Cyberbullying on Adolescents: Risks and Recommendations

The brief focuses on the key risks that occur from cyberbullying on the adolescents and based on the analysis, policy recommendations have been developed that are aimed to control and minimize the issue highlighted. The recommendations include safer internet for the adolescent and online monitoring.

State of Victoria
ISSUE COVER SHEET
Issue: Cyberbullying is a major issue that is constantly on the rise in current ti me his issue mainly. T
involves harassing or threatening an individual through digital media for various purposes hile. W
some of these incidents are mainly e ecuted for prank purpose most of them have some seriousx ,
implications and have serious impacts on the victims of the bullying As the current days children are. ’
more e posed to digital media than a decade ago they are becoming easy targets of the cyberbulliesx ,
and some e treme cases of cyberbullying are even resulting in suicidal tendencies of the adolescentsx .
Background: Cyberbullying has always been a major issue since the advent of social media ith. W
rapid increase of popularity of social media among people the use of virtual media enabled the,
bullies to attack selected victims through the media for fulfilling certain purposes like blackmail,
threatening orders and others n the last fi ve to si years more and more adolescents have been, . I x ,
e posed to the social media through smartphones and as a result the cyberbullies have made thex ,
adolescents more likely targets that the adults his is mainly because the adolescents have low. T
understanding of the issue and believe everything they are told he adolescents often obey the. T
bullies instructors without the knowledge of their parents and lead to serious implications like major’
injury suicide and others, .
Comment: n spite of growing issue of cyberbullying on the adolescents serious attention has still notI ,
been given to address the problem and save the lives of the adolescents urthermore the parents. F ,
themselves are giving their adolescent children unlimited access to digital media that is the root
cause of this particular problem.
Recommendations: t is recommended that the Ministry for ealth Victoria should bring two mainI H ,
policies to stop this problem lock access to social media websites for children below the age of: 1) B
Monitor the online activities of the boys and girls who are accessing the social media to18, 2)
determine who are interacting with them through the internet
Name: write here[ ]
Date: write here[ ]
Readers: he on ill ennessy M Minister for ealth Victorian overnmentT H . J H P, H , G
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State of Victoria
Purpose
he term cyberbullying mainly refers to mental harassment of an individual through digital mediaT “ ”
that also may result or imply to physical harm of the targeted individual he adolescents are most. T
likely to fall prey to these bullies as they have low understanding of the issue and due to their young
age they are easy to e ploit mentally he brief has been developed to focus on the key risks that, x . T
occur from cyberbullying on the adolescents and based on the analysis policy recommendations have,
been developed that are aimed to control and minimize the issue highlighted.
Background
he main cyberbullying issue has been significantly on the rise since the increase in popularity ofT
social media websites like acebook witter and others Since the entire social media concept is basedF , T .
on virtual media bullying is much easier since the victims are not able to identify or the location of the,
bullies As a result the bullying results in various effects on the victim such as fear mental trauma. , , ,
insecurity and others he adult victims may not always fall prey to these bullies as they can incident. T
to the report to the relevant authority owever for the adolescent this is not the case nce the. H , , . O
cyberbully has successfully targeted a particular individual it will perform several bully tricks on the,
adolescent people such that they believe them and are forced to perform physically harmful activities.
or instance in a recent social media game named the lue hale the bully fi rst earned the trustF , “ ” “B W ”,
of the victim and then ordered them to perform certain self harm activity upariello et al he(L ., 2018). T
bully also threatened the victim that unless he is performing every activity the bully will take serious,
actions like killing his parents and others he blue whale game was specifically designed that in the. T “ ”
last stage of it the victim will have to commit suicide As a result of this game thousands of, . ,
adolescent children have fallen prey around the around and have ultimately committed suicide Similar.
other games like Momo and others have also popped up from ti me to ti me in various countries of“ ” “ ”
the world Considering the trend of these incidents which is on the rise by a significant percentage it. , ,
is important to turn attention to this particular issue to save the lives of the adolescent people.
ased on the study of the researchers who have worked on cyberbullying two main points can beB ,
highlighted and described hese are as follows. T .
Increasing Access of Social Media Websites According to a study by hattar et al it has been: K . (2018),
found that in the last ten years the number of adolescent people using the social media has risen at,
a very accelerated rate efore this ti me period phones were rare and internet was not easily. B ,
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State of Victoria
accessible for anybody owever with the advent of smartphones the users are able to access social. H , ,
media websites quite easily Moreover bowing down to the demands of the adolescent people the. , ,
parents easily give them access to smartphones through which they are able to use social media and,
other websites As a result they are also becoming easy targets of the cyberbullies as they also do. ,
not have any prior idea to avoid such bullies and take suitable actions .
