Cyberbullying, defined as "willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text, (Hinduja & Patchin, 2006, p. 131), is becoming a serious problem throughout the world. About 6% of all adolescents have reported being threatened or harassed while using communication technology. (Chisolm, 2006) There have been five types of cyber bullies identified. The "vengeful angel" who's self perception is of one protecting a friend who has been bullied, the "power-hungry", who resembles an off-line bully, "revenge of the nerds" who will damage another's computer, "inadvertent" who reacts after a misunderstanding and "mean girls", who team up with other females to target a victim. (Chisolm, 2006). The two devices that cyber bullies harass their victims with are the cell phone and the computer. Besides the expected forms, such as emails, chats and texting, cyberbullying can take other forms, such as happy slapping. Happy slapping is defined as "where a victim is slapped or made to appear silly by one person, filmed by another, and the resulting pictures circulated on mobile phones" by Smith, Mahdavi, Carvalho, Fisher, Russell and Tippett, (2008, p. 1)
Making someone look silly is a minor irritant compared to the harsh consequences that can result. Happy slapping has escalated as far as the beating of someone to death. It's not just the physical aspect that is dangerous but also the psychological as well. An example of this is the suicide of a 13-year -old boy after being bullied on the social network Bebo. (Santo, 2008)
In a positive twist, there are plenty of web sites that educate with articles and videos.
In this blog we will discuss the harmful effects cyberbullying has on adolescents, what to do if you or your teen are bullied and how to prevent further bullying, and we will discuss legal cases and laws regarding cyberbullying. It is our hope that his blog will be helpful in its education, information and ideas for positive change in the future.
2 comments:
I thought it was very interesting to learn about "happy slapping". This just sounds horrible to me, but definitely sounds a little like a term called "gossip". When I think of "happy slapping" I can't help but to think about the TV show Gossip Girl and that is how they circulate gossip is through pictures on their cell phones or on the gossip girl web page. Girls, and boys, can be brutal!
"Making someone look silly is a minor irritant compared to the harsh consequences that can result" (Santo, 2008).
This is such a true statement and I am happy you used this in your argument. Many individuals have been bashed and degraded on the internet through blog postings, comments, or pictures. Through this, individuals that contributes to the bashing may think its just a one time thing, but in all actuality, many being bashed lives with the bashing for their entire lives. There have also been cases of suicides due to cyber-bullying, which is extremely sad. I feel that many bash on others in thinking that it is just a one time comment, but that one time comment effects the person being bashed more then you intended your comment to be.
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