Social Media Cyber Bullying in Young People

Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA CYBER BULLYING IN YOUNG PEOPLE IN UK
Social Media Cyber Bullying in Young People between 11 to 18 years in UK
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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SOCIAL MEDIA CYBER BULLYING IN YOUNG PEOPLE IN UK
Introduction
The use of internet has undoubtfully bridged the gap and made the place a smaller world
with the sharing of information and the increased availability of resources to indulge in, it has
other side of the coin like any other issues in the world. The introduction of internet for social
media interactions did bridge the gap and enhanced a better understanding of other cultures, it
has had adverse effect in the way people led their life. More and more people getting acquainted
with technology also meant the technology getting into wrong hands and in no time we saw the
emergence of a new threat and a birth of a new division of legislation called the cyber-crime
branch. In no time, the younger generation discovered this life altering medium which gave them
access to unlimited socializing which was the major factor that went missing in the process of
modernization and the competition to teach children more in less time. They saw it as a mean to
fill the gap in their life and it was a break from the world of virtual gaming.
Interactive technology gave the young generation to seek communication which was
almost non-existing due to the highly competitive life led by the guardians in order to maintain a
certain standard of living. They lost themselves in the world of virtual reality and it gave them
the sense of liberation from the control of the elders and made them feel empowered. But with
this came the rush of the technology being misused and being used to abuse others. The loss of
privacy, bullying and harmful use of digital evidence to malign someone else’s character has
been few of the basic problem which has seen a major growth in the younger generation (Bryce
and Fraser, 2013). The essay will deal with the way the social networking sites are being
consumed by adolescent children and their impact on their physical as well as mental health. The
essays’ rationale is to find the understanding that the children possess of the different laws
regarding the act of crime over the net which falls under the category of cybercrime.

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Social networking and youth of UK
The growth and innovation in the technological advancement of the social adaptations of
the social networking sites by the children and adolescents in the United Kingdom as well as the
whole world has lately been assessed and evaluated by critics as well as the government. The
public and the private policy aspirations has been hugely banking and capitalizing on their
inclination to adapt to these technology. It has been continuously used as the medium to earn
popular and fast track the success of the innovation, apart from the traditional method of
socializing which already seems to be age old in spite of the fact that they were in trend simply
five to ten years back such as email, chatrooms, texting and messaging and blogging (Betts and
Spenser, 2017). But the new addition in the past in the form of different social networking sites
have proven to be the game changer.
The networking sites provided the agencies looking for advertisement on a global scale a
valid stage. The different networking sites letting the users be connected irrespective of their
geographical location made the sites such the Google, Facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc. a big
success. It provided the public policy aspirants to endorse their campaigns for the commercial
market which is based on targeted audience. The innovation no doubt seized the opportunity to
indulge in informal education on health and lifestyle mainly. The need for public policies
regarding the risks concentrating on the minds of young children regarding cybercrimes have
also been on all-time high (Cohen-Almagor, 2018). The public and private agencies endorsing
the social networking sites and the imminent problem about their focus on capitalizing on the
adoption by the young population the students in their teens especially.

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The Social Media
The current stance of the marketers and the business approach around the globe shows
that more and more advertisers are getting attracted to the social networking sites which helps
them to rope in future customers, workers, employers who are present in these sites. The social
sites which are not limited to open conversation such as the Twitter, Facebook and the new
addition of LinkedIn are categorized as the medium where the exchange of generators and users
are easily available. Social networking sites are all about communication over the net and is
prevalent under the masses (O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, 2011). The use of the media has open
new stages and has almost blur the national boundaries when it comes to marketing and
interaction. The introduction of the option to share information on the net in the form of personal
messages and in the form of images was one of the huge success for the social networking sites
which expanded their growth and saw a huge rise in the adoption from the younger generation.
There are various forms of categorizations which have been made by the different
scholars and critics. Kaplan categorized social media into various forms and the system used in
them such as the blogs, social networking sites, virtual social worlds, collaborative projects,
communities and virtual gaming world. All of them have been successful and very easily blurs
the age limitation they are being utilized by for one of the major component of criticism is that
there is hardly any restrictions based on age limitation (Whittaker and Kowalski, 2015). The age
limitation has been observed to be realized by the user’s generated distinguishing. For the use of
blogs and twitter still stay limited to the adults for it deals with sharing ideas and information
which are more central to the life and concentrated on the topics of science and literature, while
the youth are more accumulated in the social networking sites which allows them to fill the
blaring gap of the social activities which become non-existing due to the immense pressure from

