Cyberbullying

By: Ashlynn Misuna

Learning Targets

Define Cyberbullying.
Explain why Cyberbullying has increased so drastically.
List some ways Cyberbullying can be decreased.

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The three components of Cyberbullying

The Victim

The Bully

The Device

What is Cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying can take many forms, like harassment, exclusion, and spreading rumors, and it all takes place online. Cyberbullying is very different from what we know of traditional bullying, you can be bullied online and have no clue who is doing it or have no clue it is happening. This type of bullying provides anonymity, which is impossible in traditional forms of bullying (Peebles, 2014). Cyberbullying is a lot more widespread because it can reach more people than bullying around a school can. Pamela Tozzo talked in Family and Educational Strategies for Cyberbullying Prevention (2022) that is has been seen in all the social media sites such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter.

Why is there an increase in Cyberbullying?

In the last 20 years, there has been a severe increase in cyberbullying throughout the United States (Ali, Fauzi & Mohd, 2018). One of the main reasons for the uptake of this form of bullying is that there are so many new forms of social media and the internet has been expanded so drastically. Peebles speaks in Cyberbullying: Hiding Behind the Screen (2014) about the lack of remorse the bullies feel due to them not seeing the reactions of their victims. The increase is further pushed by how large the audiences can grow instead of it just being a school seeing the bullying, it can be millions on the internet which makes it more enticing to the individuals who seek attention. There are many reasons why cyberbullying has increased and I believe that it will continue to do so if we don't start trying to slow it down.

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A look at the ways we can prevent Cyberbullying

As future teachers or parents, we need to have some ways to prevent the children we look after from cyberbullying or being the victim of it. As Ashley Doane in Bystanders Against Cyberbullying (2019) says you can report the account and get the post or profile deleted if you suspect cyberbullying. You can also as a teacher take the time to educate your students on how they can take precautions to be safe online and to stand up for others online (Jhaveri, 2012). In all honesty, there is no foolproof way to take away cyberbullying but an important part of helping the cause is teaching the youth who are responsible for the majority of it to be safe and not partake in cyberbullying because of the harm it causes others.

Reflection & Conclusion

Cyberbullying is an epidemic wreaking havoc on the youth of today's world. It is not something that was around 30 years ago (Hasse, Cortesi & Gasser, 2019) It has grown so rapidly because of the new social media being brought to the internet every day. Erin Peebles talks about how there are usually no repercussions because of the bully’s becoming anonymous, which has been a reason for its increase as well in Cyberbullying: Hiding Behind the Screen (2014). As the future and current educators of today, we have a responsibility to prevent and help stop cyberbullying so that our students do not have to endure it.

References

Doane, A., Ehlke, S., & Kelley, M. (2019) Bystanders Against Cyberbullying. Springer Nature Switzerland,

41-52

Caenazzo, L., Cuman, O., & Tozzo, P. (2022) Family and Education Strategies for Cyberbullying Prevention. Environmental Research and Public Health. https://www.semanticscholar.org/reader/45ed03a40409cf43f86b38902f28d2d184384171

Fauzi, F., Hamiza, W., & Mohd, M. (2018) Cyberbullying Detection: An Overview. Centre for Cyber Security. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8626869

Smith, P. (2015) The Nature of Cyberbullying and What We Can Do About it. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs (Volume 15, issue 3) 176-184. https://nasenjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1471-3802.12114

Peebles, E. (2014) Cyberbullying: Hiding behind the Screen. Pediatrics and Child Health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4276384/

Hasse, A., Cortesi, S., Bermudez, A., Gasser, U. (2019) Youth and Cyberbullying: Another Look. Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/41672537/2019-10_YouthAndCyberbullying.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=5

Jhaveri, A. (2012) Protect Kids Online. OnGuard Online. https://www.stopbullying.gov/blog/2012/09/20/protect-kids-online-onguardonline-gov

How I used AI

I used Grammarly to spell-check
I used GenCraft to generate images
I used elicit to find sources and references

AI has helped me a lot in this process from the very start of finding sources to guide my lesson to making content for the lesson.

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