The development of technology has brought with it many benefits, but menace associated with it are worth a mention. With the growing the use of the internet, a new crime carried online has emerged. Bullying is a traditional criminal offense that involved intimidation and harassing of the victim. Children and teenagers have become the targets of bullies in the recent times. With the growing use of technology, bullying has changed as the bullies use the internet as the new media to underscore their objectives. Cyberbullying refers to the use of technology or the internet to harass, intimidate or cause harm to another person. Not all cyberbullying are conducted directly by the bullies; sometimes the bullies act indirectly by supporting the actions that encourage bullying using various online platforms. While the primary intent of cyber bullies is to intimidate their victims, other intentions include to humiliate, manipulate and control the victims of cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying may be conducted over various media. In modern times, the most common media or platforms used to cyberbully others are the social sites accessed online. These media include Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook among other sites. Cyberbullying through these sites may involve the sending of provocative texts, which is the most popular form. Cyberbullies also use emails as a means of reaching their intended targets. As such, cyberbullying does not end with the harassing and harming of the victims but includes stalking and impersonation of the victim. When the emails sent to the victim irritates him or her, it is also considered a cyberbullying.
Another platform utilized by the cyberbullies is the websites. The cyber offenders usually use their victim’s private and confidential information to create a website with malicious intentions. This personal information may include the victim's home address, work information, places of study and residence among other private information as necessary to their ill-intent. After having access to their target's personal information, the attackers use this information to create fake accounts where they impersonate their victims. They use these accounts to post information incommunicado. Such posts are intended to defame, ridicule or discredit the victim. In some cases, the cyber offenders may misuse gaming to trigger stereotyping among the members of the society or cause sexual harassment. For instance, women may suffer sexual portrayal in some video games. In other cases, gamers tend to use abusive words and slurs against their online contestants in a bid to win the game.
While everyone is at risk of falling victim to cyberbullying, adolescents and children are the mostly target group. This is especially so since adolescents and children form a larger percentage of the users of the internet and the social platforms. As such, it becomes easier for the cyberbullies to access their private information online. In support of the above statement is a 2011 research conducted by the National Crime Prevention Council of America that concluded that more than 50 percent of adolescents and children are affected by cyberbullying. The study further posited that the rapid growth of information and communication technology is associated with the rising cases of cyberbullying and cybercrime in general (Kowalski, Robin, Sue " Patricia 131).
After exploring the popular cyberbullying forms and the media through which they are conducted, it is, therefore, imperative to present the causes of the various types of cyberbullying. The analysis of these causes will focus on the factors driving the cyberbullies to conduct the act of bullying.
Anonymity
The traditional bullying was visible and in most cases involved interaction between the bully and the victim. However, cyberbullying is carried in the invisible online platform with the actors not directly confront one another. This anonymity of the attacker is a factor that encourages cyberbullies to engage in the bullying believing that they have immunity to prosecution due to their concealed identity. Also, it does not take much effort to engage in cyberbullying, and the offenders do not fear the consequences. Since the cyberbullies carry their acts in a virtual system, they believe they cannot be apprehended and held responsible. The use of fake accounts by cyber bullies coupled with the high investigation costs seem to serve as a shield that obstructs the apprehension of the cyberbullies. These give the cyberbullies safety and a belief that their concealed identity cannot be unraveled, further promoting the act.
Ignorance and lack of empathy
Teenagers who are involved in cyberbullying as the offenders are usually ignorant of the consequences of their actions on their victims. Cyberbullying has detrimental psychological effects that are invisible to the bullies given they are carried out through the online platform. Also, cyberbullying differs from the traditional bullying where the victim is physically harmed thus making cyberbullies unaware of the evil and pain they cause to their victims. In most cases, teenage cyberbullies are excited and regard their actions as fun and as a means of obtaining a strange sense of satisfaction and power.
Social issues
Many teenage bullies engage in the act as a form of social compensation. The majority of the cyberbullies are teenagers who cannot indulge in face-to-face bullying. These group, therefore, engages in bullying to compensate for the harassment they face in their interaction with others in the society. It could also be revenge that seeks to fight the low self-esteem they experience from their peers or as a way to hide from the various social challenges they face in their daily lives. Youths resorting to cyberbullying may be expressing themselves in social platforms the things they cannot express in their environments. They could also be seeking attention and trying to find their identity or even seeking to be accepted in some social groups (Campfield 130).
