Preventing Cyberbullying by Forbidding Texting

Globalization has amplified the spread of technology across borders created the world smaller and additional interconnected. It can be reached anywhere through a telecommunications line and also comes to the laptop by converting the analog signal into a digital signal. This has brought uncounted advantages to us however we cannot turn our face from its disadvantages. One amongst the disadvantages of the internet world and its anonymous convenience is individuals’ exploitation the web to form different people's lives troublesome. This event is called cyberbullying. The word cyberbullying refers to bullying that involves the usage of an internet platform while using smart phones, computers, or other electronic devices to intentionally and repeatedly bring physical or emotional harm to the victim by an individual or a group of people (Patchin and Hinduja, et al. 2006). According to Dooley et al. (2009) and Van de Bosch and Cleemput (2009), cyberbullying entails the power of being anonymous, the power of assuming a false identity, the power of spreading rumours and lying to a wide audience, and the power of 24/7 accessibility to harass a victim anywhere and anytime. This is supported by electronic communication, will create individuals behave in an exceedingly bound manner, language and doing things they otherwise wouldn't. Because they are not physically present, an individual does not have to worry about how they look or sound when communicating with others online. The internet contains everything but you have no control over what anonymous people will be posted about you. In step with Kowalski, Limber and Agatson (2012), disinhibition is that the reason why cyberbullying contains such a robust threatening issue. Thus, remarkably, it's the obscurity that enables some people to bully at all. On the other hand, Willard (2006; 47) claims that this anonymity is more a false appearance than reality: “people are not totally invisible or anonymous when they use information and communication technologies. In most cases, they leave ‘cyber footprints’ wherever they go.”

Teens are additional usually encounter cyberbullying than the elderly. According to the Dutch Central Buro of Statistics (CBS), in 2012, 10.3% of 15 to 18-year-olds had been confronted with one or more types of cyberbullying, compared to less than 1 percent of the over-65s (CBS, 2013). Use of the internet plays a big role of teens’ lives and they are very active on social media. According to a piece of writing within the Guardian, The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) conducted analysis concerning youngsters being victims of cyberbullying. They concluded that, within the area of 5 years, cyberbullying among youngsters has inflated by 88%. In 2015/2016, there have been 4,541 victims of online bullying, compared to 2,410 victims in 2011/2012 (The Guardian, 2016). By far, the main reason they stay silent about such experiences was that they did not want their parents to know about their online life. They think it’s too personal to tell people about cyberbullying and took no action against the bullying, mainly because they thought it was harmless.

The literature indicates that cyberbullying peaks during middle school when adolescents are most vulnerable to experiences affecting their personal identity development (Aleude, et al., 2008). The initiative acknowledges adolescence as an important shift amount from childhood to adulthood and notes the impact that negative experiences at this age will wear adolescent development, in addition as progression into adulthood. Adolescence is an important developmental period that includes emotional and physical changes, as well as the need for adolescents to find their own identity and achieve psychosocial autonomy (Valkenburg & Peter, 2011). Almost 50% of all adolescents have experienced cyberbullying, reported by Cyberbullying Research Center (2013). The cyberbullying-related suicide cases reported increased over time, with 56 percent occurring from 2003 to 2010, compared to 44 percent from January 2011 through April 2012 (American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP], 2012). So, this paper will be entirely discussing about the causes and effect of cyberbullying among adolescents, as well as, the solutions to cope with this matter.

Nowadays, cyberbullying is not an unusual phenomenon as the teenagers often exhibit such behaviour, either intentionally or not, by bullying others on the social media. This phenomenon is very famous and popular around teenagers especially for secondary school students as it’s gave a “fun time” for the students to help them release their stress. One of reasons that teenagers spend their time for cyberbullying activities is psychological adjustment. According to Sourander (2010), researchers have found poorer psychosocial relationships for children who engage in bullying. For example, Kaltiala-Heino, Rimpela, Rantanen, and Rimpela (2000) was carried out a study involving over 26,000 Finnish adolescents and found that involvement in the perpetration of bullying was associated with a range of mental health problems (such as anxiety, depression and psychosomatic symptoms). Psychosomatic problems have also been found to be associated with bullying perpetration in a meta-analytic study (Gini & Pozzoli, 2009) and students who traditionally bully have been found to be at increased risk for difficulties at school and behaviour maladjustment (Wei & Chen, 2011). Bullies are at increased risk for substance abuse (Sourander et al., 2007) with Niemella and colleagues (2011) demonstrating that bullying others at age 8 positively predicted illicit drug use at age 18 among males.

