Cyberbullying Case

Thirty years ago many educators believed that bullying was just a part of growing up. In recent years, traditional “playground” bullying has seen a decline; however bullying has taken a new form by manifesting itself in the cyber world. This trend is progressing seemingly unchecked, and is proving to be extremely problematic. This paper will analyze the overall presence of cyber bullying and evaluate the current approach to solving it. Cyber bullying is replacing traditional bullying and its harmful effects will continue until an adequate community response is developed.

The main difference between traditional and cyber bullying involves the environment in which they occur. The classic school yard or playground victimization of someone is a good example of the traditional bullying that has been present for generations. “’Cyberbullying’ is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones” (Aftab, Parry). Some examples of interactive and digital technologies include Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. A case of cyber bullying could involve sending threats through social networking sites, or posting embarrassing and/ or derogatory things about others. Both involve a personal attack, but the change in environment causes a major change in the way that the bullying is carried out and perceived.

Use of technology allows anonymity, which is impossible in traditional bullying. “The ability to remain anonymous on various social networking platforms is problematically becoming a default option that many cyber-bullies choose to exploit” (Jobling, Victoria). When the attack is face to face, the bully must worry that his or her victim will have some sort of counter attack, whether immediate or at a later time. With cyber bullying, the victim often has no idea who is responsible for the attack, so they have no way of getting back at the bully providing a worry-free way to attack somebody.

Another major advantage that comes with cyber bullying is the ability to avoid ramification. When bullying face- to face, it is harder to avoid punishments. Many times, the traditional bullying will happen on school grounds, where consequences are established. School codes usually have strict anti-bullying policies which carry penalties such as suspension, forced mediation, etc (Barrett, Leslie). In the cyber world, this can be easily avoided. This traces back to both the anonymity and the fact that there is very little monitoring of what happens online. If the victim does not know who the bully actually is, then even if they did want to report something, there is not much that can be done.

Another problem that arises in cyber bullying due to the inability of the bully to see the victim is that the emotional response cannot be identified. Many