Children’s welfare is important in safeguarding their interest and ensuring future success is ascertained. However, when the kids are subjected to events that interfere with personal happiness and comfort, their focus towards meeting their life goals is deterred. Cases of bullying are among the pertinent issues leading the children to lack focus thus triggering violent behaviors, especially in their learning institutions. Furthermore, owing to developments in technology, cyberbullying has become a norm; with the victims facing issues of self-esteem, depression, and trauma, among other conditions that interfere with their normal lifestyle. The purpose of this memo is to shed light on the growing concerns over cyberbullying, the extent of the issue and affected victims in helping to reform policies that will address the pending community problem.
Statement of the Problem
Cyberbullying has become a recent trend in the globe due to the availability of the internet and the development of social media platforms that develop a social bubble around the users. According to Moyano, Ayllón, Antoñanzas and Cano, (2019) , cyberbullying explicates the use of any electronic communication technologies in bullying an individual either through messaging, intimidation and threats. Children, especially within schools, have faced cases of cyberbullying but the majority still remain reluctant to admit the issue.
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The problem develops from the long-debated issue of bullying whereby persons would harm or instill fear to individuals for their own benefit. Cyberbullying, however, is focused on the social life of the victims on the internet. Social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp, among others, are the primary platforms where the issue develops mostly. For instance, memes created to intimidate a given child will limit their abilities to properly associate, and once the meme is shared over the named social platforms, the kid is left with low self-esteem. Furthermore, cases of depression that can lead to detrimental outcomes may arise from cyberbullying, which shows the significance of the matter as a public health problem.
The extent of the Issue
The problem has evolved over the years and now affects many children due to the availability of the social media platforms. According to Barlińska, Szuster and Winiewski, (2018) , the social sites interconnect with each other to present a vivid lifestyle for a particular individual, thereby providing the bullies with access to vital personal information. This is especially true on children below the age of 18 years who are primary targets of cyberbullying. A study conducted by National Crime Prevention and other research agencies reveals that 87% of the children who have been bullied claim it happened on Facebook, with 19% of the bully cases emanating from Twitter and only 13% from the Blackberry Messenger Application ( National Crime Prevention Center, 2019 ). In general, more than half of the adolescents and teenagers claim to have either engaged in the bullying process or have been bullied in the online platforms. Cyber threats have become more prevalent, with one in every three children from the study claiming to have been threatened through the social networking sites.
Repeated bullying has occurred in the online platforms, with 25% of the subjects in the research claiming to have been bullied for more than one time through the internet. However, over 60% of the bullied children state that they did not report their problem to the relevant social media sites. Furthermore, the research found that less than one in every 5 cyberbullying incidents are reported to the relevant law enforcement agencies who can trace and curb the issues. More than 45% of the children argue that they have been bullied through development of memes with their faces as the character and mean words as the caption. The ability to share such memes in social media platforms or to a group has further instigated the problem, leading to detrimental outcomes.
Victims of the Challenge
The primary victims of child cyberbullying are the children themselves. It is clear that the teenagers fail to report the issue to the relevant social sites or the law enforcement agencies, which is an indication of fear. Furthermore, the children succumb to social trauma; a situation hereby they are unable to associate with others through the social platforms or in face-to-face interactions as they lack confidence and self-esteem. Moreover, these adolescents can develop traumatic experiences with these social sites that may lead to their developing of depression and other disorders, hence affecting their general health status. Such impacts will thus affect the victims of cyberbullying. The parents to the children are also affected by the problem as they may not understand why their kids are changing and factors that have led to their deterioration in academic performance or social status. Also, the parents may have to incur medical expenses if the child is depressed or is affected by other healthcare issues.
Importance of the Problem to the Mental and Child Health
The problem is important for the Mental and Child Health (MCH) because it affects the normal child development, mental health status and their social life. According to Garett, Lord, and Young (2016) , cyberbullying has the effect of depression, trauma, lack of proper association with others and also lowers self-esteem; aspects that are linked to MCH. There is need to understand the issue and how it affects the children by the MCH to guide future interventions that can mitigate the challenge.
Policy Changes and Intervention Programs to address the Problem
The national government in all states should develop the legislation against cyberbullying and instil a tight penalty that will help to reduce the problem in the society. Furthermore, the same approach should be taken into consideration by learning institutions and the students advocated to inform the administration of any issues about cyberbullying within the centers. Furthermore, just like Facebook has done, other social media platforms should integrate a feature update to allow for reporting of bullies and related activities. Moreover, the sites should work with relevant authorities in the native countries to follow the regulations within the states and ensure any bully-related events are reported to the relevant agencies to mitigate the issue.
Conclusion
The memo purposed to explore the issue of cyberbullying and its extent among the children in the interest of developing possible intervention measures that would curb the vice. Notably, it is clear that cyberbullying affects many people; among children, the issue can lead to adverse results. Cases of depression, low self-esteem, deteriorating academic performance, and trauma, among other conditions, are the primary issues related to the matter. The government and social sites where the bullying primarily occurs have the mandate to engage in intervention methods that will not only curb the development of the issue, but also prevent further occurrence of the bullying practices that led to the cyber-related bullying.
References
Barlińska, J., Szuster, A., & Winiewski, M. (2018). Cyberbullying among adolescent bystanders: role of affective versus cognitive empathy in increasing prosocial cyberbystander behavior. Frontiers in psychology , 9 . Obtained from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5988850/
Garett, R., Lord, L. R., & Young, S. D. (2016). Associations between social media and cyberbullying: a review of the literature. Mhealth , 2 . Obtained from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5344141/
Moyano, N., Ayllón, E., Antoñanzas, J. L., & Cano, J. (2019). Children’s Social Integration and Low Perception of Negative Relationships as Protectors Against Bullying and Cyberbullying. Frontiers in psychology , 10 . Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6440379/
National Crime Prevention Center. (2019). Cyberbullying Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.guardchild.com/cyber-bullying-statistics/
