Cyberbullying in the Digital Age: A Comprehensive Report

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CYBER BULLYING
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CYBER BULLYING
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion of the context.................................................................................................................2
Critical analysis / Evaluation of an alternative................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
Cyberbullying is an ever-growing problem of the society in the modern world (Mishna, et al.,
2017). The use of technology has been rapidly growing with time. The use of technology has
many positive impacts to the people but it also has some negative impacts as well. Cyberbullying
is one of them that have been responsible for various impacts on people’s life. The world has
been initiating many measures to fight against the serious problem but most of the time it is
ineffective (Gardner, et al., 2016). In the assignment, a report is made based on the searching,
feedbacks from Part B. Based on the report there will be further research works done, and there
will be a discussion on one of the prominent alternative of cyberbullying.
Discussion of the context
In the above section, there is a group discussion on the academic performance of cyberbullying.
The individuals participating in the discussion shared their thoughts and viewpoints on the
vulnerable topic. Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that is practiced through any electronic
means (Corcoran, Guckin and Prentice, 2015). The advantages, disadvantages, preventive
measures and social impacts of cyberbullying were discussed in the due course of time. The
group discussion was initiated by me where I spoke about how cyberbullying has become the
means of harassment, humiliation, fright, threats and even abuse of many individuals that are
done in various social media platforms. According to Pabian and Vandebosch, (2016),
cyberbullying has been growing into prominence in various significant social media platforms
including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube. Another member of the discussion also
put her viewpoint by explaining the various forms of cyberbullying such as the use of personal
data in order to blackmail, post pictures or videos in the social media platform. This causes a
huge negative impact on the victim. The victim goes through harassment and humiliation that
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sometimes takes a vicious turn. Sending abusive messages repeatedly to the victim is also a type
of cyberbullying that has equal impacts on the victim.
It was also discussed that social media generally contains a vast audience, posting personal data
online can reach numerous audience which can severe humiliation, anxiety, and harassment
which can lead to depression, stress and even suicide. Research has found that the maximum of
the people bullying online gets immense satisfaction from conducting such activity. These
abusers tend to gain pride and confidence by humiliating others. These mentalities can be
harmful to oneself and for others too (Olweus, 2016). It is also seen that victims generally do not
stand up for themselves as such incidents break them mentally and emotionally. Many
discussions took place about the measures that can be taken by an individual against
cyberbullying. According to one of the group members, the social media networks generally
have the facility that helps the victim to report the abuser according to which necessary actions
will be taken. This is quite an ineffective method, as the maximum penalty is blocking the
account of the user permanently. This hardly affects the user as the user can open another
account easily.
The density of cyberbullying, as opined by me, has been increasing from time to time. According
to the reports of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), every
one child out five has been a victim of cyberbullying. Reports also show that around 91% of the
individuals agree that the measures taken against cyberbullying are generally ineffective and
justice is rarely served (Holfeld and Mishna 2018). In conclusion, it was found that the
discussion was conducted in a very proper and efficient way. The discussion provided
individuals a platform to share their views and thoughts. Communication skills and management
skills are two important factors that were learned by individuals to some extent.
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Critical analysis / Evaluation of an alternative
The case of cyberbullying has been criticized by many individuals of the society. According to
Livingstone, Stoilova and Kelly (2016), the growth in technology has brought a change in the
lifestyle of people. People generally are busy with their electronic devices. The use of social
media has become immense and there is no end to it. Social media was made with the intention
to bring development in people but instead, some people use it in doing malicious practices like
cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the reason for various troubles that the younger generation faces.
As opined by Kokkinos, et al. (2016), social media has given the people certain powers that, if
used, can be beneficial for them. On the contrary, some of the people misuse this power to
humiliate, harass and abuse others. As per the reports, cyberbullying is the major cause of many
issues such as depressions, anxiety, low confidence and attempting to suicide. As discussed,
there prevail a number of measures like reporting the individual and taking the help of the cyber
police. However, as opined by Mishna, et al. (2017), the maximum of the population does not
think that these are effective tools but there have been certain changes taken place in order to
prevent cyberbullying. The effects of cyberbullying have proven to be harming an individual’s
self-esteem, emotional and mental health that leads to several disastrous results.
In order to evaluate and analyse the alternative that prevents the evidence of cyberbullying in the
organisation, it may be stated that the occurrence of Phishing is one of the ineffective alternatives
of cyberbullying. As opined by Akerlof and Shiller (2015), Phishing is a type of fraudulent
activity that is used by hackers to obtain personal information from a person’s device. This is a
big crime as it breaches the personal security of an individual. The information can be misused
by anyone in order to extract money or publicly humiliate the victim. However, according to
Olweus (2016), the development of internet security has eliminated the malicious activity to
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some extent. The development of encryption systems can help prevent Phishing at a significant
level.
The group discussion had been taken place with discussion of many preventive measures can be
taken and some measures that the victims can take in order to stop any further destruction. The
group members also developed the thought that the introduction of several policies can also help
to tackle the problem of cyberbullying. The abusers must be tracked and caught in a more
efficient way. They must be punished according to so that they do not continue to do malicious
activity. The punishments can also set an example for the ones continuing to cyberbully innocent
people.
Conclusion
Summing up the study, there can be an evaluation of the development of cyberbullying. The
evaluation has provided a lot of information about cyberbullying and its impacts on people. The
information about the risks and disadvantages of cyberbullying has also been gathered. Some
preventive measures and policies have also been discussed that can be taken in order to mitigate
the malicious activity.
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References
Corcoran, L., Guckin, C. and Prentice, G., 2015. Cyberbullying or cyber aggression?: A review
of existing definitions of cyber-based peer-to-peer aggression. Societies, 5(2), pp.245-255.
Gardner, D., O’Driscoll, M., Cooper-Thomas, H., Roche, M., Bentley, T., Catley, B., Teo, S. and
Trenberth, L., 2016. Predictors of workplace bullying and cyber-bullying in New
Zealand. International journal of environmental research and public health, 13(5), p.448.
Holfeld, B. and Mishna, F., 2018. Longitudinal associations in youth involvement as victimized,
bullying, or witnessing cyberbullying. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking, 21(4), pp.234-239.
Livingstone, S., Stoilova, M. and Kelly, A., 2016. Cyberbullying: incidence, trends and
consequences.
Mishna, F., McInroy, L.B., Daciuk, J. and Lacombe-Duncan, A., 2017. Adapting to attrition
challenges in multi-year studies: Examples from a school-based bullying and cyber bullying
study. Children and Youth Services Review, 81, pp.268-271.
Olweus, D., 2016. Cyber Bullying. Aggression and violence: A social psychological perspective,
p.225.
Pabian, S. and Vandebosch, H., 2016. An investigation of short-term longitudinal associations
between social anxiety and victimization and perpetration of traditional bullying and
cyberbullying. Journal of youth and adolescence, 45(2), pp.328-339.
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Kokkinos, C.M., Antoniadou, N., Asdre, A. and Voulgaridou, K., 2016. Parenting and Internet
behavior predictors of cyber-bullying and cyber-victimization among preadolescents. Deviant
Behavior, 37(4), pp.439-455.
Akerlof, G.A. and Shiller, R.J., 2015. Phishing for phools: The economics of manipulation and
deception. Princeton University Press.
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