CYBERBULLYING PHENOMENON
By
Dedy Mustari
Bullying has been such a huge phenomenon for a very long time. There are a lot of recorded cases and victims due to this phemonenon. Lately, bullying becomes even worse and takes a large force, affecting over half of adolescents in the United States. Nowdays, the advancement of technology also involves the devastating effect of bullying, through technology, those who try to bully other people become easier to do bullying via communication devices. This is defined as Cyber-bullying, indicating as an action by miss-using technology, information, or data in order to intimidate the target intentionally.
Commonly, cyberbullying occurs in a various form of platforms such as email, messages, social media, or any internet media. This phenomenon becomes the current issue because of its forms and its continous impact to the victims, as long as they are still connected to their devices, there is nothing can stop the bullying. Moreover, those who do cyber-bullying may attempt to be anonymous and this might be extremely dangerous and distressing for the bullied-target because they can not either know or avenge the bullier. The MSN cyberbullying report (2006) showed that UK teens who had experienced cyberbullying is approximately 11%. Consequently, the worst of cyberbullying’s effect is the victims are more likely to commit suicide.
Furthermore, there are several methods of cyberbullying. For instance, Outing, an action by posting private, sensitive or even embarrasing information of the victim. Secondely, impersonating or duplicating the account of its victim and posting the same posts in order to ruin the victim’s reputation or credibility . Besides, there are stalking, dissing, vilification, trolling and trickery. Those kinds of cyberbullying have been effecting many people including children, adolescents, and even adults.
Nevertheless, people can still prevent themselves from cyberbullying. Eventhough, There is no single solution to solve this problem, people still need to give their efforts and cooperate with each of elements (Children, Parent, Government and Society) in order to reduce and empower those who got cyber-bullied. By understanding and talking about cyberbullying, updating and ratifying policies, reporting cyberbullying’s cases, promoting the positive use of technology and evaluating the impact of prevention activities, hopefully can reduce the victim of this phenomenon.
In addition, Psycholigists continuously identify and empasize the consequences or effects of cyberbullying in emotional health and behavior of the victims and the results scored that most of them were indicating depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, and paranoia. The victims also reported the feeling of unsafe and isolated, even if the victims are both at school and home, perception of being unsupported and feeling of lowered self-esteem. The victims sometimes turn to bad behavior by consuming alcohol in response to the bullying. As recorded, the most tragedic case comes from a 15-year-old Amanda Tood who decided to kill herself in 2012 after getting bullied, it started when photo of her breasts were published and used as photo profile.
To sum up, this phenomenon might not be concerned as a big deal until it effects people or brings many victims. So, it is extremely recommended for every person to understand what is actually cyberbullying and how to prevent themselves.
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