Pirichian 1 Paulina Pirichian Professor Vana Derohanessian English 114B 18 February 2014 Whos to Blame for Cyber Bullying?

Everyday, more and more teenagers all around the world are constantly getting bullied through the Internet. Our generation has become so accustomed to the use of technology, that majority of the time, it is being taken advantage of and used for the wrong reasons. It gives teenagers the ability to bully others through a screen, allowing them to feel powerful, because although they may be insecure, it is much easier to bash on someone behind a screen, than to actually bully them in person. The act of this is called Cyberbullying, which is the use of Information Technology to harm or harass other people in a deliberate, repeated, hostile manner. Although a majority of society would agree that it is the childs fault for cyberbullying in the first place, we neglect to realize that it is the parents fault, because of the way they raise their child(ren). Parents should be held accountable for the path their child chooses to take whether or not they are under the influence of others, because their parental actions influence the way their child thinks and acts. Cyberbullying has become a huge problem in our society, because parents are not taking this issue into consideration and are only causing it by being too involved in their kids lives, not being involved enough, and even abusing their kids themselves. Everyone has a different insight towards everything, which is how conflicts and arguments arise. Although I believe that parents should be at fault for their child harassing or harming other kids, some would disagree. For example, in the article Parents Should Not Be Held Liable for Cyber Bullying, Elizabeth Eaton says how a Clinical Professor named Paul D.

Pirichian 2 Bennett states, not all household items should be considered dangerous even if theyre used in a harmful manner. If theres a baseball bat at home, and a child uses a baseball bat to harm somebody else, are the parents responsible for that?. (Para 5) Although Eaton states a good argument with sufficient evidence, she neglects to realize why or how the child became accustomed to the mindset of using the bat to harm others. No, it is not the parents fault for keeping a harmless item like a baseball bat in the house, however, their childs behavior causes the parents to be at fault, because they are liable for the way their child acts and thinks. Children are not born with the mindset to kill or harass, they are taught it. Additionally, when kids are constantly harassing others online, it is the parents fault for providing their children with such little knowledge, or even too much knowledge of cyberbullying. When parents are too strict on their kids, the kids begin to get frustrated, because they feel so overwhelmed and the need to release their anger towards others. Majority of the time, the most strict parents are the only who are not actually involved in their childs life, they are just there to control it. The act of not caring or not being involved allows the child to do whatever they wish on the Internet. For example, in the article Stop Cyber Bullying, What is the Parents Role in This?, it states how parents need to be supportive of your child during this time. You may be tempted to give the "stick and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you" lecture, but words and cyber attacks can wound a child easily and have a lasting effect. (Para 2) Not only is this stating how those who are victims of cyberbullying need to be heard of rather than disregarding the matter, when parents say the sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you speech, it only enables the child to think that cyber bullying is okay as long as youre not physically hurting them, which can lead them to becoming bullies themselves. Parents need to pay close attention to how they address certain things to their

Pirichian 3 children, because it may be taken the wrong way, which allows them to insult others online only to feel superior when in reality, are very weak. Nowadays, parents are finally catching up on the whole reverse psychology method on their kids and showing them that they trust them by not questioning their childs actions. They do this in order to keep a closer bond with one another and show well respect on privacy, however, how comfortable will the kids become with that trust and how often will their son or daughter actually stick with their word? Although parents want to respect their child and be on good terms with them, there is a certain boundary of involvement that needs to take place. For example, in the article, A Parents Role in Putting a Stop to Cyber Bullying, it says how it is not safe to assume your child is not playing the role of a bully in a situation, despite your wanting to think the best of her. The world is full of new and exciting situations for children and their natural impulses may not be ethical ones. (Para 11) This enables the child to believe that the parent will never find out about their actions online towards harmless human beings. Additionally, if they do find out, they would not want to take action, because it would be very difficult for a parent to understand how their child could be the cause of harm towards others, and why they hadnt realized their childs frustration sooner in order to be able to prevent it. Although the guardian did not portray to act and speak in such a way online, the fact that they trust them to do whatever they please through the Internet, allows them to be at fault for not being as involved in their childs life. Surprisingly, in some cases, parents are very well aware of the fact that their child is harming others but will not do anything about it, only because they themselves physically and/or verbally abused their child while raising them. When parents are the ones to harm their children, it can lead them to growing up with two different mindsets. One of them would be to ignore it

Pirichian 4 and never treat their own child the way they had been treated, and the other and more likely option, would be that the child grows up to harm others they way their parents did, and sometimes go to more drastic measures. This would be a continuous cycle of abuse that would never cease. For example, in the TV series, Criminal Minds, the BAU team searches for grown men and woman who are constantly committing crimes and harassing others in person and online. During their search, they investigate the families of these men and women, because the team needs to understand where and how the criminals were influenced with this mentality and why their behavior has struck now. Parents are the leading cause of everything their child says and does which is why in our generation, when a child is extremely upset and has a lot of anger built in them, it is very easy for one to access a computer and degrade others without getting caught, instead of showing others how weak they really are. Regardless of the reasons society may believe that bullies are made up of their surroundings, not from their own home, parents are the ones to be to blame. It is our job as a community to come together and recognize the reasons for cyberbullying and to prevent it from happening. Cyberbullying may not be seen as a big deal since kids are so blunt with their words nowadays anyways, but little does everyone know that it can actually harm or even kill an innocent human being with just a click of a button. Kids are becoming accustomed to the idea of Cyberbullying, because it is the newest form of harassment in our generation due to our parents lack of involvement, too much involvement, or even the acceptance of verbal and physical abuse.

Pirichian 5 Works Cited "A Parent's Role in Putting a Stop to Cyberbullying." Mysecurecyberspace.com. N.p., n.d. Web. Eaton, Elizabeth. "Parents Should Not Be Held Liable for Cyberbullying." The Arizona Daily Wildcat 5 Nov. 2013: n. pag. Print. "STOP Cyberbullying." N.p., n.d. Web. <http://stopcyberbullying.org/prevention/parents_role.html>.