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the parents and society of being able to participate and learn more than they could. There is a
sense of community in the young generation user where they relate to each other on various
terms whether it is lifestyle or a choice of lifestyle (Ybarra et al. 2012) Due to which it has been
observed that they have become protective of their space and wants to have complete control and
independence from any restrictions and are seen to get defensive of their space if and when
restrictions are imposed.
TAM (Technology Acceptance Model)
The theory applied to study the acceptance of technology among the population is the
famous theory proposed by Davis which evaluates the sustainability and adaptation pattern of
technology based on factors of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease-of-use (PEOU).
The model in spite of being formed long back at a time where the use of technology was not as
advanced as it is today, yet the adoption pattern and hypotheses can be assessed using the theory
till date. The PU is the perceived usefulness of the technology by the users in terms of finding
the use to be enhancing their grasp of performance of the everyday action and occasion
(Surendran, 2012). This helps in assessing the children and adolescent’s perceived ideology in
getting themselves involved in a certain social networking site as they find it suiting to
themselves best. The school children in UK has been assessed to be present and adapting to the
use of Facebook more than any other social networking sites (Goodyear, Armour and Wood,
2018). This is derived as the result of the fact that the age restriction and the limitation offered by
the site as seen by them is the most convenient. They get hold of information which are under
scrutiny in the traditional ways of society and yet over the site it is easily accessible. There is no
limitation to the choice of representation and display over the accounts they create to represent
themselves. No doubt, the study revealing that children up to the age of 18 have been found to

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have a presence in Facebook and they spend more than couple of hours on a daily basis sharing
and interacting with people who they have not met in real life.
The PEOU on the other hand is seen to be one of the most determining factor which
decides the user’s medium of choosing the social networking site. It can be defined as the degree
of the ease as perceived by the users in terms of effort to be put in using the technology. This is
again seen as influencing and inspiring the children to indulge in these social sites as they there
is any limitation whether and if there is one. In most of the social sites, whether it is virtual
gaming sites or the social networking sites, it has been observed that the policies put in place for
the restrictions are simply there and are not being realized or there is hardly any effort to put
them into realization (Paul, Smith and Blumberg, 2012). The gaming world which the children
already found to be tempting due to the graphic excellence which transports them to the world of
wonder where they could choose their favorite character and were found to be escaping in them
as a means to avoid confronting their problems in real life. The issue has been complicated with
the addition in the technology where they can now instantly text their partners in the game sitting
at a remote place and most of the time even people who does not share the same language of
communication and yet relying and depending on each other to sustain the virtual world they
start to practically live in. Moreover, the addition of the availability of the audio interaction
where their perceived world comes alive with the reach of providing them the human touch of
sound (Przybylski, and Bowes, 2017).
Recently the Technology Acceptance Model has been upgraded to incorporate factors
which has risen in the recent past with the rise of addition to the technological advancement and
their adaptation by the users. TAM 2 has the included factor of the perception of self –efficacy
which can be described as the user’s perception of the technology being adhering to their

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individual need (Menesini, Nocentini and Calussi, 2011). The users tends to incline towards the
adaption of the technology which they perceived themselves to be able to comprehend and use it
to improve and apply in their social environment. The students are observed to be following their
choice of the different trends which becomes as easily prevalent in these sites and as easily
getting cornered due to a rise of similar technology which offers them a better grasp of the same
activity. This involves individual involvement behavior in the form that the students perceives
that the use of the technology will enhance their social standing and acceptance among their own
age group (Viner et al. 2019).
Cybercrime- Impact on the Mental and Physical Health
There is no denying the fact that socializing over the net has a number of effects which
shows positive traits such as the lower rate of children complaining of loneliness, and higher
degree of information sharing and knowledge sharing. It was of course noted that children grew
more open to knowledge acquisition but, it has been observed by different organization and
governmental studies that the same socially equipping medium has resulted in them the isolation
which was dreaded by them in the beginning (Fahy et al. 2016). In the past, the case was such
that the children turned to these mode of communication when there was a lack of
communication in the real world and their social surrounding but, now they intentionally avoid
the physical connection and communication. The social networking sites have turned into the
stage where they can hide and their psychological development which is expected to be
developed to face the world is lacking.
Apart from the obvious complication of the children staying glued to the screens or rather
hiding behind the screen, the option of the technology to be used as a medium of danger and
harm to them shave opened wide open. The risks are long listed and children are now prone to

