Cyber Bullying in U.K: Laws and Prevention

This assignment provides an overview of cyberbullying in the U.K., discussing laws such as Protection from Harassment Act 1997, Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Malicious Communication Act 1988, Communications Act 2003, Breach of Peace (Scotland), and Defamation Act 2013. It also explores methods to prevent cyberbullying, including changing privacy settings on social media accounts, remaining calm when victimized, and reporting incidents on social media platforms.

Is Cyberbullying A
Criminal Offence

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
Cyber bullying.............................................................................................................................................3
Impact of Cyber bullying.........................................................................................................................4
Issues associated with Cyber bullying and action taken by social media to prevent them.......................4
Cyber Laws for Cyber bullying in U.K....................................................................................................5
Prevent Cyber bullying............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Cyber bullying can be defined as any kind of bullying which takes place online by use different
mediums like social networking sites, messaging apps, chat rooms such as Live, Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube and many other mediums (Campbell and Bauman, 2018). This report is based on cyber
bulling, its impact, issues associated with it and steps which are taken by social media platforms to help
the individuals. Furthermore, cyber laws used by UK are discussed and ways in which cyber bully can be
prevented is discussed.
Cyber bullying
Cyber bullying is a platform which is used by twenty first century bully to inflict humiliation and
pain upon others. It is basically use of technology to threaten, harass, embarrass and target another
person. Despite of absence of audible insults and physical contact, it is more traumatizing than traditional
forms of bullying (Espelage and Hong, 2017). By the use of social media bullying can be viewed by
anyone family, friends and acquaintances. This leads severe consequences and can become more severe.
Example can be taken to understand it like if a school student takes unflattering picture of classmate and
puts it on social media as well as circulate it among friends with hurtful comments then it can create a
severe impact on mind of that student and might take life.
Impact of Cyber bullying
Cyber Bullying has made young people more than twice likely to commit suicide or self harm as
per recent studies. Though growth in technology is considered as a strong asset but with rise in social
media it has left youngsters vulnerable to online bullying which comprises of humiliation of intimidating
messages, threatening or posting of images or harmful comments. Around one third of young people
claims that they have been victims of bullying. Researchers at Oxford Universities found that around 2.3
times risk of self harm and suicide has been raised in recent times (Cyberbullying makes young people
twice as likely to self harm or attempt suicide, 2019). For this it has been suggested that prevention from
cyber buying must be incorporated in school’s anti-bullying policies along with other concepts associated
with digital citizenship.
An analysis was conducted in Britain in which 11000 young people were taken, it was found that
girls of 14 years were addicted to social media, around two fifth of them use it for more than three hours
every day as compared to boys. It was analyzed that around 38% of heavy social media users (around 5
years a day) and 12% of light media users showed high sign of depression (Teen girls twice as likely as
boys to experience depression due to social media, 2019).

Issues associated with Cyber bullying and action taken by social media to prevent
them
Bullying is a problem which can be seen as a major problem which is experienced by adults as
well as children. An internet and social media platform such as Facebook have given bullies a new
medium to taunt their victims. Bullying in social media can occur as private messages which comprises of
threats or derogatory comments, public comments with posts, pages or profiles, sharing unflattering
images, sensitive videos of victim, threatening images, pages set for tormenting victim and many other
ways can be used by a person to victimize anyone. Bullying always doesn’t involve words but many
times it includes videos, memes or images (Kokkinos, Antoniadou and Markos, 2014).
A survey Safety Net Social Media Cyber bullying Inquiry, 2017 was conducted by UK, in which
they questioned around 1089 people who were between 11 and 25. As per this, around 83% adults said
that social media platform needs to do something, by which cyber bullying can be prevented on their
platforms, two third adults said that when something of such sort happens then it is upsetting and around
half of respondents have gone through threatening social media texts, emails or messages. Apart from
this, some games brought new level of horror in social media, they were Blue Whale Challenge (in 2016)
and the Momo Challenge (in August 2018) in which participants were inspired to self harm which
increased dangers and let to commit suicide (Facebook bullying: How it happens and what to do about it,
2019).
Social media platform like Facebook has taken some steps for preventing cyber bullying. They
include bullying prevention hub (in 2013) which acts as a resource for educators, parents and teens to
support and raise issues related with the bullying and other issues which they go through while they are
on social media. Parent’s portal (in 2016) which gives parents tips related with helping their child to
navigate on social media. New tools in which new features were implemented like if user blocked their
account then similar account will be blocked by Facebook on behalf of user (in 2017) to prevent
harassment and bullying were provided people. Community events (in September 2018) organized
various events to handle cyber bullying (Modecki and et. al, 2014)
.
Cyber Laws for Cyber bullying in U.K.
Different countries have formulated their own laws for cyber bullying as it is not a small issue
and its consequences can be worst. There are certain laws which can be implemented to cases related with
cyber bullying as well as online harassment. They are, Protection from Harassment Act 1997, Criminal

Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Malicious Communication Act 1988, Communications Act 2003,
Breach of Peace (Scotland) and Defamation Act 2013 (The Cybersmile Foundation, 2019).
Prevent Cyber bullying
There are different ways to prevent online abuse and cyber bullying. These methods will not sop
is completely but definitely it will make difficult for the other person to bully. Individual must change the
privacy settings of social media account so that only limited number of people can view what an
individual is doing. This will stop people from getting access to personal information as well as anything
what is posted by an individual on their account (Cyber bullying: what is it? And What can you do, 2019).
If an individual has been victim then remain calm and block the same person. After that report about the
same on social media platform as they have provided the option for same.
CONCLUSION
From above report it can be concluded that, cyber bullying refers to an act of bullying via instant
messaging, email, web sites, social media or chat room exchanges. It causes a severe impact on mind set
of a person who is victimized. It is essential that person should carefully carry out their activities on social
media and monitor what they have posted. Apart from this individual also need to make sure that the
persons who view their posts are their known and make sure that no one else can see the content posted
by an individual this will make it difficult for the person to bully. Even then something of such sort
happens then a complaint can be registered against a person.

References
Books & Journals
Campbell, M. and Bauman, S. eds., 2018. Reducing cyberbullying in schools: international
evidence-based best practices. Academic Press.
Espelage, D. L. and Hong, J. S., 2017. Cyberbullying prevention and intervention efforts: current
knowledge and future directions. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 62(6), pp.374-380.
Kokkinos, C. M., Antoniadou, N. and Markos, A., 2014. Cyber-bullying: An investigation of the
psychological profile of university student participants. Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology, 35(3), pp.204-214.
Modecki, K. L and et. al, 2014. Bullying prevalence across contexts: A meta-analysis measuring
cyber and traditional bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health, 55(5), pp.602-611.
Online
Cyber bullying: what is it? And What can you do. 2019. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.phoenix-society.org/resources/entry/cyber-bullying>.
Cyberbullying makes young people twice as likely to self harm or attempt suicide. 2019.
[Online]. < https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/04/22/cyberbullying-makes-young-people-
twice-likely-self-harm-attempt/>.
Facebook bullying: How it happens and what to do about it. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
< https://www.comparitech.com/internet-providers/facebook-bullying/>.
Teen girls twice as likely as boys to experience depression due to social media. 2019. [Online].
Available through: < https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/teen-girls-twice-as-likely-as-
boys-to-experience-depression-due-to-social-media-5834901.html>.
The Cybersmile Foundation. 2019. [online]. Available through: <
https://www.cybersmile.org/advice-help/category/cyberbullying-and-the-law>.