Cyber Bullying: An Escalating Concern Associated With The Misuse Of Web Based Platforms.
The twenty-first century has witnessed the remarkable growth of technology and in particular internet usage. As a platform, the internet has provided both the young and old generation members with an opportunity to interconnect efficiently, with lesser costs and at an extra convenience. However, the web-based platform has also provided delinquent online users with an opportunity to develop a new form of bullying named cyberbullying. The primary cause of concern is that with the number of online users escalating on a daily basis, the incidences of cyberbullying are also projected to intensify over the period. As an occurrence, cyberbullying is gradually becoming a menace in our society, one that is multi-faceted in design and impact. An analysis of cyberbullying as a serious issue reveals that the occurrence can affect any individual at any time, with the younger generation being most vulnerable to the point of becoming depressed, and developing suicidal thoughts.
Topic’s Importance to Field of Study
Cyberbullying when defined refers to the use of technology and particularly online web-based platforms as a medium to embarrass, threaten, harass, or mentally torture the target audience who can either be an individual or a group. As an occurrence cyberbullying is a crime that when spotted may invoke legal and necessary consequences, which may at time demand incarceration. In today’s society, cyberbullying may be both easy and hard to identify depending on the scenario, and as such provoke the emergence of concern. In easily identified scenarios, cyberbullying may revolve around harsh, cruel or mean treatment from a specified individual; while in hardly identified scenarios cyberbullying encompasses the reliance of impersonation with the intention of posting photos and videos that are meant to embarrass the target individual.
In today’s society, cyber bullying is a major concern because it is a phenomenon that primarily targets young individuals most of who are aged between 12 to 18 years, particularly as the age group spends a significant amount of their time online, on a daily basis. It is disheartening to note that most of the perpetrators who are adults, tend to prey on young children and teenagers because of their naivety, an aspect that allows the perpetrators of bullying to get away with ease. When analyzing the aspect within a computer science aspect, it is disheartening to note that in most scenarios children rarely grasp what is going on, when they are victims of manipulative cyberbullying, and without proper security structures and monitoring from parents the affected teens can be coerced into fulfilling the demands of the malicious cyber bullies.
Presently, most adults including teachers, parents, and guardians are happily asserting that incidences of bullying have decline especially in the learning and recreational settings. What most of these adults fail to understand is that bullying has transformed from its physical nature, into a virtual scene where it has augmented and intensified with children and young teenagers being victimized by adult perpetrators. From a computer science perspective, it is unfortunate to note that with man’s reliance on the internet growing on a daily basis, the incidences of cyberbullying are anticipated to escalate over the period. Cumulatively, the given aspect provokes the need to address the issue before it becomes an epidemic that is past the mitigating cause for concern globally.
Causes of Cyberbullying and Impact on Field of Study
When breaking down the causes of cybercrime, there are diverse scenarios that emerge ranging from overexposure, revenge, and entertainment.
Overexposure as the first scenario nurtures the emergence of cyberbullying when the victims tend to overexpose their private life consistently on social media. It is a fact that disclosing oneself across the social media platform is an occurrence that has escalated over the recent years, especially as the aspect is provoked by the need to gain attention-based gratification. From a computer science perspective, in the present day, a majority of the teenagers have been identified to possess an online presence through the use of smartphones, an aspect that has turned the medium from a communication and interaction platform to an exposure, flaunting, and vulnerability setting. It is crucial to note that in today’s era, a smartphone as a household gadget has become a norm with a majority of teenagers having an access to the given communication and interaction medium. Additionally, with regular access to smartphones, most teenagers and kids have, utilized the platform to gain online access, and check out social media trends. When analyzing the given tendency it is evident that a significant population of online users is vulnerable to cyberbullying even without their consent.
Revenge and entertainment as the second and third causative factors of cyberbullying assert that either cyberbullying is usually instigated with the intention of passing on accumulated years of torture to new and naïve victims, or it is an occurrence that can be used by bored individuals seeking to add drama onto their lives by tormenting helpless victims. In the first instance, cyberbullying is usually orchestrated by individuals of bullying, who are then motivated to retaliate based on the painful experience they have undergone through in the past. Most perpetrators of bullying in this category believed they are entitled to do so, based on their past experience, in addition to the fact that the event nurtures a sense of vindication and relief for their previous situation. In the second instance, cyber bullies prey on the vulnerability of victims as a justification to achieve entertainment, primarily because they have the capability to do so, or lack attention in their everyday lives.
Cumulatively, the main cause of concern from a computer science perspective is that the mediums that were established to aid man his daily life, have been manipulated to instigate crime, especially amongst unaware and naïve victim. The given aspect thus provokes the need to implement stricter measures that will effectively curb cyberbullying especially as the basic anti-cyberbullying regulations have not been successful in attaining the desired impact.
The presenting Argument
The following proposal intends to elaborate on the need to address cyberbullying especially as the context has been responsible for psychologically and physically tormenting the victim. Additionally, the platform has been responsible for triggering the emergence of body image issues, and a lower self-esteem among the targets. Given that a majority of the vulnerable individuals are children and teenagers, cyberbullying has taken a toll on the individuals’ academic performance, school attendance, and general growth and progress of the victims. In addition to this, most of the cyberbullying victims have been depressed to the extent of engaging in degenerative practices such as drug and alcohol abuse, aggressive behavior and even the culmination of suicidal thoughts in extremity. Cumulatively, the negative impacts of cyber bullying may affect an individual’s development on the long-term perspective. Having identified the broad side effects of bullying it is high time that solutions were proposed on how to handle the detrimental effect of cyberbullying from a bigger picture.
Proposed Solutions
When crafting the ideal solution package, it is imperative that cyberbullying is approached from a prevention perspective rather than an intervention rendition. When focusing on a preventive perspective, it is high time the online community commenced by acknowledging that the implementation of stricter laws pertaining cyberbullying would not be enough. This is because no matter how strict cybercrime rules are, the given aspect will never deter the manifestation of cyberbullying in the future. The ideal approach to curb cyberbullying would be to adopt a blended approach that would involve a mix of outreach approaches both within the school environment and at homes. In all outreach programs, the underlying purpose should be to educate the young users on the online life, the healthy use of social media, the existence of cyberbullying, and how to deal with a cyberbully. The benefit of utilizing the outreach mix is that potential aggressors who are also students may learn about the severe consequences associated with their actions. Additionally, the approach would go a long way in equipping the vulnerable victims with the right tools that are essential to deal with cyberbullying. In conclusion, cyberbullying is a demeaning occurrence that should be dealt with effectively least it grow with a magnitude given that its presence is synonymous to the escalating use of the web.
