Some people do not take cyberbullying seriously. "Just turn off your computer!" "Ignore them." It seems like a simple solution, but how long can you go without checking your phone or your social media networks? Media is almost as important as breathing when it comes to youth in our society today. Even if they are not on their laptops or computers at home, they have smartphones and iPods that can get on wifi or 3G and give them access to the internet. Before, when bullying was mostly in person and sometimes escapable, these new outlets make it impossible for youth to get away from the constant harassment.
So how do we track something as difficult as cyberbullying? Can we really put a screenname to a face? Can parents tell everything that goes on with their child? This website suggests parents adding their child on Facebook, playing XBOX live with them... Basically anything that involves the internet. Is that really a solution? I mean, personally, my mom made me add her on Facebook otherwise I was not allowed to have one. Not all kids follow their parents' rules. Besides that, with private messages and other websites that do not require an account and allow anonymity, there is only so much a parent can track.
So with cyberbullying being even harder to avoid, we can only imagine the negative effects and difficult tolls it takes on youth. Television and movies depicts it all. How do you avoid the unavoidable? There is an older movie called Odd Girl Out that I really recommend watching. This girl is getting instant messages from people who call her awful names, they make websites about her, use their phones to send her somewhere to hang out with them (resulting in her being abandoned). It makes you wonder why kids are so cruel. Do you think that the lack of face-to-face pressure creates a cyberbully? Or even just makes a bully do it more frequently? Do you think cyberbullying is any worse than regular bullying?
Definitely for some bullies, the internet provides them a shield and the anonymity they need to exhibit these improper tendencies. While others could be victims themselves of face to face bullying and want to inflict the same level of pain on other innocent individuals. Any form of bullying has an adverse effect on victims.
ReplyDeleteProtecting children from bullying is complex, since parents cannot be with their children 24 hours a day; however, parents can provide children with lots of emotional support and encourage them to communicate what is going on with them. Thanks for your blog.
I do not think that it is the lack of face-to-face, it is the accessibility of technology that makes cyber-bullying so easy to happen and so hard to get rid of. It is probably difficult for a parent to keep track of their child from making fun of someone online or being made fun of, without eliminating technology completely, but that does not solve the problem. I don't treat cyber-bullying any different from regular bullying because it produces the same negative effect on the victim.
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