Cyberbullying
Every day millions of people spend hours on various social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Individuals use these internet sources, as well as email and chat rooms, to communicate with each other in an extremely fast and efficient manner. Most businesses, colleges, schools and work places use email to communicate and many organizations have a Facebook page or other form of social media, so people can be up to date with everything going on in the company. While the internet has made life easier for many people all over the world, it has also created a simpler way for people to insult, threaten, stalk and harass others by using anonymous user names and fake identities.
Bullying has been around for …show more content…
It can take place anywhere, anytime and in many different ways, when an individual “takes advantage of the media to harass, intimidate, and stalk others and [it is] especially insidious because it gives the bully a measure of anonymity” (Bullock, et al., 2011: 63). There are some examples of incidents when cyberbullying was taken too far and had fatal consequences. One example of such scenario is Megan Meier’s case. A thirteen-year-old Megan committed suicide after being bullied on MySpace by an individual named Josh, who in reality was Megan’s friend’s mom. Josh posted offensive statements on the public bulletin about Megan and personally insulted her over email, which eventually led Megan to taking her own life by hanging herself in her closet. Megan also suffered from depression and her parents believed that the incident with Josh was the deciding factor in her unspeakable decision (Moreno, 2011: …show more content…
Some cyberbullies do not actually threaten their victims, but simply insult and put them down, so it is hard to hold them accountable based on these laws. The Interstate Communications Act is an example of a preventative measure against cyberbullying, but it is often not valid since “a large portion of cyberbullying cannot be construed as a threat of bodily harm, even if such content is psychologically harmful” (King, 2010: 856). In addition, Telephone Harassment Act was passed to try and eliminate the cyberbullying problem, but it was also not very successful, since “the requirement that the communications be made without disclosing the identity of the author excludes many cases of cyberbullying, as users of e-mail communications and social- networking websites are often readily identifiable” (King, 2010: 856). Since cyberbullying is a relatively new problem, the laws and policies have not been adjusted to fully protects people against
Every day millions of people spend hours on various social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Individuals use these internet sources, as well as email and chat rooms, to communicate with each other in an extremely fast and efficient manner. Most businesses, colleges, schools and work places use email to communicate and many organizations have a Facebook page or other form of social media, so people can be up to date with everything going on in the company. While the internet has made life easier for many people all over the world, it has also created a simpler way for people to insult, threaten, stalk and harass others by using anonymous user names and fake identities.
Bullying has been around for …show more content…
It can take place anywhere, anytime and in many different ways, when an individual “takes advantage of the media to harass, intimidate, and stalk others and [it is] especially insidious because it gives the bully a measure of anonymity” (Bullock, et al., 2011: 63). There are some examples of incidents when cyberbullying was taken too far and had fatal consequences. One example of such scenario is Megan Meier’s case. A thirteen-year-old Megan committed suicide after being bullied on MySpace by an individual named Josh, who in reality was Megan’s friend’s mom. Josh posted offensive statements on the public bulletin about Megan and personally insulted her over email, which eventually led Megan to taking her own life by hanging herself in her closet. Megan also suffered from depression and her parents believed that the incident with Josh was the deciding factor in her unspeakable decision (Moreno, 2011: …show more content…
Some cyberbullies do not actually threaten their victims, but simply insult and put them down, so it is hard to hold them accountable based on these laws. The Interstate Communications Act is an example of a preventative measure against cyberbullying, but it is often not valid since “a large portion of cyberbullying cannot be construed as a threat of bodily harm, even if such content is psychologically harmful” (King, 2010: 856). In addition, Telephone Harassment Act was passed to try and eliminate the cyberbullying problem, but it was also not very successful, since “the requirement that the communications be made without disclosing the identity of the author excludes many cases of cyberbullying, as users of e-mail communications and social- networking websites are often readily identifiable” (King, 2010: 856). Since cyberbullying is a relatively new problem, the laws and policies have not been adjusted to fully protects people against