There continues to be an increase in internet use, both due to the availability of smartphones at a low price and due to the infrastructural advancements. As such, cases of cyber bullying or virtual harassments have increased tenfold. A person is considered to have committed harassment, if out of their own willfulness, they undertake to the inconvenience of internet access on the part of other web users. Cyber bullying has far-reaching effects, and it usually is manifested in verbal and in physical forms as well. These effects are more devastating with respect to children, most of whom have no mechanisms in regard to handling the same. The prevalence of cyberbullying has compelled world governments to devise policy frameworks that are aimed at ensuring the security of virtual cyber networks. Notably, the predominance of social media platforms in this golden age of digital media use is a major contributor to the prevalence of cyberbullying (McWhorter & Delello, 2016). Cyberbullying despite the fact that it is undertaken for a raft of reasons, some of which include legitimate grievances, is in itself inherently evil, for it never intentioned for general good, and therefore, acting in pragmatism, states all across the world have put in place policy frameworks in order to dissuade this sort of antisocial behavior.
To begin with, it is important that we totally conceptualize cyberbullying, and this include determining its motivations, forms and further, its effects There are several different types of cyberbullying, and these are more clearly represented by, hurtful comments and the rumors with malicious intent (Wang, Iannotti, Luk & Nansel, 2010).For instance, if one comments negatively about the physical nature of another person, this acts to demotivate the victim, who in this case is also the object of these ill-intentioned comments, and as such, can translate to emotional stress on the part of these individuals. The spreading of rumors, more often than not, involve serious misrepresentations of fact in order to attain personality assassinations. This can have adverse effects on the targeted individuals, especially when the rumors touch on a sensitive matter. Take for example, if there is an outbreak of an infectious disease, say of Ebola, in a region, the news regarding the outbreak should be done by the government through the ministry of health. But if news relating to the same is released on social media, it is likely to be distorted in such a manner as to negatively profile certain persons, discouraging internet use on the part of these individuals as an immediate consequence. Besides, this may even cause the said persons to withdraw from society, and this may place limitations on the management of such like outbreaks.
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Cyber bullying has a detrimental effect on the welfare of school going children, seeing as those children who previously have been bullied find it hard to concentrate on their studies. In fact, in order to cope with the realities of cyberbullying, they may resort to antisocial behaviors like the use of substances and truancy, something that can greatly affect their academic performance and further, complicate their prospects in life (Hase, Goldberg, Smith, Stuck & Campain, 2015).
The only possible way to arrest the degeneration of cyber bullying amongst children into a national crisis is to engage the collaborative efforts of all child welfare stakeholders in regard to cyber security programs, in order that cyber security on the part of underage users may be assured. Towards this end, policies measures, initiated both by governments and by civilians, are continuously being set up in schools so as to help lower cases of bullying. First, according to the Alabama Student Harassment Prevention Act, schools are required to come up with necessary policies, seeing as these will help with a reduction in the cases of bullying. Of the cross-sections of American population, school going children are the most vulnerable, relative to cases of cyber bullying, and for this reason, are also the most preferred targets of cyber bullying, therefore, the development of school programs, primarily with the aim of improving the awareness of cyber bullying in schools, is critical to ensuring that the rate of cyber bullying decreases (Jacobson, Bailin, Milanaik & Adesman, 2016). For instance, schools could dissuade unsupervised internet use on the part of children, not through any punitive measures, but by empowering parents and children with information that clearly stipulates the contribution of any such supervision towards the protection of children’s rights.
With parental guidance and advice, children can become aware of the existence of bullies, their avoidance, and their handling. For instance, children should be advised not to share any information about themselves with strangers while using social media platforms, as that puts their own security at risk by availing their personal information, sometimes even to camouflage cyber criminals
The state of Florida, having proven the positive correlation that exists between unsanctioned cyber activities, such as cyber bullying, and poor academic performance, enacted the bill on harassment, requiring schools to make it illegal for any student perpetrate cyberbullying, and this included the use of explicit language with the intention of hurting others. Also, schools are required to arrange training for their staff, children, and parents, in order for them to better understand cyber bullying (Gasser & Cortesi, 2016).
In some instances, harassment can be based on gender, race, religion, and ethnicity. In such situations, the Federal government addresses cyberbullying as an act of discrimination; therefore, it is addressed under the federal civil rights bill. As such, the propagation of biased, stereotypical remarks on the basis of personal backgrounds, is intolerable before the law. Cyber bullying of this kind may sometimes be such outrageous as, a student posting the picture of another, in this case, one from a minority group, without their express permission, and in order to ridicule them. Relatively, explicit forms of this type of bullying may involve the sending of messages, specifically designed to offend minority students. As such, cyber bullying stands to compromise academic grades on the part of minority students (Gasser & Cortesi, 2016). Such cases, therefore, should be prevented by schools, which should clearly stipulate the consequences for such kinds of deviant behavior. This can be accomplished through the amendment of cyberbullying policies in schools, so as to include provisions that impose heavy punishments on cyber bullies. The law obligates schools to take action against cyberbullying, failure of which they may risk closure. Further, the law empowers school administrations to punish those students who behave badly while off campus.