In some incidences, cyber offenders may be people who are very popular in various social settings such as workplaces and schools. Famous people may attempt to resort to cyberbullying as a way of increasing their popularity in the given social environment. They may also want tom exercise control or power over their peers. Such people may involve in cyberbullying and involve in intimidation of personalities who may seem not to recognize their power or who are a threat to their popularity. These group of cyberbullies could be bullies even in real-life who use social platforms to extend their bullying.
Accessibility
The increased use of social media contributed to the increased cases of cyberbullying. Many social sites have failed to develop effective means of exercising control over the children accessing social sites. Children easily bypass the security measures in these social sites by lying about their ages to gain access. Besides, these social media also lack an effective means that could verify and detect lies thereby making it possible for the creation of fake accounts.
Peer pressure has also been noted to push bullies into cyberbullying. The need to associate oneself with specific personalities in the social settings. Bullies are usually considered to possess some power among the teenage peers and thus compelling others to engage in the act to be viewed to acquire a sense of security. Other reasons include boredom which drives teenagers to consider bullying as a source of entertainment and engagement.
Effects of Cyberbullying
Victims of cyberbullying may suffer various consequences. As in the case of traditional bullying, the bullied are exposed to psychological stress that sometimes culminates in death through suicidal acts. Worth recognizing is the fact that cyberbullying spans from children in classrooms to workers in their workplaces, each of which result in dire consequences that need redress. Cyberbullying and its effects traverse across social boundaries not discriminating on the basis of class, culture, gender, age or even religion, although it is sometimes associated with stereotypic and racist thinking (Shariff, Shaheen, " Andrew, 86). Some of the effects of cyberbullying are identified below.
Depression/stress
Stress and depression are some of the effects of cyberbullying making victims to feel so unwanted in their societies. This makes them withdrawn and lacking of the interest to participate in activities they previously enjoyed. The cyberbullied individuals develop the feeling of embarrassment and remain silent and self-isolate from the rest of the society (McQuade, Samuel, James, " Nancy, 67).
Emotional and health problems
Cyberbullying is also associated with psychological problems in the bullied and has an eventuality of causing mental illnesses. Studies have revealed that cyberbullying victims are twice more likely to experience mental illnesses as compared to the victims of traditional bullying. When victims are depressed, they sometimes lack sleep which further worsens their health conditions.
Low self-esteem
People living in social settings where cyberbullying is prevalent are likely to have low self-esteem. The victims of cyberbullying feel unwanted and usually, tend to live in isolation as they are scared of being alienated and embarrassed further. They tend to lose confidence as a result of low self-esteem and generally perform poorly and lead unhappy lives. Reduced confidence lowers the productivity of these people, and this partly accounts for the dropouts in school and quitting jobs.
Suicides and murder
In extreme cases, cyberbullying can result in suicide or death of the victims. Incidences of children committing suicide as a result of cyberbullying have become on the increase. These cases are a result of continued harassments of the victims leading to depression. In other incidences, the bullied children engage in crimes such as shootings as a result of the pressure (Healey 45).
Conclusion
The topic of cyberbullying remains sensitive in the modern society where different social platforms continue to emerge every day. Online sites and internet are the commonly used sites in perpetuating the new form of harassments conducted online: cyberbullying. Whereas anonymity of the cyberbully is the primary factor encouraging the vice, other causes also drive people into cyberbullying. These causes include the need to fight low self-esteem, access to the internet, and the bullies’ lack of empathy. The effects of cyberbullying range from the less serious as well as grievous ones such as depression and death of the victims.
Works cited
Campfield, Delia C. Cyber Bullying, and Victimization: Psychosocial Characteristics of Bullies, Victims, and Bully/victims. , 2008. Internet resource.
Healey, Justin. Dealing with Bullying. Thirroul, N.S.W: Spinney Press, 2011. Print.
Kowalski, Robin M, Sue Limber, and Patricia W. Agatston. Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print.
McQuade, Samuel C, James P. Colt, and Nancy B. B. Meyer. Cyber Bullying: Protecting Kids and Adults from Online Bullies. Westport, Conn: Praeger Publishers, 2009. Internet resource.
Shariff, Shaheen, and Andrew H. Churchill. Truths and Myths of Cyber-Bullying: International Perspectives on Stakeholder Responsibility and Children's Safety. New York: Peter Lang, 2010. Print.