Increasing Distance with Parents hile researching on the topic the researchers Singh and: W ,
Shanwal have found out that the distance between the children and their parents are(2018)
increasing at a significant pace in the modern world ith more or more parents both are getting. W ( )
employed the children often get very small amount of ti me to spend with their parents Due to this, . ,
they are not able to build up suitable and healthy bonds with their parents As a result when these. ,
children are becoming victims to the cyberbullies they do not care to inform their parents and also, ,
the parents fail to monitor the activities of their children he parents only come to know about it when. T
it is too late and the disaster has already struck.
Key Issues
he key issues that are associated with this particular problem are highlighted as followsT .
Mental Trauma or the adolescent people the cyberbullying incidents often lead to severe mental: F ,
trauma t has been known from the studies that the bullies fi rst try to understand the mental. I
conditions of the victim nce they ensure the victim s mental condition is very weak they target them. O ’ ,
specifically for bullying and e ploitation ian an uebner Minor cyberbullying leads tox (T , Y & H , 2018).
depression and temporary mental trauma while more severe bullying leads to very long lasting effects
on the adolescent like severe depression permanent and severe mental trauma losing of sanity, , ,
feeling suicidal performing suicide and others, .
Bullying from Simple Arguments t has been found that the bullying process can originate from: I
simple arguments that are on a basic topic between two or more people on the social media.
According to reports due to some differences in opinion between two or more people on a basic,
topic arguments rise and lead to bullying ahy et al hile the adults are much less likely to, (F ., 2016). W
fall prey to this type of bullying the adolescent are more likely to be affected by these incidents, .
Self Harm hile most of the bullies force the victims to be harassed and fall into depression some: W ,
recent trends of the cyberbullying incidents suggested that the bullies are now focussing to
pressurize the victims to inflict self harm and ultimately kill themselves he orders to e ecute these. T x
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State of Victoria
types of activities come with some massive and overwhelming threats that scare the adolescent people
so that they obey the bullies ti ll the point of killing themselves .
Recommendations
ased on the issues identified several recommendations can be provided as followsB , .
Safer Internet for the Adolescent t is more or less clear that the adolescent people will continue to: I
get access to smartphone devices from their parents and this cannot be reduced significantly ence. H ,
it is recommended to take suitable measures to make the internet much more safe for the
adolescent n order to achieve this it can be recommended to apply usage age limits to certain. I ,
websites and without providing suitable digital verification the adolescent people and the children will,
not be able to access any interaction platform in the digital media n addition to the age restrictions. I ,
other measures can be taken like releasing lite versions of certain popular websites like acebook“ ” F
that will only allow the adolescent people to interact with only a limited number of selected people
over the selected media.
Online Monitoring Another system that can be recommended for solving the issue is the online:
monitoring system his system will monitor the online activities of the adolescent people and. T
immediately report in case the particular individual interacts with an unknown entity or person with
masked location and identity ased on these reports suitable actions can also be taken accordingly. B , .
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State of Victoria
References
ahy A Stansfeld S A Smuk M Smith R Cummins S Clark C ongitudinalF , . E., , . ., , ., , N. ., , ., & , . (2016). L
associations between cyberbullying involvement and adolescent mental health. ournal ofJ
dolescent HealthA , 59(5), 502-509.
hattar A Dabas upta Chopra S umaraguru hite or lue the hale getsK , ., , K., G , K., , ., & K , P. (2018). W B , W
its Vengeance A Social Media Analysis of the lue hale Challenge: B W . ar iv preprintX
ar ivX :1801.05588.
upariello Curti S M Coppo Racalbuto S S Di Vella Self harm Risk AmongL , F., , . ., , E., , . ., & , G. (2018). ‐
Adolescents and the henomenon of the lue hale Challenge Case Series and Review ofP “B W ”:
the iteratureL . ournal of forensic sciencesJ .
Singh A Shanwal V Developing a sensitization program on he lue hale Challenge, . K., & , . K. (2018). T B W
for eachers and Adolescents in ndiaT I . ntegrated ournal of ocial ciencesI J S S , 5(1), 22-26.
ian an uebner S ff ects of Cyberbullying and Cybervictimization on arlyT , L., Y , Y., & H , E. . (2018). E E
Adolescents Mental ealth Differential Mediating Roles of erceived eer Relationship' H : P P
Stress. Cy erpsychology ehavior and ocial et or ingb , B , S N w k , 21(7), 429-436.
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