is the key to prevent online harassment. We

should make the children aware from an early age so they are always
cautious. Moreover, parents must monitor their children’s online activities
and limit their usage. Most importantly, cyberbullying must be reported
instantly without delay. This can prevent further incidents from taking
place.

FAQs on Cyber Bullying

Q.1 Why is Cyberbullying dangerous?

A.1 Cyberbullying affects the mental peace of a person. It takes a toll on
their mental health. Moreover, it tarnishes the reputation of an individual.

Q.2 How to prevent cyberbullying?

A.2 We may prevent cyberbullying by limiting the information we share

online. In addition, we must make children aware of the forms of
cyberbullying and its consequences.

 Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about
someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else, causing
embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal
behavior.

Other helpful definitions include:

“Cyberbullying is when someone repeatedly and intentionally harasses, mistreats, or makes fun of
another person online or while using cell phones or other electronic devices.” (Hinduja & Patchin, 2019 ).

One student shared that “all bullying hurts, whether in person or through technology, the end
result is that bullying in any form is emotionally damaging.”Some of the most common
cyberbullying tactics include:

 Posting comments or rumors about someone online that are mean, hurtful, or
embarrassing.
 Threatening to hurt someone or telling them to kill themselves.
 Posting a mean or hurtful picture or video.
 Pretending to be someone else online in order to solicit or post personal or false
information about someone else.
 Posting mean or hateful names, comments, or content about any race, religion,
ethnicity, or other personal characteristics online.
 Creating a mean or hurtful webpage about someone.
  Doxing, an abbreviated form of the word documents, is a form of online harassment
used to exact revenge and to threaten and destroy the privacy of individuals by
making their personal information public, including addresses, social security, credit
card and phone numbers, links to social media accounts, and other private data.
Unique Characteristics of Cyberbullying
While all bullying is characterized by intentional, often repetitive, hurtful behavior toward another
person or group, there are distinguishing elements when it happens online or via smartphone,
which include:

 Persistent. Most students have access to some form of technology at all times,
which means cyberbullying can happen any time—in the morning, afternoon, and
evening—not just while children are at school. It happens while at home or in the
community.
 Hard to detect. While some bullying is very overt, such as pushing or damaging
belongings, cyberbullying happens through phones and on computers or tablets,
making it much more difficult for adults to detect.
 Anonymous. Cyberbullying can be done anonymously. Those being bullied might not
even know who is perpetuating the behavior, which makes it easy for one child to
hurt another and not be held accountable.
 Shared to a potentially larger audience. Information online can be easily and quickly
shared, which makes it difficult to contain or stop negative messages once they are
posted online.
 Easier to be hurtful. It is often easier to bully using technology because of greater
physical distance The person bullying doesn’t see the immediate response from the
person being targeted They might not recognize the serious harm caused by their
actions because technology distances them from the real-life pain they could be
causing.
 Permanent.* Once something is shared on the internet, it is often available to
everyone, everywhere It can be challenging to completely delete information once it
is on the internet.

 Cyberbullying Victimization. We define cyberbullying as: “Cyberbullying is when

someone repeatedly and intentionally harasses, mistreats, or makes fun of another
person online or while using cell phones or other electronic devices.” Approximately
37% of the students in our sample report experiencing cyberbullying in their
lifetimes. When asked about specific types of cyberbullying experienced in the
previous 30 days, mean or hurtful comments (24.9%) and rumors spread online
(22.2%) continue to be among the most commonly-cited. Thirty percent of the
sample reported being cyberbullied in one or more of the twelve specific types
reported, two or more times over the course of the previous 30 days.
 Cyberbullying Offending. We define cyberbullying as: “Cyberbullying is when
someone repeatedly and intentionally harasses, mistreats, or makes fun of another
person online or while using cell phones or other electronic devices.” Approximately
15% of the students in our sample admitted to cyberbullying others at some point in
their lifetime. Posting mean comments online was the most commonly reported
type of cyberbullying they reported during the previous 30 days (9.3%). About 11%
 of the sample reported cyberbullying using one or more of the eleven types
reported, two or more times over the course of the previous 30 days.
 Cyberbullying by Gender. Adolescent girls are more likely to have experienced
cyberbullying in their lifetimes (38.7% vs. 34.5%). This changes when reviewing
experiences over the previous 30 days, where boys are slightly higher. In this
sample, boys were more likely to report cyberbullying others during their lifetime
(16.1% vs. 13.4%) and in the most recent 30 days (8.1% vs. 4.6%). The type of
cyberbullying tends to differ by gender; girls were more likely to say someone
spread rumors about them online while boys were more likely to say that someone
threatened to hurt them online. As with 2016, boys reported significantly more
involvement in every type of cyberbullying offending behavior we asked about. In
the past, this has varied by type of behavior.