Overview

Taken from Google images

Cyberbullying

My main focus is cyberbullying at the middle school age level and looking at why it is such a big problem and the effects it has on students in and out of the classroom. According to dictionary.com cyberbullying is “the act of harassing someone online by sending or posting mean messages, usually anonymously.” Pre-teens and teens do not fully understand the effect that cyberbullying can have on someone and how it can really shape how they feel about themselves even long after the cyberbullying stops. About only 10% of cyberbullying victims will tell their parents or an adult about it. Parents need to be involved because teens do not understand the effect of cyberbullying. Also, girls are twice as likely to be cyberbullied then boys. The most troubling of all is “bullying victims are 2 to 9 times more likely to consider committing suicide” (DoSomthing.org). Bullying so much that they actually want to take their own life is not okay and is a huge problem that need to be addressed and taken very seriously. Cyberbullying has grown so much over the years that it need to be address in school on a more serious level and they need to show the consequences like how cyberbullying can make someone comment suicide.

Taken from Tumblr

Cyberbullying has become a bigger issue throughout the years with the advancements in technology and social media and the how the accessibility of technology has grown rapidly. Students, teachers and parents need to be aware of the signs of cyberbullying and have a more active role in stopping and preventing cyberbullying. In a group of 665 middle school students about one in five have been reported being cyberbullied in the past year and out those students 55% have been repeatedly victimized within the past 30 days, according to the Middle School Students' Perceptions of and Responses to Cyberbullying by Brett Holfeld and Mark Grabe of University of North Dakota. This needs to be addressed in schools and have a more drastic effect on students to prevent this type of bullying. Parents should be checking in on their children and have a more active role in knowing what their child is doing on the internet. Children today have access to smartphones, social media sites and more and more are getting their own computer at a younger age. They can send texts so easily now that it goes undetected without the supervision of adults. Texting has become one of the main forms of communication that no one knows if they are sending a text to their mom or dad or bullying a girl two seats away from them in class. “Over 80% of teens use a cell phone regularly, making it the most common medium for cyberbullying” (DoSomthing.org). Parents need to be aware that giving their child a phone means they have access to a whole new world that is hidden to anyone not contently involved with what is going on with their child and how they use their phone or any source of communication like Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, Instagram, and anything else they can use to communicate and can use to bully someone.

11 facts about cyber bullying. (n.d.). Retrieved from        
     http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about- 
     cyber- bullying 

Dictionary.com. (2013). Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cyberbullying 

Holfeld, B., & Grabe, M. (n.d.). Middle school students’ perceptions of and responses to cyber bullying. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, .