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. Social
media has brought about new levels of global interconnectedness which often
result in the rise of a new global consciousness. However, social media has led
to several negative issues such as amplifying the incidence of cyberbullying. High
usage of social media by teens has allowed cyberbullying to thrive over the
recent years, which attracted more and more critical attention towards the role
of social media 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 conflict
has matched the pace of technological evolutions, making it more dangerous and
harder to contain. Under these circumstances, several schools and
parents have been adopting filtering or blocking software to control children
from accessing social networking sites. However, utilizing the software is not
effective enough 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 and shows that of teens who use
social media, 88% report that they have witnessed someone being mean or cruel
to another online, with 12% saying cyberbullying is a 'frequent' occurrence. Social media has provided more
avenues for abusers to conduct cyberbullying. For instance, Facebook and
Twitter has significantly allowed incidence of cyberbullying to thrive that
negatively impact victims in the various aspects of their lives. While the
"share" function in Facebook and Twitter allows abusers to share negative
comments to the public, it is possible that many abusers can gather together
and attack on a single victim through an interface. This form of bullying is
commonly known as mass cyberbullying. In addition, social media allows users to
act on their free will, insulting and harassing others online without bearing
any consequences. Thus, due to anonymous bullying, 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, several researchers and administrators argue that the
software may not be as effective as people thought. 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 to younger and less IT savvy children,
it may fail to achieve the same effective result for older and IT savvy
teenagers. 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 students when they are at school or at home. This control model does
not prepare students when faced with a potentially dangerous environment for
when they leave the safety net provided to them. It is impossible for a student
to know how to navigate through without danger when the protection is no longer
around.
Thus, it is important to conceive
that cyberbullying education is needed to provide students 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 classroom.
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.
In conclusion, the increasing usage
of social media among teens has raise the need for eliminating cyberbullying. I
believe that the existing solution to combat cyberbullying by solely relying on
the blocking software is not effective. It will be better to manage them
through cyberbullying education approach rather than just block them
completely. Although it often feel that the problem of cyberbullying will never
go away, the alternative of not solving the problem is not a viable option
either.
Words: 806
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].
Gottesman, B. (2006) A hardware solution in the
software-dominated world of parental control. Retrieved from PC Magazine: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1948981,00.asp?
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