Dangers of Cyber Bullying

The Oxford Dictionary definition for cyberbullying is “The use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature”(“Cyberbullying”). The question that guides us is should cyber-bullying that occurs outside of school be punished by the school? Cyberbullying not only affects one's mind and emotions but their actions as well. A national survey conducted by the Cyber-Bullying Research Center found that 2.75 million children stayed home from Cyberbullying, 10.3% skipped school, and 60.8% have been affected so much from Cyberbullying that it impacted their ability to learn and feel safe ("Bullying and School Avoidance."). So, yes schools need to help students who are being cyberbullied in any way they can. Cyberbullying is a complex topic and has various dangers to it. Cyberbullying has increased significantly due to the innovation of new technology as one could imagine. These children are now able to hide behind their screens and attack on a person wherever and whenever.

Children shouldn’t have to fear going to school and shouldn’t have to fear going online. The internet and social media should be a safe environment, but it has become a place for many people to fear. Schools to certain extent should have the ability and jurisdictions to do something. Cyberbullying is something that affects a students performance in school and therefore should be handled to an extent by the school. Schools should be a safe place where children can learn, rather than having a constant fear of being bullied from those online. Nikolao.D, a student who went to Illinois State University did a study seeing if Cyberbullying influenced people to have suicidal thoughts and if so by how much. He found that cyber-bullying had a strong impact on suicidal behavior. It increased suicidal thoughts by 14% and the suicidal attempts by 8%.(“Does Cyberbullying Impact Youth Suicidal Behaviors?”).

Furthermore, schools should be able to intervene in some way. Public schooling authorities have certain restrictions on how involved they can be in the personal lives of their students, however, there can be action taken to help victims of this epidemic. For example, Schools can begin to provide Counseling and guidance for those that come to them with this specific issue. As well as opening up groups so that these children don’t have to feel like they are alone. Most of all victims of cyberbullying have absolutely no idea what kind of situation they’re getting themselves into. The “bullies” use means of threat and fear along with many other disgusting/ horrible tactics to draw their victim into their world of phycological torture. Awareness through school advertising could very much help many kids in the world, preventing unnecessary hardship and even death. Some may say that if it occurs outside of the school the school should have no part in it, and don’t need to help. Just looking at all the statistics and seeing how much this is affecting the children, schools should realize this is not a small problem.

These children are the future, and if we don’t change anything then they will not progress in their academics. Since cyberbullying is affecting the students attendance and learning ability the schools should feel like it is their responsibility to do something. A parent to a teenager I would imagine is a hard task. Most children as they get older distance themselves and often go through a lot dealing with anxiety, depression and so on. If someone is getting cyber bullied they usually won’t tell anyone, and they would just keep it to themselves. Not wanting to cause some sort of scene or not wanting to let people in, like their parents into their lives. This then leads to loneliness and feeling as if you are alone and no one cares.

By doing so, many commit harmful damages to their bodies and become a threat to themselves. Feeling as if they are useless. Cyber Bullying has only been a problem for less than two decades, due to the uprise in social media and the advancement of new technology. Social media allows innocent teens unknowingly allowing strangers to invade their life. It’s quite a complex situation and makes it very hard to prevent, but I truly believe that if schools decide to put the time and effort in to help and protect their students they will help so many Individuals.

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