Next, the cause of cyberbullying on adolescents is motivated by revenge. Revenge is defined as the action of hunting or harming someone in return for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands. According to Gordon (2019), bully-victims feel justified in their actions because they, too, have been harassed and tormented. One of the best examples is when kids have been bullied; they often seek for revenge instead, but them coping the situation in the healthier ways. The motivation for these victims of bullying is to take revenge for the pain they have experienced. Therefore, when this problem happens, these kids are often referred to as bully-victims.

Cyberbullying has several negative effects on teenagers that occur before suicide. The student’s academic performance will begin to decrease (Mason, 2008). Students who engage to cyberbullying are mostly discouraged to study, to join school activities and anything that related to school. The phenomenon of cyberbullying is famous to cause mental health problems such as emotional distress, psychological effect and it also make the victim feel as there is no safe place to escape from bully. This is the point where the individual will begin to feeling depression and pressured, feeling that they cannot make any alternatives and thinks that no one will cares about them and feels very hopeless. Research shows that the primary causes of cyberbullying are anonymity, approval, boredom; instigate jealousy, no perceived consequences or projection of feelings, protection, 14 reinvention of self, and motivated by revenge (Notar, 2013). Anonymity is the condition of being anonymous. In the internet, you can choose to be anonymous or not. No one will know your identity. That is why cyberbully attacks happen frequently. It is because they can do it anonymously which lessens the chances of them being caught by the authority. It makes them feel less accountable for their action.

Furthermore, another effect of cyberbullying on adolescents is suicide. Suicide is defined as the act of intentionally causing one’s own death. Suicide due to cyberbullying is very real as students who experienced bullying or cyberbullying are nearly 2 times more likely to attempt suicide (Hinduja & Patchin, 2018). Recently, the actress, singer and former K-pop band member named Choi Jin-ri (Sulli) was found dead in her house. She was only 25 years old. Sulli’s manager found her while checking her house in Seongnam, South Korea, after she failed to answer phone calls, said Kim Seong-tae, an official from the Seongnam Sujeong Police Department, according to The Associated Press. Sulli was known for being relatively candid in an industry that often rewarded glossy conformity, said Jeff Benjamin, the K-pop columnist at Billboard. “She really was an outspoken star in an industry that probably would have rather had her stay quiet,” he said. Some fans of the artist suggested that critical comments online had affected her mental health. This shows that everyone can be affected by cyberbullying.

There are a few ways that you can use to combat cyberbullying. One, you can combat it by not posting pictures of your body online. This act is better known as sexting. According to Kowalski et.al (2007), sexting is defined as sending a text message containing a nude or sexually explicit photo. Sexting happens often in school life. The new report, published in JAMA Pediatrics, analyzed 39 studies with a total of about 10,300 young men and women under age 18. It found that sexting has become increasingly more common in recent years. Though the majority of teenagers don’t report sexting, 15% of teens say they send sexts and 27% receive them. The activity is also more common as young people get older, the study authors report. Most of the time, sexting can be a harmless thing. However, it is essential for students to be aware of the danger that it poses if something go away. For an example, one nude photo of you can be delivered to thousands just by a click and once something reaches the thousands, you cannot ever take it back. The circulation of your nude photo can lead to many harmful effects such as your reputation will be harmed and the photos also can be used in criminal activity. If you want to practice sexting, only do it with the person that you trust and never, never post a nude with your face or any notable feature (tattoos) on it. According to Kowalski et.al (2007), research supports that sexting may have long term consequences that impact the future such as higher education choices and employment opportunities (Kowalski et al. 2007). One great example of careers that is ruined because of sexting is married US politician Anthony Weiner. The US congressman sent photos of himself in bed with a pair of white boxers on - shockingly his young son was also in the photo. Weiner had to resign from congress back in 2011 after he accidentally posted a lewd photo of himself on Twitter. Kowalski et al. (2007) note that teens do not connect the risky sexting behavior with the possibility of any negative outcomes, because their brains are not fully developed; particularly the pre-fontal cortex that assesses risks and considers consequences.