Parents are left with full responsibilities, requiring them to offer adequate advice and guidance to their children in regard to the use of the internet and social media (Anderson, 2016).In some schools, students particularly of a young age, are not allowed to use computers in the absence of parental supervision. Given the fact that social media / networks are not able to detect the age of their users, in most instances, children create accounts on the cover of fake identities. Also, they ignore privacy policies, partly due to the fact that they do not hold the mental faculties to comprehend the dangers that bedevil the social media. (Jacobson, Bailin, Milanaik & Adesman, 2016).
In those cases the parents have avoided their responsibility, the children end up being users of drugs or may become recruited to serve as drug traffickers. This is possible given that some bullies may direct to these young children, with an accompaniment of serious threats like killing them or killing their relatives or family members if they don’t cooperate as expected. Such cases of children recruited on social media through intimidation have been reported in many parts of the world. In fact, victims who have been rescued from such acts when asked why they involved themselves in such illegal activities some will say they did so to avoid being killed while other could say they did it to prevent their parents of relatives from being killed (Gasser & Cortesi, 2016).
In order to reduce cases of cyberbullying, in my view, it is imperative for the society at large joins hands, to synergistically help in improving awareness and the associated management of cyberbullying (Anderson, 2016). Cyber bullies are a part of society, and sometimes even seek societal recognition on account of their social awkwardness, as such, their behavior can best be managed by communal efforts. Members of the society should be trained in regard of the criminality of cyber bullying, so as to foster their intolerance of the same. Also, they should be encouraged to come out and help in identifying those involved in cyberbullying and if possible be awarded for helping the government identify such people.
Also, the government should work together with social media action groups and networks in order to be able to track cyber criminals, but only after the evaluation of filed evidence so as to ensure that it’s valid enough to warrant such like a drastic measure. In the past, this has proven especially difficult, given that some of these social media platforms have user privacy policies that outlaw the release of user information without their express permissions (Anderson, 2016). Another challenge pertains to the duplicity of social media accounts; some social media account bearers set up their accounts on the basis of fictitious information, and this complicates their tracking, almost making it technically impossible. But despite all of these reasons, cyberbullying cannot be addresses unless the government and social media networks find ways by which to collaborate whilst still protecting user privacies.
Another important aspect that stands to help in so far as a reduction in cases of cyberbullying is concerned is the creation of strict policies ensuring the implementation of background checks to ascertain the supervision of internet use by children. For instance, social media networks could introduce the prerequisite presentation of identification documents, prior to the successful opening of accounts. This kind of regulation stands to help in the cases of the fake acquisition of social media accounts. Also, with the abolishment of fake accounts, the government in conjunction with social media owners, can easily track down perpetrators of cyber bullying (Jacobson, Bailin, Milanaik & Adesman, 2016).
Lastly, parents and guardians should be held responsible if their children are victims of cyberbullying. Parents have the moral obligation to be responsible for their children and as such, should be compelled by law to do the same. Sustained cyberbullying represents irresponsibility on the part of parents, who, therefore, should be held accountable before the law for their actions. Legally obligating supervised use of the social media by minors on the part of their parents is likely to ensure the protection of children’s rights, from a digital perspective (Anderson, 2016). This will help in reducing cases of cyber bullying as parents may be able to recognize those persons with the intentions of bullying their children in time and further, to report them to the authorities for tracking and arrests.
Indeed as discussed above, social media, even though it was incepted in order to foster social interactions on a global scale, has at times been hijacked by anarchists such as cyber bullies, who revel in the instigation of social disharmony and discomfort. Evidently, unsupervised internet use exposes children to levels of cyberbullying than they can possibly handle. Cyber bullying is inherently evil; it is the most outward expression of a lack of humanity on the part of the perpetrators, also, it has mental and in extreme cases, physical harm on the part of the victims. It is, therefore, very important that necessary mechanisms and measures are taken so as to help reduce cases of cyber bullying. And as we have seen, parents, children, teachers, and the government, must work together so as to be able to put dissuade cyber bullying. Parents have the moral obligation to ensure responsible internet use on the part of their children. Further, teachers have the responsibility of guiding school going children besides educating them and their parents on the disadvantages of the social media and especially, cyber bullying. The government, on the other hand, must ensure that the necessary laws and policies are set so that state security organs bear prosecutorial powers with respect to culpable cyber bullies. That, therefore, makes it important that all these people work together to reduce cases of cyber bullying synergistically.
References
Anderson, M. (2016). Parents, Teens and Digital Monitoring . Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project .
Gasser, U., & Cortesi, S. (2016). Children's Rights and Digital Technologies: Introduction to the Discourse and Some Meta-Observations. Berkman Center Research Publication .
Hase, C. N., Goldberg, S. B., Smith, D., Stuck, A., & Campain, J. (2015). Impacts of traditional bullying and cyberbullying on the mental health of middle school and high school students. Psychology in the Schools , 52 (6), 607-617.
Jacobson, C., Bailin, A., Milanaik, R., & Adesman, A. (2016). Adolescent Health Implications of New Age Technology. Pediatric clinics of North America , 63 (1), 183-194.
McWhorter, R. R., & Delello, J. A. (2016). Green Technologies Enabling Virtual Learning Environments. International Journal of Information Communication Technologies and Human Development (IJICTHD) , 8 (4), 38-55.
Wang, J., Iannotti, R. J., Luk, J. W., & Nansel, T. R. (2010). Co-occurrence of victimization from five subtypes of bullying: Physical, verbal, social exclusion, spreading rumors, and cyber. Journal of Pediatric Psychology , 35 (10), 1103-1112.