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risks they are not equipped to handle. The risks involve cyber bullying, being in contact with
strangers posing to be friendly, sexual messaging and the use of the same for blackmailing and
pornography and the sharing of nude images with the strangers which enable them to be
exploited (Herring, and Kapidzic, 2015).
The concept of bullying is not new yet the impact of online bullying is ten-fold more than
the traditional ones. The traditional mode of bullying was still as physically present as the
bullied, but the virtual world of social networking sites have provided the mode in which seeking
out the bully is a tedious job. The concept of cyberbullying arises from the victims who are
bullied using the technology as a mean to tarnish and destroy something or a notion bullied holds
dear (Cowie, 2013). Cyberbullying provides the hiding shield to the bully as they are hidden
behind the screen and in mainly in the form of messages and voice messages which has been
again acquired without the permission of the person. In case of the later teens, the children who
are becoming sexually aware has been seen to be target most of the time. Bullying has always
been seen as the mode of aggression and the sense of entitlement in an individual which is their
assertion of being in power and reflects the power imbalance which is present (Savoldi and
Ferraz de Abreu, 2016). According to Paul, Smith and Blumberg most of the cases of
cybercrimes goes unreported due to the lack of knowledge of the policies and laws surrounding
it.
Cyberbullying has been divided into eight different kinds but all committed through the
use of technology and done intentionally to hurt someone mentally or physically and is repeated.
It can be in the form of show aggression with the use of aggressive remarks on someone who is
not equal in power, harassment which the same as the traditional mode of harassment but done
through electronic gadgets which consist of making the person uncomfortable by sending

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inappropriate messaging, the third kind is very disturbing to the bullied- that is the intentional
spread of lie or false claim about the person which is diminishing to the image of the individual
(Slonje, Smith and Frisén, 2013). It is more often targeted as a mean to destroy friendship or
relationship by projecting false claim (Nilan et al. 2015). The fourth kind of cyberbullying
cannot easily be done in the physical world, impersonation which is posing under a different
name and committing an act which could be held up against the person or it is also seen as
posing as someone and revealing private information in order to create a rift between two
individual. The fifth is outing which is making information about an individual public in order to
degrade the person which include sharing image of the person as way of demeaning the integrity,
the next is trickery which is like the physical world again where an individual is tricked into
doing something which is harmful and could put the person at risk (Livingstone and Brake,
2010). The seventh kind is excluding someone from a group which is very hurtful for children as
they tend to feel secure and a part of something bigger than themselves. The last kind is cyber
stalking which is trying to keep a track of the other person in order to intimidate them or to
create a sense of being threatened.
Impact of Cybercrimes
There are various studies and surveys done in UK in the school premises which included
students under the age of 18 and most of them shows very similar result regarding their
perspective on cyberbullying and the laws around. Most of the students were not aware of the
consequences which has been laid down through cyber law and the responsibility towards
reporting these instances. The parents and teachers involved in the surveys shows the same
concern about not being able to keep a track of their children’s social life due to their concept of
privacy (Kırcaburun et al. 2019). This is one of the major barrier which is faced by the

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authorities trying to bring down the percentage. One of the major impact of cybercrime is the
increase of suicide in children which comes as a surprise for the parents and the family because
they are mostly unaware of the mental trauma the child has been put through online. The prime
weapon of the crime is often seen to be an inappropriate image and the fact that the unlimited
access and storage capacity of the social media makes it impossible for it to be forgotten and the
person is forced to experience the insult again and again (O’Reilly et al. 2018). The second
weapon which is more deadly for the victim is the anonymity of the bully (John et al. 2018). The
children have shown the symptoms of being tolerant towards bully due to the fact that they are
scared of divulging to an elder person out of fear of being judged and being put under restrictions
in the future which makes them suffer and they develop anxiety, panic and depression.
The fact that most of the time the cases goes unreported has been raised as an urgent
issue in the schools and the parents and teachers have come together to combat it through the
inclusion of cyber rules which are applied along with the general rules (O'Brien and Moules,
2010). The students are made aware of the consequences of being indulged in any kind of
activity which can be harmful to another is seen as crossing the limit. The schools have also
started keeping a track of the social media account of the students to make sure that they are not
hurt or at any risk even outside the school premises (Inchley and Currie, 2013). The use of
internet for pornography and violent videos which incite the feeling of aggression and influences
them in any way to commit actions which can harm them has also been tried to keep in check by
the use of restriction in the internet provision of the school which bares them to enter sites which
requires adult supervision.

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Conclusion
The use of technology for the negative has opened children at risk in UK and parents
have been struggling to manage it without compromising on the privacy of their children. But,
the fact remains that the social networking sites which were brought into existence with the
motive of bridging the gap and facilitate the flow of information and knowledge has opened
ways for people with unchecked psychological complications to target young children. The
physical health of the children becomes apparently effected due to their mental health being
traumatized due to being bullied and being unable to understand the way they have to approach
the matter. The policies coming into place in UK as well as others are there yet there is an urgent
need for these policies to be made on the global level for the social media does not stay limited
to national boundaries. The social networking site and their limitation to access information by
the children still remains unchecked wildly due to the fact they become involved with things
beyond their comprehension. The essay reveals the different forms of cybercrime which reveals
that they can be easily controlled if the government and the sites works together to keep a track
of the activity. The article however, also reveals the fact that if these risks are encountered, then
social sites can be a bane for the children and the society as well.

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