Effects of Cyberbullying:
Like all forms of bullying, cyberbullying causes psychological, emotional and physical stress. Each person’s response to being bullied is unique, but research has shown some general tendencies. StopBullying.gov reports that youth who are bullied have a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
Symptoms may include:
Youth who are bullied may retaliate through violent measures. In 12 of 15 school shooting cases in the 1990s, the shooters had a history of being bullied.
Cyber bullying is a very serious matter. Students have taken their own lives because they felt pressured, embarrassed and felt they had no other alternatives. With so many technology devices available, and the online world mostly unsupervised, there is a lot of room to someone to act maliciously.
What to do if you’ve been cyber bullied, or are worried about someone who may be the victim of bullying? The first thing that usually has a positive impact is communication. If you’re a student, talk to an adult and explain how you’re feeling and what has been happening. Sometimes students may not want to say anything in fear of the ramifications. By starting a healthy, non-threatening dialogue, it could make the difference between a positive or negative consequence.
Types of cyber-bullying that students can stop:
Like all forms of bullying, cyberbullying causes psychological, emotional and physical stress. Each person’s response to being bullied is unique, but research has shown some general tendencies. StopBullying.gov reports that youth who are bullied have a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
Symptoms may include:
- increased feelings of sadness and loneliness
- changes in sleep and eating patterns
- loss of interest in activities
- more health complaints
- miss, skip or drop out of school
- receive poor grades
- have lower self-esteem
- use alcohol and drugs
Youth who are bullied may retaliate through violent measures. In 12 of 15 school shooting cases in the 1990s, the shooters had a history of being bullied.
Cyber bullying is a very serious matter. Students have taken their own lives because they felt pressured, embarrassed and felt they had no other alternatives. With so many technology devices available, and the online world mostly unsupervised, there is a lot of room to someone to act maliciously.
What to do if you’ve been cyber bullied, or are worried about someone who may be the victim of bullying? The first thing that usually has a positive impact is communication. If you’re a student, talk to an adult and explain how you’re feeling and what has been happening. Sometimes students may not want to say anything in fear of the ramifications. By starting a healthy, non-threatening dialogue, it could make the difference between a positive or negative consequence.
Types of cyber-bullying that students can stop:
- Taking pictures or videos of someone who does not know or does not want to be photographed or videotaped.
- Stealing an individual’s name and password to a social networking site, then using their profile to post rumors, gossip or other damaging information.
- Altering photographs using Photoshop or other photo editing software in order to humiliate the individual.
- Recording conversations without the individual’s knowledge or consent, then posting the call online.
- Creating confrontational and mean-spirited online polls about the individual and posting them on different web sites.
- Creating fake accounts and websites targeting someone else.
- Using web sites and blogs to post hurtful, embarrassing information about another individual.