Makayla Farnsworth

Tiffany Seely-Case
Comm 140
30 October 2014
Cyber Bullying
In school, children are bullied all the time. We know that it is wrong and we have to stop
bullying in schools. So we did all that we can by sending the bully to the principals office or to
punish them by suspending them, but bullying has become more than just pushing somebody
around or saying hurtful words to childrens faces. It has become more widespread and easier to
bully by going viral. Cyber bullying has become an issue ever since the internet became a huge
hit. According to Corrine Iozzio, she says that 25 percent of teens identify themselves as
victims of cyber bullying (2014). A quarter of teenagers are being bullied online. Cyber
bullying has a huge effect on everyone and needs to be stopped.
When teenagers go online, they go to a different world. Jack Dickey says, For parents,
this requires facing a new reality: if your child uses an anonymous social-networking site, when
her phone buzzes at the dinner table, shes not just ignoring you; shes joining a world that hums
with cruelty and insecurity, two enduring features of adolescence newly turbocharged by
changing technology (2014). Kids are obsessed with being online and with being a part of the
social media. They want to be like all the other kids and have Facebook to see what other people
are doing. Our lives are controlled by the social media that surrounds us every day. We have to
post that amazing selfie, so all of our online friends can see what we are doing at that opportune
time.

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Most teenagers have a Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. They surround
themselves around social media everywhere. No expects to be bullied whenever they get onto
Facebook. It can start out by posting a simple picture that can start it all. A picture that is posted
on Facebook or Instagram can make all the comments come. Things that might can really hurt a
persons feelings. No one really realizes that words can cut deeply. Just by saying harmful things
can make people suicidal. People have really taken their own lives because of what people have
said about them.
There are some ways to prevent cyber bullying from continuing. Iozzio says, To help
curb the problem, Facebook rolled out a Bullying Prevention Hub last November. There, users
can learn how to deal with, report, and block bullies. Once alerted to a problem, Facebook
administrators might take down o ending posts and warn or even remove oenders. Reddit,
Instagram, Twitter, and others have similar reporting systems in place (2014). So there are ways
to stop cyber bullying for blocking the user, but it still happens. Teenagers are still bullied
online.
Cyber bullying has lead to a new level of bullying. Dickey writes, Justin Patchin, a
cyber bullying researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, says hes seen anecdotal
evidence that on-line bullying affects victims differently from in-person bullying (2014). It is so
much easier to say libel and slander things toward someone when it is not said to that persons
face. It is easier to hide behind the internet. It takes a lot of courage to say something hurtful to
someones face, but it doesnt take much to say something to someone when that person isnt in
front of them.
There was a court case back in 2009 where a 50 year old woman created a fake profile of
a 16 year old boy to lure a 13 year old girl into a relationship to find out what rumors that she

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was spreading about the her own daughter. The 13 year old girl committed suicide because she
got a message from the fake teenage boy saying that the world would be a better place without
you (2009). Just because a mother wanted to see if this teenage girl was spreading rumors about
her daughter, she created a fake profile of a teenage boy and ended up hurting the girl so badly
with what she said on this fake profile that she killed herself. Many people hide who they are
online. It can be a bad thing because we dont know who is saying these things to these teenagers
who are being cyber bullied.
There is another article that Evie Blad wrote where a college student was arrested June
2011 for creating a Facebook page which he posted photos of classmates with derogatory and
sexual captions (2014). There are many different way in which cyber bullying can take a toll on
how people feel about themselves. Cyber bullying can lower ones self esteem. For some people,
it is hard to build up their self confidence and just one comment or one picture can tear that down
in a second. It really hurts people where they go to a dark place, like depression or go all the way
to suicide because they dont see a point in living through all of the humiliation. Just by posting
those pictures, it hurts those studentss self esteem.
Throughout the United States, every state either has laws, policies, or both about antibullying laws. Idaho has both laws and policies about anti-bullying. Cyber bullying is becoming
more and more noticeable. Some ways that Stopbullying.gov to prevent cyber bullying is just
watching what kids are doing online. Make sure that parents know what their kid is really doing
on the internet.
Dickey wrote:
That, Ilja says, falls on a complacent society with bad values. We teach people to bully.
Look at the media. Do you have muscles? Youre a cool guy. Are you fat? Youre a loser.

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Do you f-ck girls? Youre a cool guy. Do you not f-ck girls? Youre a loser. We cant do
anything about it, if parents are drinking beer, watching TV and reading celebrity
magazines (2014).
Society and media is responsible for cyber bullying. If we dont look or act a certain way, then
we arent cool enough or popular enough to be in the right crowd. Dickey also quotes Rosalind
Wiseman and she says, It creates a culture among kids that backstabbing and libel are normal
parts of human interaction (2014). Cyber bullying is a normal part of society that is a part of the
digital life. We can do all that we can to not be a part of the cyber bullying that goes on and to teach our
kids to not be a part of it as well. We need to stop cyber bullying once and for all.

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Works Cited
Blad, Evie. "Cyberbullying Law Violates Free Speech, Court Rules." Education Week 33.36
(2014): 4-5. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Dickey, Jack. "The Antisocial Network." Time 184.1 (2014): 40-45. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Iozzio, Corinne. "Cyberbullies Can't Be Stopped. But They Could Be Quarantined." Popular
Science 285.1 (2014): 29. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Prevent Cyber Bullying. StopBullying.gov. N.p. N.d. Web. 30 October 2014.
Zavis, Alexandra. MySpace Cyber-Bulling Conviction Tentatively Dismissed. Los Angeles
Times (2009). Web. 30 Oct. 2014.