Cyberbullying

What is Cyber bullying?

Cyberbullying or cyber harassment is a type of bullying or harassing using electronic media  It has become more common in teenagers as a result of advancement in technology. It mostly occur on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp etc.

It can also occur in messaging apps in mobiles and tablets, chat rooms online gaming platform where information can be shared. It is found much in young people age ranging from 12 to 17. It takes place by sharing sensitive or private, false, negative content of any person that causes humiliation or embracement among society.

Cyber Bullying has become more common because of the social websites that allow sharing of personal photos, comments, posts that are shared by a certain person are viewed by strangers as the person don't know who can view this content. The content may then be used by the stranger and he can blackmail the victim. 

Causes and effects:

Causes of cyberbullying may be very harmful and lead to suicide in some sensitive cases. The victim may be pressurized to send money or the criminal may also blackmail him for some harmful, and negative. The causes of cyber bullying are anxiety, fear, low self-esteem, depression, lack of self-confidence, lower performance in studies and co-curricular activities. It also causes psychological trouble in the victim and give rise to negative feelings, promoting suicidal-ideas.

Facts about Cyber Bullying:

• The most important fact about cyberbullying is that girls are the likely to be victims of cyberbullying. 
• Young people mostly at the age of 12 to 17 are more likely to get bullied online.
• Only 1 in 10 will inform their parent or guardian about the harassment.
• As the harassment is online so it is hard to be noticed by parents and other people. 
• Young people who are being cyber bullied are at more risk of self harm and suicidal behaviors.
• The Cyber Bullying Research Center  reports that in 2016, 34% of students had been victim of cyberbullying in some part of there life.
• School Crime Supplement reports that 28% students from grades six to twelve have experienced some kind of bullying.

Types of Cyber Bullying:

• Online harassment is the sending of abusive or harmful messages to a person. It is constant and repeated by the bully and it harms the victim and makes a negative impact on the victim. The bully may verbally abuse the victim on any online forum and humiliate him.

• Hacking into someone's personal social media account and doing things that may have serious impact on the victims life e.g. uploading private content of the victim, threatening the victim, sending false and abusive messages to his colleagues, family members, friends.

• Spreading secrets of the victim online also harass the victim as the secrets may damage the privacy and the reputation of the person.

• Making fake social media account of the person and impersonating him by posting negative content that can damage the reputation and self-esteem of the victim. 

• Uploading someone's private pictures online and rating the appearance  is also a harassment. The bully may upload the pictures on forums or social media sites.

• Spreading hate also harasses the victim. The bully may say offensive words, post false news about the victims personality, and spread rumor's about the victim.

Reasons why People cyberbully:

• Getting bored: Some people do cyberbullying because they are getting bored and have to make some fun by by making fun of someone.

• Revenge: The bully may also be bullying in order to take revenge from the victim. The bully thinks that the victim deserves the pain that they inflicted on him in the past.

• Social Status in friends: The bully may also do this to look cool or impress their friends by bullying someone and getting popular.

• Money: The bully may also do cyberbully someone for money.

• Lack of knowledge about cyberbully: The bully may also don't know that by cyberbullying he is committing a crime because of lack of knowledge about the crime.

Symptoms of someone getting Cyberbullied:

• The person who is getting bullied may get secretive. 
• The victim will be nervous and get angry when using mobile or when he is online.
• The victim gets stressed and may get hyper when he is online.
• Increase in usage of mobile phone and social media.
• Not doing any sports and other activities or neglecting their hobbies.
• Staying in their own room for many hour a day.
• Not performing well in studies.
• Not talking too much with family members or friends.

Preventing Cyberbully:

Educating People about Cyberbullying

Cyberbully can be prevented by guiding the people by the appropriate use of internet and social media account. i.e.

• Privacy: The people especially the teen must be taught of the privacy of their content on social media so that they don't get cyberbullied. They must hide their content from viewing it to the strangers and prohibited to share any sensitive content that can be used as a weapon against them.
• Permanence: The teens must be educated that once something is uploaded on the internet it is nearly impossible to delete it completely even if the post is deleted.

How to deal with cyberbully

By educating the people how to deal with cyberbully can also prevent it. This can be done by taking following measures;

• Ignoring: To deal with the cyberbully the teens must be encouraged to ignore the bully as the bully is trying to get the victims attention so that he can blackmail them.
• Blocking: By blocking the bully can also prevent the cyberbullying.
• Changing Contact info: If blocking and ignoring doesn't work change your contact info so that you avoid the cyberbully and the bully doesn't get your attention.
• Saving a record: By saving a record of the messages of the bully the person can deal with the bully as he can contact any authorities about the cyberbully.

Educating people about this crime

People should be educated about this crime so that they know that by bullying someone they are committing a crime. Many teens and people don't know that they are committing a crime they think they are doing fun and not any thing serious as it hurts the victim and can lead to serious problems. People should be encouraged not to do cyberbullying and educated about how to report cyberbullying to the authorities.

Laws and how to approach authorities:

Cyberbully is a Crime. Many countries have a Cyber Security team that acts on cyber crime. Countries have their own cyberbullying law. If you have to report a cyberbully case you have to search the website of your country's Cyber Crime Wing and get assistance there by any official or the Ph. No. will be available on the website. You can call directly and get assistance and report your problem. One can also go directly to the Cyber Security Wing 's office and report their case.  Cyber Security Officials then help the victim and by cooperation they catch the bully .Countries have their own laws and sanctions. The bully may be fined or sent to jail as per law of the state.

You can also check more about laws and take help on these links

Stopbullying.gov

Cyberbully help

Delete Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying research center

Cyberbullying must be stopped!

Cyberbullying must be stopped as it is getting more common in teenagers especially students. It has very negative, harmful effects on the victim life and in some cases leading to suicide attempts. It is essential to stop this crime as it spreads negativity around the environment. It can be stopped by proper education on cyberbullying and its sanctions so that everyone knows what they are doing by bullying a person. If there is a cyberbully it should be reported immediately to the Cyber Crime Wing of the state.