Cyberbullying: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

This essay discusses the causes and effects of cyberbullying, including the psychological underpinnings, internal and external consequences, and preventive measures. It explores the growing threat of cyberbullying in the digital society and the need to curb this malpractice.

Running Head: CYBERBULLYING
CYBERBULLYING
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

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Introduction
With the advent of modern technology, the use of mobile phones and electronic gadgets are
increased at a rapid pace. It symbolises the progress in science that leads to growing dependency
on the technologies. Subsequently, a number of threats are erected in terms of cyberbullying.
According to Cénat et al. (2014), cyberbullying can occur in the form of SMS, text, application
and social media as well. The major feature of cyberbullying can be identified as the sending and
posting negative, harmful or malcontents that created false and fake news regarding a person or
an event. In this regard, the purpose of this essay is to discuss the cause and effects of
cyberbullying. After that, some solutions will be made to resolve and curb down the negative
impact of cyberbullying.
Thesis statement
This research aims to identify the cause and effect of the cyberbullying and intends to
figure out the solutions to curb down this malpractice.
Main body
Cause of cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is getting a serious threat to the global digital society predominantly. In
this regard, it is important to understand the purpose of cyberbullying and based on that it will be
helpful to deliver the cause behind cyberbullying. According to the research of Paullet and
Pinchot (2014), it can be argued that the psychological underpinnings are played a pivotal role in
order to instigate people to do cyberbullying. In fact, out of revenge most of the people are
getting into the cyberbullying practice to bring justice. They feel justice has been made because

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they are often bullied and harassed in every sphere of life. It is more of an inferiority complex
that drives the people to start cyberbullying. On the other hand, Corcoran, Guckin and Prentice
(2015) articulated that cyberbullying has become a fashion due to indiscriminate use of social
media. Most of the people around the world spent productive time surfing social media.
However, the empirical researches stated that social media could cause anxiety and depression.
As a result of that psychopathic tendencies are very often seen in course of a high sense of
depression. It can be considered as a psychological disorder of getting famous negatively.
In addition to this, the effect of globalisation also affects technology and its specifications
in a robust manner. Thus, the internet and social media also suffer a lot due to the adverse impact
of globalisation. In this context, Aricak and Ozbay (2016) articulated that cyberbullying is
identified as a tool for spreading terror nowadays by diverting the mass from getting the right
information. It can be argued that the process is associated with influencing the people
negatively through the channels of social media and the internet and bring fear and atrocities
within the society. For instance, there are more than 20,000 cases in the year 2018 where both
the adults and teenagers were bullied through the internet only in US and Canada. Therefore, the
practice of cyberbullying is growing like malice and it is essential to curb down this nefarious
practice immediately.
Effect of cyberbullying
The effects of cyberbullying can be identified in terms of both internal and external
consequences. As far as the internal effect of cyberbullying is concerned, facets like depression,
anger and low self –esteem can be seen. In the research, Francisco et al. (2015) advocated that
the victim of cyberbullying faces severe humiliation as he or she feels exposed. In fact, they are
not in a position to stop the cyberbullying. As a result of that, it turns into an anger that can be

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fatal for the children and the adults as well. Moreover, Ciucci and Baroncelli (2014) pointed out
that cyberbullying creates low self-esteem as people do not feel confident to do any task. It
seems like a bad patch in their life that always haunts them throughout life. In fact, the
anonymity of the person who is doing cyberbullying makes the victims feel humiliated and
affected their personal and professional life as well as they are not in a position to focus on their
life.
In the external aspect incidents like suicides are very common among the victims. As per
the research of Van Geel, Vedder and Tanilon (2014) it can be stated that there is a huge
repercussion of the cyberbullying that makes the victim vulnerable and weak enough to live
further. They feel highly depressed and due to the intense low self-esteem, they often feel
isolated and unable to cope with the situation. It intrigues them to choose suicide as the best
option of redemption. Besides this, Cénat et al. (2014) mentioned that the cyberbullying drives
towards revenge and violence. It is like cancer without a cure that spread like an epidemic. As a
result of that unrests and violence are often caused by cyberbullying. It can result in murder as
well. As per the report of Paullet and Pinchot (2014), it can be stated in developed states like
America the rate of cyberbullying related crimes are elevated in a rapid manner causing a threat
to the social cohesion.
Solution of cyberbullying
In this regard, there are some preventive measures that can help people to resolve and
skip any kind of cyberbullying. For an instance, Gradinger et al. (2015) mentioned that sharing
limited personal information on the internet and social media sites can be the first step to prevent
cyberbullying effectively. It is difficult to collect so many information related to someone
offline. Besides this, sharing problems with parents, teachers or friends can ease the situation for

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the children and adults. Cyberbullying is a process to create fear among the victims so that it will
be better if the victims share their issues with close persons (Zych, Ortega-Ruiz & Del Rey,
2015). Moreover, it is also important to nourish a positive image and respectfulness to others. It
will help to make a good relationship rather than a hostile environment.
Conclusion
Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that the role of cyberbullying is a
threat to society nowadays as people are getting depending on the internet heavily. However,
precautions and awareness can suppress those threats effectively and usher a better relationship
among people through good behaviour and attitude.

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Reference
Aricak, O. T., & Ozbay, A. (2016). Investigation of the relationship between cyberbullying,
cybervictimization, alexithymia and anger expression styles among
adolescents. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 278-285.
Cénat, J. M., Hébert, M., Blais, M., Lavoie, F., Guerrier, M., & Derivois, D. (2014).
Cyberbullying, psychological distress and self-esteem among youth in Quebec
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Ciucci, E., & Baroncelli, A. (2014). Emotion-related personality traits and peer social standing:
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Corcoran, L., Guckin, C., & Prentice, G. (2015). Cyberbullying or cyber aggression?: A review
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Paullet, K., & Pinchot, J. (2014). Behind the screen where today’s bully plays: Perceptions of
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Van Geel, M., Vedder, P., & Tanilon, J. (2014). Relationship between peer victimization,
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Zych, I., Ortega-Ruiz, R., & Del Rey, R. (2015). Systematic review of theoretical studies on
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