Cyber Bullying Amongst Adolescents
Problem statement
Amongst people, aggression has been very common and emerged since the inception of humanity. Although adults tend to control and contain their anger to avoid aggression incidents, young people do not exercise much of control especially during their middle and high school years (12-19 years). Such aggressions amongst middle and high school students have in the recent past generated concerns over its impact on the students and the general school climate. Originally, cyber bullying has been practiced using face-to-face techniques. Here, the victim was confronted by the offender through words, fights and other means.
Today, however, technology has changed the technique of bullying especially with the presence of the internet. Online bullying and harassment has become even more prominent and easier to commit given that the bully does not have to engage in a confrontation with the target person. Lack of confrontation in today’s practice of cyber bullying result to virtual actions taking place at home, school or anywhere else provided people are online and with real consequences.
Literature review
According to Steffgen & Konig (2009), bullying evolved into cyber bullying in the recent past. The emergence of cyber bullying was facilitated by advancements in technology where tools like computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices are used to inflict repeated and deliberate harm on victims. Cyber bullying is carried out by a group of people or individuals against a less powerful victim who, as a result, cannot defend themselves.
Today, cyber bullying occurs in various forms such as photo shopping, trolling or flaming, outing, cyber stalking or harassment, and identity theft or impersonation (Steffgen & Konig, 2009). Other forms of cyber bullying include exclusion, denigration and use of physical harm or happy slapping threats. Using technological tools, cyber bullying has been linked to traditional bullying as unsuspicious person is recorded while being harassed and video or digital photo uploaded to a website for public viewing (Steffgen & Konig, 2009). Several electronic communication tools are today in support of cyber bullying like cell phones through text messages, picture, phone calls and video clips and internet use through emails, chat room bullying, instant messages among others.
According to a survey by the National Crime Prevention Council (2007), the internet is a popular and common place tool amongst 13 – 19-year-Olds. In this survey about 78 percent of teenagers reported being in the use of the internet for at least three years. More than half the teenagers reported they had been in use of the internet for about five years. The online landscape by the NCPC (2007) also revealed that about 80 percent of the teens had used the internet “Yesterday”, and 27 percent had used the internet for at least one hour yesterday. This online landscape survey found out that of al the teens, about 96 percent owned an email account on an average of 2.2 email addresses among these teens.
Both middle and high school students have access to the internet at school as this is provided to facilitate internet school-related research. However, not all students used the school internet just for research purposes since more than 50 percent of teens surf the web and 34 percent use their emails to send or receive messages. NCPC (2007) also revealed that 97 percent of all teens used the internet at home, 42 percent used the internet from the house of their friends, and 93 percent engage other online activities at home. Concerning parental involvement, NCPC found out that most parents tended to have fewer rules about the student’s internet use and also demonstrated less involvement especially when the children were past 3 years. This was demonstrated by the large number of high school students reported lack of parental knowledge on their internet activities.
The increased access to the internet and other technological tools used in cyber bullying has made it possible for bullies to frequently attack and threaten adolescents. These have had the effect of an emotional toll on the victims who end up being detained or suspended, skip school or experience emotional distress. Cyber bullying involving text messages have been associated with higher levels of unsafe feelings. According to Parker-Pope (2007), 9 to 34 percent of adolescents have fallen victims of cyber bullies, while one in every five of teens have bullied another youth digitally.
Discussion
The young people in the middle and high schools are very prone to cyber bullying which can happen at home, school or other place provided there is internet. This form of bullying is called cyber bullying and can leave people at the risk of stress or fear which can result to mood, sleep, energy level and appetite problems. Cyber bullying can also result to anxiety, sadness and depression.
Today, advancements in technology and the fact that about 97 percent of the youths have access to the internet reveals that more and more innocent adolescents are vulnerable to cyber bullying. In addition, the reduction in parental involvement on their adolescent’s use of the internet has also enormously contributed to an increase in cyber bullying and victimization. Since cyber bullying involves the use of threats by a powerful bully over less powerful bully, very few adolescent report such incidents to their parents or other person and this calls for more parental involvement in adolescent’s internet activities.
Conclusion
On a daily basis, cyber bullying affects many teens on a daily basis as it involves the use of technology like the internet and cell phones. Cyber bullying, therefore, takes the form of mean messages to a victim’s cell phone or email, spreading rumors, impersonation, and sexting among others. Cyber bullying can lead to anxiety and depression or even suicide which is made worse by the resurfacing of internet circulated items. With the involvement of parents and teachers on the students’ use of the internet and cell phones, there can be a significant reduction on cyber bullying and victimization.
References
The National Crime Prevention Council, (NCPC), (2007). Teens and Cyber bullying. Harrisinteractive Market research. Retrieved from https://www.google.co.ke/search?q=teens+and+cyberbulllying&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Parker-Pope, T., (2007). More teens victimized by cyber bullies. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/more-teens-victimized-by-cyber-bullies/. Last updated on 27 November 2007.
Steffgen, G., and Konig, A., (2009). Cyber bullying: The role of traditional bullying and empathy. Retrieved from https://www.google.co.ke/search?q=cyberbullying%3Athe+role+of+traditional+bullying+and+empathy&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
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