The Rise of
Cyberbullying on Social Media
In his TED talk, Goldin (2009)
mentions a few negative and positive issues that the world is facing due to
rapid globalisation. Advancement in technology and digital media have redefined
how we interact with people across the world. Today, consumers are able to stay
“connected” with the use of social media. Social media has brought about new
levels of global interconnectedness, which often result in the rise of a new
global consciousness. Needless to say, social media have an enormous implications
for globalisation.
However, social media has led to
several negative issues such as amplifying the incidence of cyberbullying. High
usage of social media by teenagers has allowed cyberbullying to thrive over the
recent years, which has attracted more and more critical attention towards the
role of social media in bringing negative effects on the victims. According to
Donegan (2012), in the
past, bullying could be better controlled because they
were limited to face-to-face interactions. However, in recent years, this
age-old form of conflict has matched the pace of technological evolutions,
making it more dangerous and harder to contain. Under these
circumstances, several schools and parents in US have been adopting the
blocking software to control teenagers from accessing social networking sites.
However, utilizing the software is not an effective enough method to solve the
cyberbullying problem. Instead, an educational approach will be a better
alternative to solve the cyberbullying problem in the long run.
Pew Research Centre
(2010) has done an extensive national study in US which shows that of teens who
use social media, 88% report that they have witnessed someone being mean or
cruel to another person online, with 12% saying cyberbullying is a 'frequent'
occurrence. Social media
has provided more avenues and convenience for abusers to conduct cyberbullying.
For instance, Facebook and Twitter has allowed significant incident of cyberbullying
to thrive. With the "share" function in Facebook and “retweet”
function in Twitter, abusers can create and share negative comments to the public,
easily and instantly. It also made it possible for the abusers to gather
together and attack a single victim through an interface. This form of bullying
is commonly known as mass cyberbullying. In addition, abusers may use faked
identity to conduct cyberbullying. Abusers can act on their free will,
insulting and harassing others online without bearing any immediate consequences.
Thus, as cyberbullying continue to thrive, victimization can be continuous and
inescapable.
Many schools and parents have been
utilizing the blocking software so as to prevent teens from accessing social
networking sites. However, the software can be disabled by the teenagers. Microsoft,
as cited by Wong (2006), warns parents that although filtering and monitoring
tools are helpful, they can be disabled by a savvy computer user. In addition,
Jesdanun (2003) also demonstrated how easy it was to defeat various filtering
and blocking software. Although the software can be effective when used with
younger, less IT-savvy teenagers, it may fail to achieve the same effective
result with teenagers who are IT-savvy. On the other hand, teenagers who are
not or less IT-savvy may reach out to other alternatives. When teens are
determined to circumvent the blocking software, they will find all means to defeat
them in order to access the social networking sites. This often leaves parents
with a false sense of security as teens may have already deactivated the
software without being noticed.
The current model of mitigating
cyberbullying by blocking access to social networking sites only controls the
actions of the abusers and protects the victims when they are at school or at
home. This control model does not prepare teenagers on how they should react
when faced with a potentially dangerous environment when they leave the safety
net provided to them. It may be impossible for a teenager to know how to
navigate through without danger when the protection is no longer around.
Thus, the cyberbullying education is
needed to provide teenagers with the relevant skills when encountering any incident
of cyberbullying. One such skill is the ability to filter and evaluate
information found in social networking sites. This can be achieved through workshops
and classroom discussions conducted by the educators during class time.
Students will go through a process of reflecting, evaluating and making their
own decisions regarding the sources they authenticate and information they
choose to share about themselves to others. Another such skill is the ability
to withstand critique by others. This can also be achieved through role playing
scenarios practiced in the workshop. Students will learn how to recognize,
react and control their emotions when dealing with negative comments from
people on social media. All in all, with this cyberbullying education approach,
students can still interact with different people through social media if they
are acquiring skills that they feel are relevant to protect themselves when
engaging the social networking sites.
In conclusion, although social media
improved the level of global interconnectedness, it has provided more avenues
and convenience for abusers to conduct cyberbullying. I believe that the
existing solution to combat cyberbullying by utilizing the blocking software is
not effective enough. This is because protection does not always mean avoidance
of danger. It will be better to adopt cyberbullying education approach rather
than just blocking the social networking sites completely. Although it often seems
that the problem of cyberbullying will never go away, the alternative of not
solving the problem is not a viable option either.
References
Centre, P. R.
(2010). Cyberbullying statistics.
Retrieved from Pew Research Centre: http://www.pewresearch.org/
Donegan, R. (2012). Bullying and Cyberbullying:
History, Statistics, Law, Prevention and Analysis. The Elon Journal of
Undergraduate Research in Communications, 33.
Enough Is Enough. (2006). Youth and general internet use.
Retrieved from Enough Is Enough: www.enough.org/inside.php?tag=statistics#7
Fight Crime:
Invest in Kids Pennsylvania. (2006, August 17). 1 of 3 teens &1 of 6 preteens are victims of cyber bullying.
[News release]. Retrieved from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania: www.fightcrime.org/releases.php?id=234
Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future
[Motion Picture].
Microsoft (2004)
Are your kids addicted to the Internet?
Retrieved from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidwebaddict.mspx
Riccardi, K.
(2013). Cyber Bullying: Responsibilities
and Solutions. Retrieved from Digital Learning Environment:
http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/teaching_learning/cyber_bullying_responsibilities_and_solutions
Robey, T. F.
(2008). Cyberbullying. Retrieved from
National Association of Secondary School Principals:
http://www.principals.org/tabid/3788/default.aspx?topic=58057
Sheppard, M.
(2012). Cyberbullying Resource Centre.
Retrieved from EdgeWave: http://cyberbullying.edgewave.com/
Wong, K. (2006).
How Tech Savvy Teens Defeat Parental
Control Software. Retrieved from Parent Support:
http://www.pcmoderator.com/pcmoderator_021.htm
