Harassment And The Detrimental Effects Of Cyberbullying

It becomes about the intent, and the followers, as well as the instigator, will still be punished. Overall, all forms of cyber harassment and cyber bullying are detrimental to both the victim and the abuser. In the online article called What Is Bullying, which comes from the previously mentioned government campaign Stop Bullying, “kids who are cyberbullied have a harder time getting away from the behavior” which is due to the fact that “cyberbullying can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reach a kid even when he or she is alone.” With the constant opportunity to harass someone online, the victim no longer has an escape and is therefore more likely to suffer from damaging consequences.
The detrimental effects that all forms of bullying …show more content…
This is not true. Cyber bullying is just as severe, if not worse. In a 2013 case, fourteen year old Hannah Smith committed suicide due to cyber bullying on the social media website Ask.fm. The social media platform Ask.fm allows users to ask questions while remaining anonymous. After constantly receiving hateful, horrible, degrading comments like “you should kill yourself,” “cut yourself,” and “drink bleach” on her Ask.fm account, Hannah decided to take her own life. Cyberbullying is the easiest and most common form of bullying for students now. Unfortunately, it allows students to hide behind a computer or cell phone screen and write hateful messages to hurt their peers. Students that would never physically bully in person can now cowardly hide behind their screens and cyberbully another student; they can do this anonymously or not. In addition, one other social media platform most commonly and frequently used by teenagers is Twitter. On this website, individuals can “sub-tweeting”: the in between of remaining anonymous and not staying anonymous. This is when an individual tweets hurtful comments aimed at someone without specifically mentioning who it was directed towards but can be easily inferred by others. Individuals who use this method may not think they are bullying by making a broad tweet and not mentioning anyone, but it is still a form of cyber bullying. …show more content…
In Dr. Hinduja’s article Cyberbullying Research Summary, he discusses how “with cyberbullying, students may fear for their safety offline due to harassment and threats conveyed online.” Any person who thinks cyber bullying can be solved by "just turning off your laptop" has never been cyber bullied. No one should underestimate the power of cyberbullying or disregard it. Cyberbullying is not just something you can walk away from. One cannot expect a person to just shut off his computer and everything said to them be erased from memory. Victims still have to face the people who sent the awful messages and comments online the very next day at school. In addition, why should an individual be forced to get offline because of another individual’s rude comments? To most teens, going online is not a choice, it is a major part of their daily lives. Although ignoring the messages and comments might be the best solution, it is not always the easiest. In the article Cyberbullying Prevention for Teens the author states that “it’s natural to elicit a defensive response and attempt to deal some ‘well-deserved’ payback on the cyberbully.” Furthermore, to discuss how cyberbullying can not be solved by just going offline is the fact that the victim does not need to be online to be cyberbullied.