Essay Draft #1

In his TED talk, Goldin (2009) mentions a few negative issues that the world is facing due to rapid globalisation. Over the past decade, the ability to connect across the world through social media has led to an increase in cyber-bullying making the connection between cyber-bullying and social media an important area of study. Social media provide a context where people can communicate and share ideas or knowledge with each other regardless of the distance that separates them. 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 social, emotional and academic functioning of the victims. It has proven that cyberbullying is far more damaging and difficult to control as compared to traditional form of bullying. Several schools and parents have been adopting filtering or blocking software to control children from accessing social networking sites. However, the effectiveness of this software is doubted in the long run.

Social media provides more avenues for abuser to conduct cyberbullying. Incidents of cyberbullying has been increasing through social media such as Facebook and Twitter which negatively impact on victims in the various aspects of their life. For instance, the "share" function in Facebook and Twitter allows people to share comments to the public. It also facilitates mass cyberbullying where many abusers can gather together and attack on a single victim through an interface. In addition, social media allow users to act on their free will; insulting and harassing others online without bearing any consequences. Thus, due to anonymity bullying, victimization is deemed continuous and inescapable. Many schools and parents have been utilizing the blocking software so as to prevent teens from accessing social networking sites. However, Pew Research Center (2010) has done an extensive national study that shows 76 percent of teens are active on social networking sites, proving that Facebook and Twitter are ideal avenues for engagement among today’s youth. Thus, teens may find a way to circumvent the blocking software in order to access social networking sites. Kenneth Wong (2006) discusses that from a web article "Are your kids addicted to the Internet?", Microsoft warns parents, "Although filtering and monitoring tools are helpful, keep in mind that they can be disabled by a savvy computer user". Furthermore, articles in the popular press such as "Kids will find Web controls easy to beat", Anick Jesdanun of the Associated Press 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 failed to achieve the same effective result for older and IT savvy teenagers. When teens are determined to break through the limits that parents and schools have set, they will find all means to defeat the controls.Therefore, it would be difficult to keep the software fully updated which leaves parents with a false sense of security.

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 develop students with the relevant skills when encountering any incident of cyberbullying. One of 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 school curriculum. Students will then undergone 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. Next, the ability to withstand critique by others is also the most critical skills that students should have. However, the educational approach may not able to impart such skill that involves emotional control exhibited by students when engaging social media. Although installing filtering or blocking software may help protect children from inappropriate content and reduce the risk of their children being bullied on social media, it should not replace education and supervision. Students can still interact with different people through social media if they are acquiring skills that they feel is relevant to protect themselves.

The increasing usage of social media among teens and sharing more content than ever before has raises the need for eliminating cyberbullying. The existing solution to combat cyberbullying by solely relying on the blocking software has deemed to be 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 cyber-bullying 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/

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.fight crime.org/releases.php?id=234

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