Don’t be mean behind the screen.
Children are technically savvy at a very young age, almost every home in America has a computer, children are given cell phones, tablets, and they have access to the internet on a daily basis. These children will go on line to their Facebook or Instagram accounts, they tweet and text before leaving grade school. Another aspect that exposes children to new media is many schools require accessing the internet for school work. This online life opens the possibility of being bullyed on the internet. Cyberbullying, online harassment has an off-line impact. While traditional bullying is still more common than cyberbullying; the 2 forms of bullying are closely related. Studies show the roles of offender and victim are repeated online; children who are bullied at school are bullied online and those who bully at school repeat this bullying behavior online. Cyberbullying continues past childhood, high school and college students are also bullyed on-line. Adults and professionals are also harassed online but the wording for this abuse is slightly different, cyberharassment or cyberstalking. As the American public uses the internet for more aspects of their daily lives, cyberbullying has to be recognized and addressed.
Cyberbullying essentially entails the "use of internet service and mobile technologies such as web pages and discussion groups as well as instant messaging or short message services, (SMS) text messaging with the intention of harming another person". (1) Bullying actions can include using New Medias to engage in deliberate, hostile behavior by an individual child or group that is intended to harm another child or group of children. Often these bullying actions are repeated on the internet and can have serious effects on the victim in real life. Considering that New Media forums are easily repeated and rebroadcast, harrassment of one child can be viewed by a large audience, this can compound the negative effect on the victim. Even when the abuser is called out and apologizes for the bullying act, there is no way to delete the bullying messages that were repeated by forwarding. The bully can be blocked but the negative message cannot be so easily recalled.
Where does the responsibility for Cyberbullying lie? With schools and administrators, or with social media sites like Facebook? Do parents carry the largest burden? Traditionally, children are held less accountable than adults. Surprisingly, the answer may be the biggest impact may come from re-educating children and holding children more accountable when they choose to engage in cyberbullying.
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