Cyber Bullying

The act of using modern communication technologies to embarrass, humiliate, threaten intimidate an individual in an attempt to gain power and control over them is known as Cyber-Bullying. There have been 41 suicides since 2003 involving cyber-bullying in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

One of the tools and most prevalent acts among youths to exhibit superiority and intimidate one another is Cyber-bullying. It is achieved with the use of social media such as Facebook, 2go, Twitter, WhatsApp, E-buddy and YouTube among other over forty social media networks which cyber bullers see as pivotal to the actuality of this act of bullying.

Records have shown that many souls? Dreams and future leaders have been jeopardized by this act. Some of these souls, dreams and future leaders were endangered because they find it puzzling to extricate themselves from this intimidation and act of inferiority which have suicidal consequences.

Cyber-consequences

Cyber is referred to as the internet, an electronic medium in which verbal and non-verbal online communication takes place while its complement, Bullying, is an aggressive attitude exhibited with the use of duress to influence the attitude of other people to behave in a particular way.

The act of using modern communication technologies to embarrass, humiliate, threaten intimidate an individual in an attempt to gain power and control over them is known as Cyber-Bullying. This act is ubiquitous. It happens in schools among pupils, in offices among colleagues, in the family among siblings or rivals, everywhere people are found and where access to the internet is limited or unlimited.

Cyber-bullying

Cyber-bullying which is one of the several forms of bullying occurs when messages or images with the intent to hurt, embarrass or intimidate are sent via internet-enabled computer system and mobile phones. Its other related acts of bullying are physical, verbal, social and emotional bullying.

Peoples’ engagement in cyber-bullying could be to make fun or jest one another; for entertainment, boost ego or create a hilarious scene in order to tarnish the image of a colleague, make someone feel desolate or rejected. Cyberbullying is closely associated with the posting of unflattering pictures of people, sending threatening or provocative mails and unwanted message(s).

The rate of suicide caused by cyber-bullying is on the increase by the day. A research done by John C. LeBlanc, an associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, Dalhousie University, revealed that: There have been 41 suicides since 2003 involving cyber-bullying in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom in which most of the victims were bullied in school as published by Nigeria News on October 20th, 2012, 13:00.

Cyber-rate

An example of such act is the case of a 15-year-old girl, Amanda Todd, who took her life after she had been tormented on Facebook and struggled with suicidal feelings and depression, ostracized at school as published on Friday, October 19th 2012 by Vedic Views on World News.

Another example is a 15-year-old boy, Joshua Unsworth, published by online Nigeria on Saturday 7th April 2013 at 12:30, who committed suicide after allegedly being bullied on social media sites. Though cyber-bullying may not be totally eradicated but can be reduced to a minimal level. The methodology includes proper orientation about internet usage, parents monitoring sites visited by children, setting some simple and fair rules about internet use.

Don’t ignore any act of bullying. Print and report any bully message to a trusted person, delete contacts of those who bully, don’t reply bully message(s) but rather go offline. Be very careful of who you post your pictures to, who you give your social network account name, who you give your e-mail addresses, phone number(s), and never give out your personal or private information of yourself, such as, home address, date of birth, name of school and place of work.

Stop-Cyber-bullying

However, if bullying persists, deactivate your social networking account, change addresses and phone numbers.

Author

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *