Cyberbullying

BULLYING

1. Introduction
2. Definition of bullying
3. Types of bullying
4. Effects of bullying on people
5. Characteristics of bullies
6. School bullying

· Dangers of bullying at school,

· Cyber bullying,

· Hazing.

7. Conclusion.

INTRODUCTION

In general terms, Bullying is the act of intentionally causing harm to others. Bullying can take the form of:

· verbal harassment,

· physical assault, or

· emotional abuse, which includes coercion and manipulation.

Bullying in school and the workplace is also referred to as peer abuse.

Bullying is usually done to coerce others by fear or threat.

Bullies can pick on people bigger or smaller than their size.

Bullies hurt people verbally and physically.

Ironically, bullies themselves could have been bullied at home by their siblings, parents or other relatives; also bullies could have been bullied earlier in their lives. Adult bullies might have been bullied by their colleagues, or relatives.

Bullying is often described as a form of harassmentperpetrated by an abuser who possesses more physical and/or social power and dominance than the victim.

The victim of bullying is sometimes referred to as target.

Bullying can occur not only in schools, but also in the workplace, home, church, neighborhoods, the military, in college, and anywhere where people interact socially.

Furthermore, anyone can be a victim of bullying, not only children.

Bullying is characterized by an individual behaving in a certain way to gain power over another person.

Behaviors may include:

· name calling,

· verbal or written abuse,

· exclusion from activities,

· exclusion from social situations,

· physical abuse, or

· coercion.

Bullies may behave this way to be perceived as popular or tough or just to get attention. They may bully out of jealousy or be acting out because they themselves are bullied.

Types of bullying

According to the USA National Center for Education Statistics, bullying activities could be broken into two categories:

1. Direct bullying, and

2. Indirect bullying or social aggression.

Direct bullying involves a great deal of:

· physical aggression such as shoving and poking,

· throwing things,

· slapping,

· choking,

· punching and kicking,

· beating,

· stabbing,

· pulling hair,

· scratching,

· biting,

· scraping and

· pinching.

Indirect bullying is characterized by threatening the victim into social isolation. This isolation is achieved through a wide variety of techniques, including:

· spreading gossip, lies, rumors,

· name-calling,

· silent treatment,

· staring,

· giggling, laughing or mocking at the victim,

· refusing to socialize with the victim,

· bullying other people who wish to socialize with the victim, and

· criticizing the victim's manner of dress, race religion,disability, appearance height, weight et cetera.

· stress related illness,

· suffer from short and long term emotional and behavioral problems,

· loneliness,

· depression and anxiety,

· low self-steem,

· weight loss or weight gain, and even

· suicide.

One effective way to prevent child to become a bully or to be a victim of bullying is by:

1. Challenging aggressive behavior in childhood and at home, and

2. By showing the child that abusive behavior is bad and will not be tolerated.

Failure to address aggressive behavior in young children, may cause them to grow up and get involved in, or participate of:

· domestic abuse,

· street violence,

· criminal activity,

· gang activity and

· inadequacy when socializing in the real world.

In schools, bullying usually occurs in all areas of school, anywhere in or around the school building. Bullying occurrs more often in PE, recess, the hallways and in school buses or while waiting for the school buses.

Bullying in school sometimes consists of a group of students taking advantage of, or isolating one student in particular and gaining the loyalty of bystanders who want to avoid becoming the next victim.

These bullies will taunt and tease their target before physically bullying the target. Targets of bullying in school are often pupils who are considered strange or different by other students.

Some children bully at one point, because they have been bullied in the past.

Some children buly, because they do not have the social skills to develop friendsship with other staudents and classmates.

Most students in schools do not perceive bullying as something bad, negative or unacceptable as much as adults do.

Some students have come to accept bullying as "normal" and part of going to school.

Sometimes students perceive bullying as an spectators sport, they enjoy it and entertain themselves by watching bullies victimize their targets.

Dangers of bullying at school

When bullying is not addressed at school, several problems are created. These problems may include, but are not limited to:

· Gang activity,

· Drug use,

· School desertion,

· Low grades,

· Fights in hallways, classrooms and school buses,

· Violence between teen couples,

· Teen pregnancy,

· Weapons in school,

· Thefts in school property,

· Destruction of property,

· Stabbings, and

· School shootings.

It has been proved that school shotings are a bullying-related phenomenon. Research shows that 2 out of three school shooters are victims of bullying, they are targets, who felt themselves to be persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured by others prior to the school shooting.

In recent years, bullying is schools have reaised a great deal of concern, school staff have been actively involved in erradicating bulying from their schools. Several Anti-bullying programs have been created and designed to prevent bullying by teaching students cooperation among themselves their parents and teachers. Additionally, school staff wants to change the perception that bullying is OK and normal in schools; students now receive training on definition, types and effects of bullying, as well as the consequences of bullying, not only in school, but everywhere.

In recent years, since the invention of the Internet, and its ease of access, students in schools have been using a different type of bullying, Cyberbullying.

In few words, cyberbullying is bullying through the use of internet services and systems. Bullying can occur by one student directly attacking the target via e-mail, blogs, chat or text messaging.

Another way of cyberbullying is by isolating the target, by ignoring, blocking, or making fun of the internet participation by the target. Additionally, cyberbullyies usually bully indirectly their target, by posting rumors, lies, threat on school related chats, blogs, e-mail, cyber-boards et cetera.

Cyberbullying should be considered equal as traditional bullying, and all definitions, types, and measures should apply to cyberbullies.

Hazing is the ritualistic testing of an individual, which may take the form of harassment, abuse, or humiliation. Hazing is sometimes considered to be a rite of passage, or an initiation into a new group of individuals.

Hazing is sometimes observed in some schools, between students in upper grades toward students in lower grades, or toward newcomers to the school or into sports teams.

Hazing is , and should be addressed as bullying. Hazing is dangerous and inappropriate.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, bullying is a real problem we face not only in schools, but in other social settings as well. Bullying in schools should be taken seriously by staff, students, parents and other organizations such as police and community leaders. Additionally, it is imperative to take immediate action and to create measures to erradicate it, prevent it and educate students on bullying. Preventing bullying should be a cooperative effort, aimed to avoid the direct and indirect effects of bullying, as well as the short and long term consequences of this dangerous behavior.

Here are some examples of using technology to bully others.

1. Computer hacking - Someone may hack into computers to dig up dirt on people to use as fodder to bully or extort them.

2. Flaming someone online - That means posting derogatory or inciting messages about a person.

3. Hacking into someone's phone - Someone may hack into someone else's phone as a part of bullying or stalking.

4. Posting altered photos of someone - Someone may take photo editing software and create fake photos of another person to make it look like they are doing something immoral, sexual, or illegal. Some may even convert the photos to videos.

5. Inciting others to violence against someone - This is often done using social networks.

• Cyberbullying is bullying by texting and emailing people to embarrass them and hurt their feelings. Texting is the most popular way.Cyber or internet bullying is where you are being bullied over the computer. This can be done by people leaving messages on websites, Bebo's, Facebook, my-space and even general bullying over messenger programs.This can really hurt a persons feelings and is not a good thing to do as it just shows cowardliness. Most bullies, when stood up to, will back off and leave you alone.If you are being bullied you can however save the comments or conversation and show it to police officers. It is unlikely that they will do a lot but it can result in them confiscating the bully's computer and things similar to that.Cyberbullying is when you go to places like chat rooms, or other places where you can connect with people and the people that you talk to say mean things or offensive types of stuff or sometimes sexual comments and things that just make you feel uncomfortable. An example would be if you were talking to someone you didn't know in a chat room and they say something nasty. It is very scary and cyberbullying should be stopped and if that is happening to you, tell someone you trust and let them take care of it and don't go to that place again!

The point is you can really hurt some bodies feelings.

Note: You can be banned immediately from WikiAnswers for cyberbullying. See the WikiAnswers cyberbullying guidelines in the Related Links below.

Cyberbullying is wrong because it makes people sad and can make people self harm. Thus it can severely damage peoples lives. It can also develop into more than just cyberbullying, the victim may feel they can't leave their homes, even to see close well trusted friends. Some victims feel they have no alternative but to end their lives, but if only they could confide in someone the bullying could be stopped and life made better again.

Cyberbullying is so wrong, you just don't know how desperate the victim can get so please never cyberbully anyone.

There are many pro-active activities and discussions that parents can have with their children in order to avoid incidents of cyberbullying or to address any early signs that it may be happening.

How to protect your child:

• Talk with your child about netiquette, how to behave and communicate politely over the Internet and other mobile devices. Importantly, teach children to never say something about someone online that they wouldn't say to that person face-to-face. Bullying others, online or in person, is never appropriate behavior.
• As mostly cyberbullying happens on social networking sites, so be "friend" with your child on these networks
• Monitor your child's internet activity with an internet monitoring software like Safetyweb (requires no download or installation, thus easy to use) so that you can make sure your child is not involved in such issue and is safe.
• Make sure your child understands that comments and images posted on the Internet can be long-lasting and have a global audience.
• Teach your child to keep the passwords to their online accounts private. Create passwords that are a combination of letters and numbers and are difficult to guess. Passwords should not be shared with friends, not even a best friend.
• Talk to children about how to handle strong emotions, such as anger. It is never appropriate to send a message or post a comment on the Internet when you are angry or emotional.
• If your child receives an angry or taunting message, teach them to refrain from responding and to tell a responsible adult. Responding to these types of messages could encourage a bully to continue to pick on the victim.
• Know how much time your child is spending on the Internet and mobile device.
• Enjoy the Internet with your child. If you are unable to sit down together at the computer, at least know what activities they are doing online. Consider installing parental control software to monitor your child's activities and limit the Web sites that are available.
• Encourage your local schools to educate the students on cyber ethics and the law.

Cyberbullying is the category that some people get put under if those people have been doing the following things.

• Chating to younger kids and trying to make them come over to there place so they can assault them.
  
• People who will just sit in the chat room all day and start saying very mean things to you.