Cyberbullying refers to a type of harassment that occurs while using communication technology channels. Considering an increase in the use of the internet, the issue of cyberbullying has become a prevalent issue among internet users. The bullying behaviors that are common within the internet include positing threats, rumors, hate speech, or sexual remarks concerning other individuals. The issue of cyberbullying is common within social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, among other sites considering that the bullies can conceal their identities when engaging in the bullying behaviors. According to Whittaker & Kowalski (2015), cyberbullying is shared among the teenagers as they engage in the use of social media sites more often to interact and socialize with peers from different parts of the world. Additionally, teenagers are more vulnerable based on their interests in online gaming, thereby creating a platform for internet trolling, which is collective bullying behavior on the internet.
Understanding the issue of cyberbullying requires having the ability to recognize behaviors that intend to harm the internet users. Firstly, it is essential to understand that cyberbullying involves behavior that is repeated often to cause harm to specific individuals using the internet. The repeated actions may include aspects such as endless emails or messages with inappropriate content that aim at ridiculing and humiliating a target person within the internet. In that case, the bullies tend to disclose personal information to cause more harm and humiliation to the victims. Secondly, it is necessary to understand that cyberbullying may take the form of cyber stalking or impersonation to expose and defame a target individual. In this case, the bullies engage in creating fake accounts that are used for impersonation .
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When thinking about the rising cases of cyberbullying, what comes to mind is the stakeholders affected by the whole issue. That creates the need for having to examine each of the stakeholders individually in a bid to determining how they are affected by the entire point of cyberbullying, which has been noted as an outcome of technology. In the adoption of effective strategies to help deal with the problem, it is essential to engage the different stakeholders based on their involvement in the issue. That will be of great value towards pushing for a much more advanced platform through which to understand cyberbullying while reflecting on the value placed on dealing with the notable impacts. The following is an analysis of the stakeholders that are affected by cyberbullying:
Children and Teens: The victims of cyberbullying are often children and teens a majority of who do not understand how they would protect themselves from exposure to such cases of bullying. Waasdorp & Bradshaw (2015) take note of the fact that one of the factors that have been attributed to rising cases of depression among children and teenagers is the fact that they are facing bullying through the internet. Cyberbullying is not often associated with adults; thus, highlighting the need for having to focus on its impacts on the younger population.
Parents: Parents are stakeholders in the issue of cyberbullying, considering that they have a crucial role to play in ensuring that they protect their children from exposure to bullying. However, a significant number of parents today are not aware of the fact that their children are likely to be exposed to cyberbullying. That makes it hard in the approach towards ensuring that cases and effects of cyberbullying are minimized, as there is an apparent lack of engagement with the parents.
Schools: In a recent study on cyberbullying, it was noted that a majority of children and teens, exposed to bullying through different online platforms, know those bullying them from schools or learning institutions. That means that schools are responsible for cultivating the culture of bullying, which extends to the internet. The need to establish a transparent approach through which to deal with bullying at the school level is driven by the fact that this would help in ensuring that children and teens are protected from the possibility of cyberbullying.
On the effects associated with cyberbullying, what is clear is that indeed, a majority of those being exposed to cyberbullying face high risks of depression and, in severe cases, results in deaths. Barlett, Gentile, & Chew (2016) argue that the number of preventable deaths associated with cyberbullying is on the rise considering that those being exposed to bullying often feel confined to an extent where they are not able to share their feelings. The deaths are categorized as being preventable taking into account that a majority of these cases are much more likely to be ignored; thus, acting as a critical contributor to the high number of suicides especially among teenagers and young adults. Ultimately, this results in a situation where they use death as an out for them to deal with the feelings of fear that they continue being exposed to through cyberbullying.
The increasing demand for social media interaction is only likely to worsen the situation, considering that it will be much harder for society to deal with the issue of cyberbullying effectively. That means that many more children and teenagers are likely to find themselves being exposed to a high risk of bullying through different internet platforms. Parents have a crucial role to play in engaging their children as a way of trying to determine the risk of exposure for them. One of the most significant challenges that have been noted when dealing with the issue of cyberbullying is the fact that a majority of parents do not engage with their children regularly. That means that the majority of children facing risks of cyberbullying find themselves in new environments without the necessary help that they would need. From this perspective, it is clear that indeed, parents have a crucial role to play in working towards creating a conducive environment that would allow their children to talk.
Schools must also be willing to educate the children on the effects associated with cyberbullying with the aim being towards promoting deterrence. Although schools have taken up the initiative allowing them to deal with cases of physical bullying, it has become extremely challenging for them actually to come up with strategies to deal with cyberbullying. The challenge has been driven by the fact that most teachers do not have the knowledge and information on how cyberbullying is experienced. That builds on the need for training and development of teachers to be towards pushing for more involvement in the area of dealing with cyberbullying. School management must understand that their roles in dealing with the problem of cyberbullying cannot be ignored, taking into account that students spend a significant amount of time in school environments.
References
Barlett, C. P., Gentile, D. A., & Chew, C. (2016). Predicting cyberbullying from anonymity. Psychology of Popular Media Culture , 5 (2), 171.
Waasdorp, T. E., & Bradshaw, C. P. (2015). The overlap between cyberbullying and traditional bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health , 56 (5), 483-488.
Whittaker, E., & Kowalski, R. M. (2015). Cyberbullying via social media. Journal of School Violence , 14 (1), 11-29.
