What is Cyberbullying?
According
to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, cyberbullying is “bullying
that takes place using electronic technology” (United States Government). In other words, cyberbullying occurs when
individuals send threatening, hurtful, embarrassing or untrue messages about
another person through social media sites. Social media sites can include any
websites or apps that are designed to allow people to communicate through electronic
devices, such as phones, computers, iPads, or tablets. While cyberbullying can happen anywhere, the
most common sites where this occurs are social media sites such as Facebook,
Twitter, and MySpace because these sites are popular with adolescents, who are
usually the prime victims when it comes to cyberbullying. Social media sites are often the main source
for cyberbullying but victims can also be harassed through text messages and
email as well.
How is Cyberbullying Different from Physical Bullying?
|
Cyberbullying gives bullies the power to say whatever they want about a person without having to see the pain their words are causing the victim. In cases of cyberbullying, perpetrators will write hurtful messages about a person that they may never actually say when facing the person.
The National Crime Prevention Council provides us with the following statistics regarding adolescents and cyberbullying (National Crime Prevention Council and HarrisInteractive).
|
These statistics that are provided by the National Crime Prevention Council offer a glimpse of how many adolescents are affected by cyberbullying on a daily basis. 43% of teenagers in the United States have experienced cyberbullying during their lifetime. This means that nearly 4 out of every 10 teenagers in the United States have been bullied through social media at some point. While the number of teens that are affected by cyberbullying is huge, unfortunately only a small number of number of these teenagers will tell their parents or a trusted adult in their life. Why is this a problem? Adults can provide teenagers and adolescents the help they need if they are faced with harassment online by providing support and working to end the cyberbullying all together.