Bullying is a major problem in many schools and even the society, as a whole, both for the adult and children students. However, it is the emergence of cyber-bullying that has even taken this challenge a notch higher, with many people now becoming victims of online bullying. This problem has been enhanced by the continued accessibility to advanced technology and the internet. Both the adult and young children do face cyber-bullying. However, this research will establish that there is a significant difference in cyber-bullying for the children and the adults.
Hypothesis Statement
This research will seek to find out whether there is any significant difference in cyber-bullying adults as compared to children. The research will be premised on the hypothesis that there is a significant difference in cyber-bullying adults relative to children.
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Informational Gap in Current Literature Review
The topic of cyber-bullying has attracted huge focus from the researchers. Many studies have been published on this topic. However, a lot of the existing research reports on cyber-bullying concentrate on a specific demographic component. For instance, most of the existing studies focus on the cyber-bullying of children while others pay attention to the case of adults. There is no study published that analyzes the difference of cyber-bullying in the case of adults and children.
This information is highly needed by the policy-makers in schools and the society who are charged with the responsibility of addressing the issue. Therefore, it is not good to continue having such an informational gap in the current literature. The information is needed in order to come up with customized policies and measures aimed at tackling cyber-bullying for the children and adults differently so that effective results can be achieved ( Keith & Martin, 2005) .
Studies report that bullying has been in existence for a very long time. According to the existing statistics for the United States of America, virtually five million children have been victims of bullying. It is clear that this statistics does not give the number of adults who have been victims of cyber-bullying ( Mesch, 2009) . There is a clear tendency of inclining towards analyzing cyber-bullying that is committed to children. The reason behind this trend is the perception that adults do not experience cyber-bullying since they are intelligence enough to counter such actions.
Some studies have indicated the difference in cyber-bullying girls relative to boys. Such studies state that girls are more vulnerable than boys to cyber-bullying because of their weakness. However, the studies that give this analysis remain insufficient in terms of providing information on the difference, based on age, in cyber-bullying children and adults. Researched reports show that many boys usually engage in physically-intensive bullying while the girls experience relationally-intensive one ( Broubacher et al., 2009). Notably, research reports have established the fact that differences in cyber-bullying, which are premised on gender, do feature even in early childhood. It is worthy to observe that females also can face the effect indirect cyber-bullying. Through the use of new technology, cyber-bullies have sophisticated ways of accessing their prey.
The need for knowing the difference in cyber-bullying adults and children is always evident in the ineffective means of preventing this vice, which are normally formulated and implemented by the policy-makers. Since the age-based differences are not known, there is always a flaw in choosing the measures that suit children and those relevant to adults ( Raskauskas & Stoltz, 2007) . Importantly, studies report that the various prevention programs have indicated the ability of reducing cyber-bullying in children.
It has been established that gender has no significant relation to bullying. It is noted that the relationship between the bully and victim usually starts to be seen during the pre-school years. The aggressive behaviors, which are normally shown by the children, are not in any way related to one’s gender.
This study breaks away from the common approach taken by the researchers and focuses on the question of whether a child’s experience of cyber-bullying is different from that of an adult. On the advice of even more research, younger children may report higher rates of victimization because they have not yet acquired social and assertiveness skills to combat bullying incidents and have the ability to discourage further incidents ( Slonje & Smith, 2008) . In Cyber-Bullying: Creating a Culture of Respect in a Cyber world, t here was a strong opposition to some research and the outcomes, when it comes to age preferences of when to intervene. These age differences in children’s understanding of cyber bullying make it difficult for me to draw firm conclusions about research that has been done that shows a true decline in victimization as children grow older. Vandebosch & Van Cleemput (2008) has acknowledged that a single instance of serious harassment can be regarded as bullying under certain circumstances regardless of age social economic status and area.
Conclusively, this study will analyze the hypothesis that cyber-bullying in adults is significantly different from the one in children. In fact, the manner in which a child may handle a technological device is not the same to that of an adult. Furthermore, children have no intellectual capability of identifying a dangerous person on the internet when compared to adults. An adult can, in some occasions, be able to identify a dangerous person through his or her way of talking online hence avoid him or her. Therefore, children are highly vulnerable to cyber-bullying more than even adults.
References
Broubacher, M. R., Fondacaro, M. R., Brank, E. M., Brown, V. E., & Miller, S. A. (2009). Procedural justice in resolving family disputes: Implications for childhood bullying. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 15 (3), 149-167.
Keith, S., & Martin, M. (2005). Cyber-Bullying: Creating a culture of respect in a cyber world. Reclaiming Children & Youth , 13 (4), 224-228.
Mesch, G. (2009). Parental mediation, online activities, and cyberbullying. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 12(4), 387-393.
Raskauskas, J., & Stoltz, A. D. (2007). Involvement in traditional and electronic bullying among adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 43 (3), 564-575.
Slonje, R. & Smith, P. K. (2008). Cyberbullying: Another main type of bullying? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 49 (2), 147-154.
Vandebosch, H. & Van Cleemput, K. (2008). Defining cyberbullying: A qualitative research into the perceptions of youngsters. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11 (4), 499-503.
