Introduction
Technology is changing the way we live, and today’s world has completely modified the modes of communication that we had a couple of decades ago. Now-a-days adolescents have shifted to cyber social networking and the physical social networking has been restricted only to special occasions. Lack of time in today’s fast lifestyle has also contributed to the abundance of electronic communication which provides fast (almost instant) connect and variety of channels.
On one hand where this speed, large coverage, flexibility and anonymity has proved a revolution in today’s educational and cultural advancement, on the other hand this is extremely hazardous as all the above mentioned qualities can be thoroughly misused by any Tom, Dick or Harry provided they have a little knowledge of the electronic communication media and a negative thought process. Therefore, mobile phones and web are the primary source of communication for the adolescents and hence there are several websites and instant messaging tools available to assist them with this purpose.
Cyber-bullying is any activity over the internet or mobile phone that can prove harmful to an individual or a group; this paper will focus on the cyber-bullying done using mobile phones and web channels.
Cyber-bullying has become more and more advanced with time and hence proportionally it has become more harmful it can be in any form text, picture or video messages and web-based communication like chat rooms, emails, discussion boards, news groups, websites etc.. A common type of bullying may include harassment, harmful speech, and invasion of personal privacy, stalking, public sharing of personal content, dissemination of abusive, threatening or violent material. Now all the abovementioned are used for communication but at the same time can be misued to produce adverse effects, lets discuss a few techniques of cyber-bullying and their consequences. [ CITATION Cyb \l 1033 ]
Anonymity allows the internet users to use psedonyms while using chat rooms, making a profile on online social networks, participating in a discussion forum and writing a blog etc. now this allows the user to mask his identity and publish a content online which may harass another individual or hamper, reveal his or her identity over these forums. There is another additional activity which is Masquerading and it can be more like an identity theft where the attacker gains the password of the victim thus sharing, managing or publishing content with victim’s identity which could result in serious threat to the victim, upto legal prosecution. [ CITATION Sha08 \l 1033 ]
There are multiple ways of Harassing an individual online and this is one of the most common cyber-bullying, it basically involves threatning, abusive messaging, bulk message attack on the user’s profile by a group. Cyberstalking is another term used for the attacks that involve sending offensive comments via direct communication channels in order to create a threat in the mind of an individual or a group and mostly there is a fear developed that the online threats may ultimately result in a real stalking.[ CITATION Sha08 \l 1033 ]
Flaming may be simply an argument between two individuals or groups with a display of anger and use of extremely offensive or vulgar language, this might be happening on a social networking space, discussion forum or a chat room and there are online emotions such as capital letters, oscene images etc. used. [ CITATION Cyb \l 1033 ]
Outing has proved as one of the most dangerous and harmful type of cyber-bullying and involves public display of personal information, pictures or videos, specially containing or related to sexual & explicit material. Another type of such activities may involve accessing personal emails or messages from someone’s personal account and using (threatening to use) the material in public forums.[ CITATION Cyb \l 1033 ]
The problem with all the above mentioned techniques is that, they are too personal and may keep on impacting an individual without the knowledge of parents or guardians and therefore by the time they get revealed it’s too late and there would have been a considerable amount of psychological or physical damage that could be fixed readily.
Causes & Prevention
Australia is one of the global leaders in the usage of mobile phone and text messaging and this contributes to the greater risk of cyber-bullying incidents, a study done by Campbell in 2005 revealed that out of one-fourth eighth standard children, on whom the study was done admitted that they knew someone who was cyber-bullied, some eleven percent agreed that they were cyber-bullied and almost eleven percent agreed to have been targets.(Sharrif 2008)
“In March 2007, a group of schoolboy filmed themselves sexually abusing and degrading a female classmate. Their film was then uploaded on You Tube.” The education minister in the southern Victoria state decided to block you tube in 1600 schools in that area. (Sharrif 2008)
The above mentioned case study is just one of the many incidents that we come across each day and it is more important to apply prevention before any such mishaps take place hence lets look at few steps that we can take in order to stop or minimize cyber-bullying. (Sharrif 2008)
Prevention
It is important to take measures in order to prevent this from happening at the grass root level rather than trying to resolve the issues after it is too late. Mentioned below are few steps that must be taken by Parents and Schools in order to fight cyber-bullying.
Preventive Education - It is important for parents to talk and educate their child about correct use of internet and ensure that they keep a regular tab on what their child is doing on the internet and how many hours are being spent online. It would be better if there are safety filters put in order to avoid access to restricted websites.
Monitoring Abnormalities – It is very important to keep a regular touch with adolescents, not only for patents but the teachers also must take ownership to build personal relationship with each student and should raise alarm if there is any sudden change of behavior displayed. Not only this, it is also important that groups created in schools etc. by children are not too much aggressive against certain individuals or groups which may cause them to become socially harmful.
Parental Counseling – This is an extremely effective way to give confidence to a child and specially teenagers who depend on their schools and friends for emotional support, moreover talking to them freely about the social evils and encouraging them to voice their opinions will also help develop self-confidence in order to bravely face and fight any unwanted problems at the same time, this will enhance the possibility of those wards discussing their problems with the parents.
Conclusion
Cyber-bullying is very common today and has penetrated the society well due to the increased usage of electronic communication channels, but we can easily prevent the young generation today by ensuring that there is effective education, freedom to express thoughts and parental support.
Works Cited
Australia, G. (2010). Cyberlaw Australia. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://cyberlaw.org.au/2010/04/25/the-internet-and-cyber-bullying/
Bamford, D. A. (2009). Cyber-Bullying AHISA Pastoral Care. Sydney: University of Technology.
Sharrif, S. (2008). Cyber-bullying: issues and solutions for the school, the classroom and the home. Routledge - Taylor and Francis Group.