Secondly, we can also combat cyberbullying in adolescent by having them talking to their parents. It is very important for parents to be aware on the issue of cyberbullying. According to Strom & Strom 2005; Campbell, 2005, informed and aware parents are able to minimize the emergence of cyberbullying while parents who do not realize the prevalence and effects of the phenomenon are not able to properly guide and support their children, favoring in this way the emergence and maintenance of online bullying (Accordino & Accordino, 2011). When parents are not adequately informed about cyberbullying, they cannot help their children manage cyberspace and take advantage only of its positive aspects and elements (Gasior, 2009). For parents, there are several different ways that you can use to combat cyberbulying such as spending money on monitoring and blocking net safety software, and read every book there is on keeping your kids safe online. However, arguably the most effective method to combat it is by harnessing your relationship with your child. First thing first, you need to establish an openness to talk about what they are doing online, who they are interacting with, and what sites and apps they are using is key to setting the tone for the harder conversation. Secondly, the parents need to show support for their usage of technology and realized the value of technology for them. Set age appropriate limits and discuss expectations. Negotiate with your children on his and your limits, find some middle ground and then you can start to work around it. By doing this, they will be more likely to take ownership of their behavior and you will have a more solid foundation upon which to hold them accountable. Let them know that you, as their parents, have the right to look at their devices, if you feel there is a concern about their safety or if they demonstrate an inability to use technology safely. Connect expectations to your family values. Use language that reflects facts (something that was said or something you heard or observed), statements of consequence (certain actions are helpful or hurtful, effective or ineffective), or personal preferences (“I didn’t like seeing that”). Last but not least, please refrain from judgmental language (e.g., good/bad, stupid, nice, etc.). These kinds of evaluative words can heighten emotions and shut down open communication. A similar research on this issue was also carried out by Elsaesser et al. in 2017. In this research, the researchers reviews the 23 mostly cross sectional articles which existing literature on parents' influence (i.e., parental warmth and parental monitoring) on adolescent cyberbullying, both as victims and perpetrators. (Elsaesser et al., 2017).According to Elsaesser et al., 2017, findings indicate that parental warmth is consistently associated with lower cyberbullying, both as victims and perpetrators.

Thirdly, by educating the students and teachers on cyberbullying, we can help to combat it. According to Diane & Sidney(2008),”Many schools, in fact, have started this kind of training for students, using guest speakers at assemblies and technology classes to help students better understand the ways in which technology poses a threat to their safety”(p.12). There are many initiative that the the school can take to combat cyberbullying. One such example is using an anti-bullying software such as e-Smart Schools, an initiative of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation that provides schools with a framework to create a safe cyber environment for students. According to Diane & Sidney (2008), ”Internet training and discussion of ethical behavior need to involve students, educators, and parents. For students this information and training must start at a young age (students in this study said the cyberbullying began as early as age ten).”The students can be trained on many aspects such as treat everything and everyone with respect (if you want to be treated with respect, do the same to others) and also to think before making every post online, and avoid making posts that can have a negative effect on your reputation. According to Diane & Sidney (2008),” For educators, it might mean creating a cadre of well-trained teachers, counselors, and administrators to become “safe contacts,” giving students a place to turn if they are victims or if they want to report perpetrators or other students whom they believe may be targets. ”The educators can also start to implement anti-cyberbullying policies in the classroom and nurture an environment of mutual respect and tolerance in the classroom.

Fourthly, if you see someone that is cyberbullied, take action. Bullies and victims are not the only ones involved in cyberbullying: most adolescents and young adults have already been bystanders of cyberbullying (Fawzi and Goodwin, 2011; Li, 2010; Lindsay and Krysik, 2012). Passive bystanders are people who choose, for whatever reason, to ignore the situation, or to do nothing about it. Please don’t be a bystander and chicken out. This is because even passive behavior can have an impact, as the bully and victim often perceive this as a confirmation of the bullying (Kowalski et al., 2012). If you are a passive bystander, you are no better than the bully itself. This is because when you see someone that is in need of help, you didn’t help that person. Surely you would want someone to help you when you are being bullied, right? If so, you must be an active bystander and man up. Active bystanders are people who do something to try and improve the situation. I am pretty sure if the bully got stopped by an active bystander, the bully would not do it again. However, studies show that most bystanders remain passive (Li, 2010; Slonje et al., 2012).

The virtual world combines intimacy and distance in a unique way that raises new questions about young people’s social and personal development (Cowie & Colliety, 2010). One such example is that in Japan, there are many residents that has becomes NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) due to their extreme addiction of the virtual world. All students must be taught ways to respond appropriately to cyberbullying and potential bullies must recognize there are serious consequences associated with such behavior, including school discipline, litigation, and criminal prosecution (Beale & Hall, 2007) to prevent more cases of cyberbullying from happening again. Until more is known about proven effective ways to combat bullying, care must be taken to monitor the outcomes of current practices to help ensure that they result in the desired effects (Snakenborg, Van Acker, & Gable, 2011). This is because some current practices may not work in several situation. What works here does not mean it will work someplace else. In conclusion, Rivers and Noret (2009) point out, virtual interactions should not be considered fantasy since they are real to the young people that engaged with them. We need to understand more about the communities in which these interactions take place.