What is cyberbullying?Cyberbullying is a form of harassment via electronic means. It has become increasingly prevalent amongst teenagers though not limited to. Other parties affected by cyberbullying may include a notable percentage of adults,pre-teens and kids. The Cyberbullying research centre defines it as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices” .hurtful comments, threats, rumors, pictures, or videos posted or circulated online are all acts of Cyberbullying.
In some countries such as the US, cyberbullying is taken with the same seriousness as any other crime such as murder would be. Forms of Cyberbullying such as Cyberstalking and trolling are suggestive of the fact that Cyberbullying is not discriminative of social class or creed. Cyberbullying – a contemporary issue With over 80% of teens using their mobile devices on a regular basis, smartphones are currently the most widely used means of exchange of information and needless to say, Cyberbullying as well! Survey findings state that over half of teenagers have been bullied online in the past. Around the same number of teens have also confided to being engaged in cyberbullying. In addition, over 1 out of 3 young people have experienced cyber threats online and over 25% of adoloscents have encountered repeated incidents of cyberbullying.
Young people also do not lodge reports as they fear consequent judgement and backlash from the offender’s front. Researches state that when compared to boys, Girls are more prone to committing acts pertaining to cyberbullying.law enforcements in several countries including the US have cyber-crime units. Legislations are geared at penalizing and curbing Cyberbullying as it is often more serious than traditional bullying. Cyber harassment is often more vicious as there is no end to it and the data recorded perpetrates throughthe dark web and is often hard or nearly impossible to erase. In hindsight, this has also proven to be advantageous as it becomes to capture,record and report the incidents.Over the years since technology has been easily accessible to human beings cyberbullying has transformed into various forms. Trolling and cyberbullying in the form of games such as the bluewhale challenge are hidden forms of cyber bullying.
In certain cases the victim is pushed to the brink of suicide as the perpetrator prompts the victim to cut airways. Increase in rates have put spikes onto social media platforms such as facebook and instagram as more manpower is being hired to remove offensive content. A Facebook spokesman said “real people” were assigned to look at reported content. “This includes reviewers who understand local context because we know this is critical to assessing the meaning and intent of a reported post,” the spokesman said.
“It also includes experts in enforcement in areas like child safety, hate speech, counter-terrorism and legal specialists.
